dent for the Associated Press, who visited the club when it
was completed, has testified to its great attractiveness, and from his
pen also has come the most effective description of our destroyers as
they return to their base from duty in the North Sea. One destroyer
which he inspected had had the good fortune to be able to bring back the
crews of two torpedoed merchantmen. The mariners were picked up on the
fourth day out, and had the unique experience of joining in a lookout
for their undoers before the destroyer returned to its base. Despite her
battles with heavy seas and high winds, the destroyer was as fit as any
of her sister craft lying at anchor near by. Her brass-work glistened in
the sunshine, and her decks were as clean as a good housewife's kitchen.
The crew, a majority of them mere boys, were going about their work with
every manifestation of contentment.

"They are," observed the commander, "the most alert sailors in the
world." The destroyer carried five 4-inch guns, the type most used on
destroyers. Ten feet behind the guns were cases of shells, each shell
weighing sixty pounds. When firing upon a submarine the shells are
passed by hand to the gunners--no small task when the sea is heavy. At
the gun the gunner is equipped with a head-gear, like that worn by
telephone girls, through which he receives sighting directions from the
officer on the bridge. Speaking-tubes also convey messages from the
bridge to the gunners.

These "voice-tubes," as they are called, run to all the guns, but take
the most circuitous routes, running way below deck in order that damage
by shell-fire to the upper part of the vessel might not affect
communication from the bridge to the gunners. On different parts of the
deck were three canvas-covered boxes, each containing six loaded rifles,
eighteen in all. These were for use against boarding-parties.

The vessel also contained numerous torpedo-tubes, always loaded. The
destroyer registered about a thousand tons, and carried a crew of
ninety-five men, who were reported as "a great happy family." The
commanding officer said that there was surprisingly little homesickness
among the men, many of whom had never before been so far from their
native land.

"We invite questions and suggestions from our men," said one of the
officers to the correspondent. "We want them to feel that no one is ever
too old to learn."

The seamen sleep on berths suspended from the steel walls of the
de