The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-06-21
KIPLING SINGS
OF'THETRADE'
OF UNDER SEA
Describes Submarines $
Share in the Perils of
the Great War.
OFFICERS LEDGERS
TELL GRIM TALES
Cop,r4oht 1915. bp Rudynrd ktp,iug.
TALES OF THE TRADE"

Copyright. 1916, bp Pudynrd ktpiiu1.
TALES OF THE TRADE
No. I.
soMr uoRL ~ TIE BALTIC
THE TRADE"
hsy hear in place OF classic names
Letters and numbers on their skin.
Tney play their grisiy biindfold games
In littlc boxes made OF tin.
Sometimes they stalk the Zeppelin,
oometimes they learn where mines are
laid
Or where the Baltic Ice is thin
That is the custom of the Trade.
Fev prize courts sit upon their claims
They seldom tow their targets in.
They follow certain secret aims
Down under, far from strife and din.
When they are ready to begin
No nag is flown no fuss is made
More than the sharing of a pin
That is the custom OF the Trade
The scouts auadruple funnel names.
4 mark from Sweden TO the swim
The cruisers thuuderous crew proclaims
Comngs ont and goings in
Only whiTs of rarai'ln
Or creamy rings that nzE and fade
Show where the one eyed death has
been
ina, is the custom Of the Trade.
Their fcats. their fortunes and their
flames
Are hidden from their nearest kin.
No eager public backs or blames.
No journal prints the yarns they sp II
6The censor would roi let II inD
When they return from run or raid
Cnheard they work. unseen they win
9ha' is the custom Of the Trade"
No one knows how the title THE
Trade came to be applied to submarine
service. Some say cruisers invented Ii
because they pretend that submarine o:fi-
GERS look like unwashed chaufcurs.
Others think it sprang forth by itself.
which means IL was coined in the lower
deck. They always have proper names
for thirgs.
Whatever may be the truth. submarine
service is now The Trade" And II YOU
ask them why they will answer.
What else could YOU cali Il" The
Trades the trade Of course"
II is .,losc corporation. Yet IL re-
cruits men and officers from every class
that Uses the sea and engines a. we'll
vs. from many classes that never en-
pected to deal with either. II takes them
they disappear while AMI return
hanged to their very souls. for "the
tide lives in world withou;
precedents OF which no generation has
Ia. any previous cXpericnce--a world
s,ill being made and enlarged daily.
II creates and settles its oNn prob
ms as IL goes along and II 1t cannot
Nflp itself. no one else can. So the
Trade lives IN the datE and thinks out
'acon"eivable and Impossible things which
aft"rvard It's puts into practice. I,
hH"p" book. too. a. honest tradcrs
should The, arc aimos, as bad as
."1Ecrs. written up uour by hour on a
l'tle sliding Table that pulIs out from
htneath the commanders ounk
The LrdEers Of the Fleet.
u due time they so to my Lords VI
he Admiralty, who presently clrculat te
fea carefully wa;cred extracts for
confidential Information Of the junior
oNcers Of the trade that t.ese may sec
what things are done and how
The Juniors read. hut lauGA. They
have heard st"lies with al the flaming
uetail and nu'h of the language ci;he:
NON The c..,ef actor. while they were
pe'ohed defcren;islly on the edge Of the
messroum fodder or from ,iis subo, dinat I
IN which case they were not so defer
entail, or .rom some returned member
"I me crew present on the occasion. who
tet"eHn half shut teeth at the w'ecl
Jerks oI; what really happened.
Th"rc is very little going on in the
Trade' Tat "thc Trade" dccG not know
within reasonable time, but the outsld.
World must wait until my Lords of the
Ndin' AT! re4'tsc tn" records. Some y;
'hen are released now.
Let u take almost a. random al
episode ~ the life Of H. NJ submarl NJ
- l. e true sne is commanded b,
Commander Max Horton. but the uttei
!npersonalty OF the tale makes II a.
'noush she herself spoke. Also. never
having met or seen the gentleman con.
oeTed in the matter, the writer can bt
'mpersonal too,
Some time aRo. the E-9 was in the
baltic IN the depth OF winter. where she
sed % ne taken to her hunting ground.
ov an 'cebreaker. Obviously she cannot
use her sensitive nose to smash the
heavy Ice with, 20 the broad beamed
pushlnS "haperune comes along to see
1er clear Of the thick harbor and the
shore ice