call "all hands on deck." The men come tumbling up from below, touching
their caps in salute as their heads rise above the hatch coaming. Men
standing in battalion formation, by divisions, at attention, each man
answers "here" as his name is called. Some of the voices are a little
husky as the speaker realizes that war is on and he is about to be
called for real service.

And so they are mustered in. The state's sailors become Uncle Sam's
man-o'-war's-men. The old "Granite State" is once more emptied of its
crew. The decks are silent and the long, low gangways beneath the
ancient deck beams are checked with squares of undisturbed yellow-light,
as the sun streams through the square gun ports.

The readers of this book can imagine the men on our great gray ships of
war going through much the same routine followed by the "Yankee's" crew,
for there has been but little change in the work and play of the
man-o'-war's-men.

So let us take off our caps and give the men of 1917 three cheers and a
tiger. May they shoot straight, and keep fit.

Pipe down.

RUSSELL DOUBLEDAY

April, 1917
Nineteen years ago this
month the "Yankee's"
crew went to sea.