The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-05-24
FEvERISH ACTIVITIES OF GREAT
Att ANTICFLEET; NIGHT And DAY
: they SHAPE BATTLE FORMATIONS
Gun Crews Who Never Saw Salt Water Until Three
Weeks Ago Load and Fire Big Guns in 16 Seconds
Band Concerts and Moving Pictures Aboard Ship
g Delight Hearts of the Tars

| 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
to hear. The fact that the submarine
was running behind the patrols was
the only thing that saved it. A Ave
inch gun probably would have blown
| it to pieces if the maneuver had taw-
i en- place on the other side of the net.
Now submarines don't move around
like that at night. It was dangerous
business.
| Before the fleet is darkened, the
ships lying in every direction present
an inspiring spectacle. Lights, as of
{ a city, show everywhere. Blinker
signals flash on and Designating 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 signalling
also with dots and dashes.
Other searchlight>S beams pick up
boats that approach them, some i1lu-
inmate a landing wharf. Away in the
/
boats flash on every now and then;
sweep the waters to discover what
might have been periscope is only
a white cap. Then they flicker out
again. From the Shore, at night,
boats passing anywhere in the neigh
brohood 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,
built to carry food and supplies to
! the Allies. The fleet is training en-
gineers, electricianss-men to fill ev-
cry position. The Atlantic fleet is
|confdent that it will be able to supply
a 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-
g1nes in their hulls, they are sdoubly
proud of the spirit of the men who
are coming into the navy. A ranking
| officer said:
1 'These new men have come into
the navy to fight and they want to
get into the thick of it. We are turn
ling out guns crews. every day and
1 every day we get orders for more In
three months from now many hun
dreds of guns crews will have left
the fleet for places where they may
Sink German submarines or cheerful
ly give up their lives trying. And
these boys-for lmost of them are no
more than that-scan shoot.,sE&
A large. majority of the new men
in the fleet, their officers said, have
come from farms, especially ii the
Middle, West On any aship7 may be
found youths who until the war be-
gan were following plows.
i'In this fleet" said one of the Of
ficers, more, than ninety per cent.
of the men are native-born Ameri-
cans. There are a few foreign-born
men here US &
ON any ship may be heard the
drawl of the South CarolinfanN or a
Georgian, the New Yorkese Of the
East Side; the twang that is New
England's, the rising information of
western Pennsylvania and the, tone
that only comes from west of Chi
cago. So fast is the enlisted person
mel of the navy growing that there is
no room for the new men at the
i training stations ashore. A man en-
lists one day in Kentucky and three
days later finds himself at u loading
machine on the deck of a dread
naught.
j Many ships have aboard them the
naval militia from the various states
Some of the militia are pronounced
good sailors
II On nearly every ship are men who
! used to be in the navy and who have
J, gone back to their old and usually
low, ranks because their country
Il needs them. They are regular off
GERS.
On one of the ships is a Wall street
broker. He graduated from Annapo-
) lis many years ago, resigned and later
came back into service during the
!, Spanish war He com
i manded the Hist in several fights in
J Cuban waters and knows how it feels
, to be under fire.
i The Navy Needs You was the
, sign that got me back this time. said
i he. when I read that sign I knew il
meant me and fixed it right off sc
} could come. back. = I left the navy
at the close of the Epanish-Americar
war and have been IN the BROKERAGE
business in New York ever since"
! On another ship is a little mar
/, with gray hair-a grandfather-whe
) wears the uniform of an ensign.
} "I resigned from the navy man,
years ago." he said ct have grand.
) children now. When we went to wal
| with Germany r knew the navy need.
; ed trained tnen and offered myself
, They accepted me and here I am with
the junior officers. I suppose I an
the only grandfather ensign in the
navy"
The grandfather ensign is Just as
: anxious to fight as the newest recruit
at the loading machines, and he is
capable too.
!. They've got slight attack of SD,
scare in the navy. Officers said tina,
it was quite possible there were Ger.
mans on the ships. The spy who i:
3 caught is very likely to find himseI1
looking into the business ends of the
: rifles of a firing squad Every nov
and then suspicious of the officers
s and men are aroused and quiet in.
? vestigation is conducted Bluejacket:
are suspicious Of anything unusual
? One new recruit brought suspicion
5 against himself because he carried
t aboard ship with him a geometr,
2 book.
a magazine writer enlisted to eair
first hand information about the life
t of an enlisted man To bod