tell the various types of torpedoes, submarines, and mines, etc., in
use by the principal Powers. I could even tell by the peculiar
whistle it made whether the torpedo that was being discharged was a
Whitehead or a Brennan.

I was also drilled in the construction of every known kind of naval
gun. Dozens of model war-crafts were shown to me and explained. I
saw the model of every warship in the world. For days at a time I was
made to sit before charts that hung from the walls of certain rooms in
the Intelligence Department and study the silhouettes of every known
varying type of war-craft. I was schooled in this until I could tell
at a glance what type of a battleship, cruiser, or destroyer it was,
whether it was peculiar to the English, French, Russian or United
States Navy. As I shall show in relating one of my missions to
England, I was brushed up on the silhouette study of British warships,
for I had to be able to discern and classify them at long range. The
different ranking officers of the navies of the world, their uniforms,
the personnel of battleships, the systems of flag signals, and codes,
were explained to me in detail. I was given large books in which were
colored plates of the uniforms and signal flags of every navy in the
world. I had to study these until at a glance I could tell the rank
and station of the officers and men of the principal navies. The same
with the signal flags. I pored over those books night after night
into the early hours of the morning. My regular hours for tuition
were from ten to twelve in the forenoon and from two until six in the
afternoon. But it was impossible to compress all the work into that
time. I was anxious to get my first mission, and I presume I did a
great deal of cramming.

My study was not all in Berlin. I spent most of my time there at