Perhaps nothing reveals the weakness of a flying boat and its equipment with more rapidity and certainty than a cruise which involves a prolonged absence from organised bases.

Relatively few have had this unique experience, and unhappily no designers of air craft in this country. Words alone cannot conjure up the atmosphere, the petty anxieties, the continual working against time, the struggle in rain and rolling swells, the idiosyncrasies of motor boats, the enthusiasm of crews snatching food when they can get it, and a thousand ills that flying boats are heir to. But it is an exhilarating life that takes a firm hold of all that fall beneath its influence.