and their flag in this hour of darkness and
trouble.

NUMBER OF NEGROES ENGAGED.

During the World War, there were approximately ten thousand Negroes who
voluntarily enlisted in the navy of the United States. They were
distributed throughout the various ratings of the enlisted status. Many
of them were chief petty officers who had rendered years of faithful
service and were regarded as experts in their profession, and,
consequently, played an important part in the organization and function
of the battle units. In the transport service, his powerful physical
endurance and strength made him a determining factor in the Herculean
efforts to supply men, munitions, and provisions for the battlefields of
France. In order to appreciate the magnitude of his service, let us
briefly note the following facts:

Two million American fighting men were safely landed in France. To do
this the transport force of the Atlantic fleet of the United States had
to be utilized. At the outbreak of the war the transport force was
small, but it now comprises twenty-four cruisers, forty-two troop
transports, and scores of other vessels, manned by three thousand
officers and forty-one thousand enlisted men, two thousand of whom are
Negroes.

PERIL AND DANGER.

To think of the peril and dangers of this service at best, even in peace
times, seamanship is a comfortless and cheerless calling. But in war, to
the ordinary perils of the sea are added unusual hardships which reach
their maximum in the dangers and perils of the war zone--the attack
without warning of the invisible foe whose presence is too frequently
known only by a terrific explosion, which casts the hapless crew adrift
on surging seas, leagues from a friendly shore. Think of the terrific
strain under which these men perform their perilous tasks. Gun crews on
continuous duty, ever ready with the shot that might save the ship; the
black men below in the fire room, expecting every moment to receive the
fatal blast which would entrap them in a hideous death; the watch,
ceaseless in its vigil by day and by night, peering through the darkness
and the mist, conscious that upon their alertness depended the lives of
all. Yet under these conditions of unprecedented hardships every black
man performed his duty with the highest degree of courage and
self-sacrifice.

We will mention one of the many instance of the matchless intrepidity of
the men engaged in this hazardous service. In Septe