New-York tribune., 1918-06-23
By Clair Price
MEDITERRANEAN BASE, June

n MEDl LIRIA1N NCtAI\ bASG, june
~ 13.-When it left an American
= base, on November l, 1917, for
war zoAe duty, Squadron X. U. S. Pa
troll Force consisted of converted
yachts, varying from 300 to 800 tons
each--wabbly little war craft. without
range finders, commanded by two-and-
a-half and three stripers, with a four
striper for an admiral-each having in
tow still wabblier little submarine
chaser, flying the tricolor, and manned
by Frenchmen with red pom-poms and
starched collars, who could scarcely
signal in English.
How these eleven tiny toddlers took
their eleven infants by the hand and
walked across the Western Ocean in
mid-wnter is one of the surprising
sea episodes Of the war. There have
not been many such squadrons on the
Atlantic since Columbus crossed.
Two Of them finally turned over their
chasers to the French government at
a European base On December 26, af
ter drumming and rolling their bilges
up and scattering S-inch manila hemp
and two and half inch wire hawsers
across the western ocean through q
the worst the weather men remem-
bered. The American admirals, at
their Rendezvous D, said that, judging
by the foremasts of certain destroyers
which had steel deck houses and there
fore less to fear from them, the seas
off the base We're running forty feet
high at the time. But afterward a
three striper in command Of one of
theseNconverted yachts-built for pleas
ure cruising in Long Island Sound and
(part of the time the yacht A, which
happened to have 1,500 horsepower
and was the work horse of the squad
ron, had two disabled yachts and three
chasers in tow)-said in confidence that
forty feet might be little high Thir-
ty-fve feet would be his guess.
Ten Per Cent
Were Seamen
Squadron X was commanded by a
former naval attache at Petrograd,
who had not been to sea for several
years. 1t was manned by 1000 officers
and men, an excess complement shipped
because of the need for men over here
It's officers were reservists, varying in
kind from grandson of Jay Gould,
who carried a $4,000 letter of credit,
to an ex-merchantman who knew the
world from Hoboken to Hong Kong,
from Chick Tricker's in New York to
One-Eared Quong Mas in Singapore.
or its crew, 10 per cent were scamen,
divided between gun crews, who were
graduates of the Atlantic feet, and ex-
merchantmen.
The other 80 per cent had never
heard of the Bureau of Navigation.
They knew nothing of the sea except
that in small boats it is not considered
good seamanship to spit TO wnd'ard
and they knew nothing Of the navy
except the movies of the Army Navy
game. They ranged in kind from OK
bartenders OF the hot dog to million
aires sons, who carried kodaks in their
ditty-b boxes. A former clerk in tho
Highway Department. at Albany was
signal boy on the bridge Of one yacht
with boy who had run away from his
home in San Antonio to peddls through
Mexico with Villa, and had finally been
adopted on the border as mascot of
Maine regiment -Four master plumb
ers, licensed in New Hampshire and
Rhode Island, had shipped as mess at
tendants. and former register of
vital statistics in Jersey City was in
The black gang, along with former
cook at the McAlrin Hotel and a cook
from an East Side restaurant, where
see most expensive dish cost is cents.
f.