nodding, and, as the surgeon, Dr. McGowan, read the Episcopal service,
it seemed in the half light as if every man were keeping time with the
cadence.

The words of the service, beautiful and impressive under such novel
circumstances, echoed and whispered along the deck, and at the sentence,
"We commit this body to the deep," the grating was raised gently and,
with a peculiar _swish_, the body, heavily weighted, slid down to the
water's edge and plunged sullenly into the sea. A moment more and the
service was finished, the bugler sounding "pipe down." A salute, three
times repeated, was fired by sixteen men of the marine guard.

* * * * *

The voyage down the coast was utilized in making good men-o'-war's men
of the "Yankee's" crew. Captain Brownson believes thoroughly in the
efficacy of drill, and he lost no time in living up to his belief. When
all the circumstances are taken into consideration, the task allotted to
the captain of the "Yankee" by the fortunes of war, was both peculiar
and difficult.

On his return from Europe, where he had been sent to select vessels for
the improvised navy, he was ordered by the Navy Department at Washington
to take command of the auxiliary cruiser "Yankee." This meant that he
was to assume charge of a ship hastily converted from an ordinary
merchant steamer, and to fight the battles of his country with a crew
composed of youths and men whose whole life and training had hitherto
followed totally different lines.

It was a "licking of raw material into shape" with a vengeance.