The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-05-31
Battle Fleet Ready for Any Duty.--All
Warships In Constant Target Practice

!, navy. They have new guns crews il
e training now who never saw salt water
: until three weeks ago, who are doing
: the thing easily in 16 seconds.
Night Battle Practice.
Some nights the ships of the fleet
cruise in waters nearby for night bat
tie practice. Other nights they are an
chored in the base waters, where crews
are drilled at torpedo defense The
guns are manned and dummy torpedos
and submarines are picked up by the
searchlights and theoretically destroy
ed.
The fleet has gained efficiency in
torpedo defense. They tell a story in
the ward rooms of an American sub
marine which decided to change its
lenchorage without giving notice. The
fleet is dark after a certain hour at
night. Not a light shows, but the
watch is intensely alert.
One of the deck officers saw the
submarine outline itself and a gun
quickly was trained. The submarine
was hailed, but the men on it failed
tt hear. The fact that the submersible
was running behind the patrols was
tthe only thing that saved it. A five
hiach gun probably would have blown it
to pieces if the maneuver had taken
Nov submarines don't move around
Ike that at night. 1t was dangerous
business.
Before the fleet is darkened, the
ships lying in every direction present
ian inspiring spectacle. Lights, as of
a city, show everywhere. Blinker
signals flash on and off-signalling in
the dots and dashes of the Morse
code. Long fingers of white from
searchlights shoot up into the sky
on and off-on and off-signallyng
also with dots and dashes.
In Glare of Lights.
Other searchlight beams pick up
boats that approach them, some illum-
mate landing warf. Away in the
distance searchlights of the patrol
boats flash on every now and then;
sweep the waters to discover that what
might have been a periscope is only
white cap. Then they flicker out
Sagain. From the shore. at night, boats
passing anywhere in the neighborhood
suddenly find themselves in the glare
of searchlights
While the guns crews are being
trained on some of the ships, aboard
others are being trained men to run
the hundred or more German vessels
the United States will operate as. soon
as repairs are made to their engines,
and the fleet of merchantmen being
built to carry food and supplies to
the allies. The fleet is training
engineers. electricians-men to fill
confident that it will be able to supply
a fun complement for every ship, for
the navy is getting men now faster
than ever before, and if the officers are
decks and the power of the engines in
their hulls, they are doubly pround of
the spirit of the new men who are
looming into the navy. A ranking
officer said:
"These new men have come into the
navy to fight and they want to get into.
the thick of it. We are turning out
guns crews every day and every day
1--WE get orders for more. In three
months from now many hundreds of
guns crews will have left the fleet
for places where they may sink Ger
man submarines or cheerfully give up
their lives trying. And these boys
for most of them are no more than
that-can shoot"
Men Came from Farms.
A large majority of the new men
in the fleet, their officers said, have
come from farms, especially in the
middle west. On any ship may be
found youths who until the war began
were following plows.
an this fleet" said one of the OFF,
GERS, more than 80 per cent of the
men are native born Americans. There
are few foreign born men here"
On any ship may be heard the
drawl of a South Carolinian or a
Georgian, the New York of the east
side; the twang that is New Englands
the rising intonation Of western Penn
Nsylvania and the tone that only comes
from west of Chicago. So fast is the
enlisted personnel of the navy growing
that there is no room for the new men
at the training stations ashore. A
man enlists one day in Kentucky and
three days later finds himself at a
loading machine on the deck of a
idreadnaught.
! Many ships have aboard them the
naval militia from the various states
Some of the militia are pronounced
good sailors.
On nearly every ship are men who
used to be in the navy and who have
gone back to their old, and usually
low, ranks because their country needs
them. They are regular officers.
Broker Enlisted.
| On one of the ships is n Wall street