clicker,
Not to worry. What you recall reminds me of a Naval exercise I read about many years since.
In Edwardian days, Red Fleet put out from somewhere up north to do battle in the North Sea with Blue Fleet from somewhere down south. Signor Marconi had only just invented W/T, and it hadn't caught on yet. They'd decided not to arrange a rendezvous, but just see what would happen.
What happened was that the two Fleets wandered forlornly round the North Sea for a week, producing prodigious quantities of smoke, but never met.
Then they said "S*d it", and went home.
Danny.