l.

It was nine o'clock at night when our skipper had come to moorings. It
was now one in the morning, and he knew he could have slept for another
week; however, orders were to oil up.

He turned out and mustered what remained aboard of his crew. There were
about a dozen. He sent three to the fire-room, three to the engine-room,
one here, another there, himself took the wheel, and with his signal
quartermaster acting as a sort of officer of the deck, set out to find
the oil dock.

He had never seen that harbor before that night, but he sheered close in
to every ship's anchor light he saw and hailed for the course to the oil
dock. Most of them did not know, but one now and then passed him a word
or two, and so he bumped along and by and by made the oil dock.

Officers who have business with it will tell you that the naval
organization of the British is pretty complete. Our young skipper found
everything ready for him now. Men ashore made fast his lines, connected
up his pipes, filled his tanks--all in good order. Sister destroyers
were oiling up with him, and with tanks filled they all bumped their way
back to moorings, again without sinking anything along the way.

It was then daylight, and right after breakfast they all had to report
to the admiralty, so no use trying to sleep any more. Arrived at the
admiralty, the officer in command complimented them on their safe run
across, and then went on to say that of course they had had a trying
passage, and naturally their ships, especially engines and boilers,
would have to be overhauled--all very natural and proper--and of course
the needful time for overhauling, and for officers and crew--two, three,
four days, whatever it was--would be granted; but (they knew the need)
the question was: How long before they would be ready to go to sea?

The young destroyer commanders had discussed that and other
possibilities in the reception-room outside, so when the senior of the
group looked from one to the other of his colleagues they had only to
nod, for him to turn to the admiral and say:

"We are ready now, sir."

Which remark should become one of the historic remarks of this war.

At this time--at the gates to the North Sea, the English Channel, the
Irish coast--the U-boats were collecting frightful toll. In the
Mediterranean they were running wild. Five ships from one convoy in one
day--three of them big P. & O. liners--was one of their records in the
Eastern Mediterran