The Brighton Boys with the Submarine Fleet

h the suburbs of a great city. The

ual activities of war times. Long freight trains were puffing and chugging on the sidings; the ai

the platform. A detail of blue jackets, spick and span in their natty uniforms, awaited the party. Jack and Ted stared at the fine lo

und for the navy yard. Soon, across the meadows, loomed the fighting tops of battle

hum!" chortled Ted with

ed out o

After roll call and checking up of the list of names, the boys were all marched over to the quartermaster's depot to be fitted for uniforms. Probably th

shortly when they were directed aboard the training ship Exeter, where they were to be qu

drills that the boys had few idle moments. Their letters home and to their chums at

collier when a naval officer, immaculate in white linen and surrounded by his staff, came aboard. After an exchange of salutes between the deck o

s. The department is very anxious to put some of you aboard the submarine fleet now fitting out here, and if there

d suit. And so it came about that Jack Hammond and Ted Wainw

ewey. If you boys are ready we will go right aboard. We expect to go down the bay on some

to be kept in the yard a long time, quartered on the training ship

ing easy at the end of a tow line near the drydock. Up on the conning tower a member of the crew was making some adjustment to the pe

a hump on its back, doesn't it?" whisp

officers and members of the Dewey's crew. Turned over to big Bill Witt, one

motors and oil engines, around them switchboards and other electrical apparatus--a maze of intricate machinery that filled all the stern space. The air was hazy and smelled strong of oils and gases. Huge

tanks with water and expelling it again to rise by blowing it out with compressed air. Here also was the depth dial and the indicator bands that showed when the ship was going down or ascending again, the figures being marked off in feet on the dial just like a clock. Here also was the gyro-compass

ope we have at home to look at pic

peep." What they saw was the forward deck of the Dewey, the guns in position, other vessels moored nearby and the blue expans

ther side of the vessel, chained to the sides of the hull on long runners that led up to the firing tubes, were the massive torpedoes, ready to be p

, mates," was his

t showed the boys in turn the bunks that folded out of the sides of the vessel in which the crew slept, the electric stove for cooking food

ering station whence the Dewey was navigated when cruising on the surface. Down on the deck the boys inspected the smart-looking four-inch guns wit

the time; remember what you are told an

dent that there was something doing, for in a few minutes the propeller blades began to churn the water, and the exhaust of the engines fluttered at the port-holes. The tow line

arine voyage and they had yet to acquire their sea legs, they kept firm hold on the wire railing that ran the length of the deck on either side of the ves

ed Ted as the Dewey began to gathe

ver the anchor chains. From aft came the steady chug-chug of the engines' exhaust, to be drowned out at intervals as the swell of water s

on the campus at Brighton with the scho

e deck. "I'm just as happy as I

sea. Before the boys stretched water--endless water as far as the eye carried--to the far thin line where sky and water met. They were

ow--we are goi

was goin