the destroyer lay not only in patrolling the
seas in search of the U-boats, but of serving in convoys, protecting
passenger and freight vessels, and in rescuing crews of vessels that had
been sunk. There may be other methods of reducing Germany's sum total of
submarines which are equally--if not more--effective than the destroyer;
but, if so, we have not been made aware of that fact. Certain it is,
however, that aside from the destroyer, steel nets, fake fishing and
merchant sailing vessels, seaplanes and chasers have played their
important part in the fight, while such a minor expedient as blinding
the eye of the periscope by oil spread on the waters has not been
without avail.

The United States Navy appears to have figured chiefly through its
destroyer fleet. It has been stated that half the number of sailors who
were in the navy when we entered the war were sent to European waters.
The system of training them involves a number of training-bases in
Europe constantly filling up from American drafts. Each new destroyer
that steams to Europe from our shores in due course sends back some of
her men to form a nucleus for the crew of another new destroyer turning
up in American waters. Their places are taken by drafts from the
training-bases in Europe. The destroyer referred to as turning up in
this country makes up her complement from the battleships and other
naval units here. The training-bases in this country are established at
Newport, Chicago, San Francisco, and Pelham Bay, N.Y. Here the men have
many months' instruction. As their training approaches completion they
are sent where needed, and thus the work of creating an immense army of
trained seamen qualified for any sort of a task proceeds with mechanical
precision.

Submarine hunting is very popular with our young jackies, and great is
their satisfaction when some submarine falls victim to their vigilance,
their courage, and their unerring eyes.

"But," said a young sea officer not long ago, "the submarine is a
difficult bird to catch. He holds the advantage over the surface craft.
He always sees you first. Even when he is on the surface he is nearly
awash, and when submerged only his periscope appears above the water.
The submarine is not after animals of our breed--destroyers--and when he
can he avoids them. We may go several weeks without putting an eye upon
a single U-boat. When we do there is action, I can tell you. We start
for him at full speed, openin