refers to go down with his ship so that it may never be said that
his soul failed him. For sea fighters in U-boats to disregard this
traditional chivalry of the sea and to sink merchant ships without
warning and without assuring the passengers of their safety seemed to
the sailors of other lands like giving up the high ideals that had
grown out of their dangerous calling--like poisoning their souls with
deceit and violence.

Most naval officers would rather die than surrender. Captain Lawrence,
fighting for America in the war of 1812, wounded and dying, cried to
his men, "Don't give up the ship." To fight rather than to surrender
even in the face of the greatest odds has been for centuries the idea
of sea fighters.

Admiral Cervera at Santiago in 1898 knew he was outmatched by the
American fleet waiting for him off the harbor; but he brought his ships
out and made a brave fight in trying to escape. Lieutenant Hobson knew
there were terrible odds against him when he and his little company
went in under the guns of the forts and attempted to block the channel.
In the Russo-Japanese War, the Russians in the Sea of Japan with their
ships foul and barnacled after a voyage of thousands of miles were not
afraid to face certain defeat. Brave men do not lose their souls in
the face of tremendous odds or even in the face of sure death.

Did the soul of Private George Dilboy of Somerville, Massachusetts,
faint in him when he charged alone the German machine gun? He had come
with his platoon up a little rise to a railroad track at the top, when
suddenly an enemy machine gun opened fire upon them at about one
hundred yards distance. Dilboy did not throw himself on the ground to
escape the bullets. No, he raised his rifle to his shoulder and
standing in plain sight of the German gunners, began to fire at them.
As they were partially hidden he was not sure of his aim. So he ran
down the embankment and across a wheat field towards them. The machine
gun was immediately turned upon him and before he reached it, he fell
with one leg nearly severed above the knee by the rain of lead and with
several bullets through his body. Half crouched on the only knee left
him, he aimed at the gunners one after another until he had killed or
dispersed them all, and then fainted and died. He had advanced in the
face of certain death, but had saved the lives of many of his comrades,
for the gun had to be captured to gain their objective.