New Britain herald., 1917-05-24

the net Now submarines don't move around like that at night. It was dangerous business.
 ! Before the fleet is darkened, tho ships lying in every. direction present I an inspiring spectacle. Lights, as of city. show everywhere. Blinker signals flash on and off-sisnalling in | the dots and dashes of the Morse code. 1 Long fingers of white from search l lights shoot up into the sky-on and ofr-on and off-signalling also with 1 dots and dashes.
 Other searchlight beams pick up boats that approach them. some H. 1 illuminate a landing wharf. Away in I the distance searchlights of tho pa 1 trol boats flash on every now and then: sweep the waters to discover that what might have been periscope is only white cap. Then they flicker out again. From the shore at night, boats passing anywhere in the neigh borhood 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. Tho fleet is training en- gineers, electricians-men to i'll every position. Tho, Atlantic feet is con- ddent that 1t will be able to supply full complement for every ship, for the navy Is getting men now faster than ever before, and if the officers are proud of their ships, the guns on the decks and the power of the en- zines in their hulls, they are doubly proud of the spirit of the new men who are coming into the navy. A ranking officer said:
 Anxious for the Battle.
 These new men have come into the navy to light and they want to get into the thick of 1t. We are turn ing out guns crews every day and every day we get orders for more. In three months from now many hum dreds of guns crews will have left the fleet for places where they may sink German submarine or cheerfully give up their lives trying. And these boys-for most of them are no more than that-can shoot.
 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 oe found youths who until the war De- gan were following blows.
 "In this fleet" said one of tho off, cers, more than ninety per cent. or the men are native-born Americans. There are few foreign-born men here"
 On any ship may be heard the drawl of a Southern Carolinian or Georgian, the New Workers of the East Side: the twang that Is New Eng lands the rising intonation of western Pennsylvania and the tone that only comes from west of Chicago. So fast is the enlisted personnel of tho 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 Q loading machine on the deck of a dreadnaught.
 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 tine navy and who have gone back to their old, and usually low, ranks because their country needs them. They are regular officers.
 On one of the ships Is a Wall Street broker. He graduated from An napolis many years ago. resigned and later came back into the service dur ing the Spanish-American war. He commended the Hist in several fights in Cuban waters and knows how 1t feels to be under ire.
 :. The Navy Needs You was the
 H~ AH~&es kfSHaA Ref he. When I read that sign knew 1t meant me and fixed it right off so I could come back. I left the navy at the close of the Spanish American war and have been in the brokerage business in New York ever since."
 Enagn . Granilfsther.
 On another ship is a little man with gray hair-a grandfather-who wears the uniform of an ensign.
 "I resigned from the navy many years ago." he said. T have grand children now. When we went to war with Germany I knew the navy need- ed trained men and I offered myself. They accepted me and here am with Hhe junior officers. I suppose I am the only grandfather ensign in the navy"
 The grandfather ensign" is just as anxious as the newest recruit at the loading machines, and he Is cap able, too.
 They'vo got a slight attack of spy scare in the navy. Officers said that 1t was quite possible there were Ger mans on the ships. The spy who is caught is very likely to hnd himself looking into the business ends of tho rifles of a firing squad. Every now