Evening star., 1918-06-23
by CLAIR PRICE.
A MEDITERRANEAN BASE,

yachts varying from 800 to 900 tons
each-wobbly little warcraft without
range finders, commanded by two-and-
a-half and three stripers, with a four
striper for an admiral-each having
in tow a still wobbler little submarine
chaser. flying the tricolor and manned
by Frenchmen with red pompons and
starched collars, who frequently
couldn't signal in English.
How these eleven tiny toddlers took
their eleven infants by the hand and
walked across the western ocean in
midwinter is one of the surprising sea
episodes of the war. There have not
been many such Squadrons on the At
lantic since Columbus crossed.
Two of them finally turned over
their chasers to the French govern
ment at European base on December
26, after drumming and rolling their
bilges up and scattering eight-inch
manila hemp and two-and-one-half-
inch wire hawsers across the western
ocean through succession OF gales
which were among the worst the
weather men remembered. The Amer
ican admiral at their rendezvous D
said that, judging by the foremasts of
certain destroyers which had steel
deck houses and therefore less to fear
from them, the seas off the base were
running forty feet high at the time.
But afterward a three-Striper IN COM
mand of one of these converted yachts
built for pleasure cruising in Long
Island sound and not at all for the
job of an ocean tug (part OF the time
the yacht A, which happened to nave
1900 horsepower and was the work.
horse of the squadron, had two dis
abled yachts and three chasers in tow
said in confidence that forty feet
might be little high. Thirty-hve feet
would be his guess.
This article can make no claim to
telling the complete story of Squad
ron Y, nor can it so much as touch
upon the story of other similar squad
rons to whom equal, If not more.
credit is due (they are all Jumped to-
eether here and referred to as the
suicide sauadron). Not many of
Squadron X are based here, and even
those that are out on duty in the
Mediterranean for some ten days out
of every two weeks. But this may
give YOU a notion of what the yarn
will be like when it's gotten together
"a notion of what these unsuns spit
kits of the United States Navy have
been doing in back of the censorship.
There is a moral to the tale, too.
The moral is that nation which has
once learned how not to go to war
should not be required to learn its
little lesson over again.
SQUADRON x was commanded by
former naval attache at Petrograd
who had not been to sea for several
years. 1t was manned by 1000 OIL
GERS and men. an excess complement
shipped because of the need for men
over here.
Its officers were reservists, varying
in kind from a grandson of Jay
Gould, who carried a $4,000 letter Of
credit, to former merchantmen. who
knew the world from Hoboken to
Hongkong, from Chick Tricker's. in
New York, to One-Eared Quong Ma 8,
in Singapore. OF it's crew 10 per cent
were seamen, divided between gun
crews who were graduates of the At
lantic fleet, and former merchantmen.
The other 80 per cent had never
seen Guantanamo bay and had never
heard of the bureau of navigation.
They knew nothing of the sea except
that in small boats it is not consid-
cred good seamanship to spit to
wind'ard and they knew nothing of
the Navy, except the movies of the
Army-Navy game. They ranged in
kind from former barterers of the hot
dog to millionaires' sons who carried
kodaks in their ditty boxes. A former
clerk in the highway department at
Albany was a signal boy on the
bridge of one yacht with a boy who
had run away from his home in San
Antonio to peddle through Mexico
with Villa and had finally been adopt
ed on the border as mascot of a Maine
regiment. Four master plumbers. Ii
censed in New Hampshire and Rhode
Island, had shipped as mess attend
ants, and a former registrar of vital
statistics in Jersey City was in the
black gang, along with a former cook
at New York hotel and cook
from an east side restaurant where
the most expensive dish costs Is
cents.
Forty of them had to be trans
shipped at rendezvous ID for trans
portation back home as chronically
seasick, although four men who in
sisted on sticking through to this
base were put ashore here after hav-
ing been seasick to the point of ema- :
citation.
AS between the 10 per cent OF
seamen and the 80 per cent of lands
men, it turned out when the worst
we were sinking" one captain told
me, land once l knew we were done
for'O, that the landsmen thought
everything was going quite according
to Hoyle, while the seamen Topped
on the deck and went to praying.
. +
This method of shipping crew Is
typical of the United States Navy
Were the British royal navy to shir
crews for such craft, in all probability
the admiralty would choose lot OF Dea