In spite of German surface raiders, U-boats and aircraft, the convoys of British merchantmen continued to cross the Atlantic to bring home to Britain the raw materials, ammunition and foodstuff upon which her war effort depends. Comparatively little has been heard of the work of the escorts which accompany these fleets of merchantmen within the submarine danger zone, still less of their successes against the German U-boat. To mention the U-boat sinkings as they occur would give valuable information to the enemy. Some of the small ships employed on escort duty are destroyers, others corvettes and trawlers. Day in and day out, winter and summer, in every sort of weather, the escorts were at sea with a convoys. Some of the destroyers use for this purpose are long past their youth, and the "Vanoc", on board of which this photograph was taken, was completed in 1917, and saw service in the last war; and among its officers and men may be found those from every walk of life, from members of Parliament, barristers, stockbrokers and other professional men, to university student, bus conductors and farmhands.