The Pirates

She was the largest, fastest, and latest thing in seagoing destroyers, and though the specifications called for but thirty-six knots' speed, she had made thirty-eight on her trial trip, and later, under careful nursing by her engineers, she had increased this to forty knots an hour-five knots faster than any craft afloat-and, with a clean bottom, this speed could be depended upon at any time it was needed.