mber, 1918, a
transport with several hundred sick and wounded soldiers on board, was
torpedoed when a short distance out from Brest. Thirty-six men of the
fire room met their death in the fire and steam and boiling water of the
stokehold. With two compartments flooded, their comrades dead and dying,
with a seeming certainty that the attack would continue, which would
mean that every man in the compartment where the torpedo struck would be
drowned or burned to death. Yet despite all, when volunteers were called
for to man the still undamaged furnaces to keep up steam for the run
back to port, every man in the force stepped forward and said he was
ready to go below.

HARD AND GRINDING WORK.

There was nothing spectacular about this grinding duty. Winter and
summer, by day and by night, in the fog and in the rain and in the ice,
it demanded constant vigilance, unceasing toil, and extreme endurance.
The work of this dangerous service was endless and its hardships and
hazards are barely realized. During the winter storms of the north
Atlantic the maddened seas all but engulfed these tiny but staunch
transports, when for days they breasted the fury of the gale and defied
the very elements in their struggle for mastery. No sleep then for the
tired crew; no hot food; no dry clothes. Yet despite it all, with each
hour perhaps the last, with death stalking through the staggering hulls,
not a man--black or white--to the everlasting glory of the American
navy, not a man but felt himself especially favored in being assigned
that duty.

CEASELESS VIGILANCE.

Since this country entered the war practically all the enemy's naval
forces, except the submarines, have been blockaded in his ports by the
naval forces of the Allies, and there has been no opportunity for naval
engagements of a major character. The enemy's submarines, however,
formed a continual menace to the safety of all our transports and
shipping, necessitating the use of every effective means and the utmost
vigilance for the protection of our vessels. Concentrated attacks were
made by enemy U-boats on the ships that carried the very first
contingent to Europe, and all that have gone since have faced this
liability to attack. Our destroyers and patrol vessels, upon all of
which Negroes served in addition to convoy duty, have waged an unceasing
offensive warfare against the submarine. In spite of all this, our naval
losses have been gratifyingly small. Not one Americ