gh
seas is undoubted, while we know of several mutinies involving hundreds
of men that have occurred in German ports--all because of objections to
submarine service. It is even said that submarine service is now one of
the penalties for sailors who have offended against the German naval
regulations, and there are stories of submarines decked with flowers as
they leave port, a symbol, of course, of men who go out not expecting to
return--all for the glory of the man known throughout the American Navy
as "Kaiser Bill."

It is thus unlikely that such success as might--or may--attend the
efforts of our coast-patrol vessels to dispose of the submarines which
come here will not be published unless the highly colored complexion of
facts warrants it. One may imagine that service in a submarine so far
from home is not alluring, and still less so when submarines sent to the
waters of this hemisphere are heard from nevermore.

Just how unpopular the service has been may be adduced from chance
remarks of German submarine prisoners who come to this country from time
to time. The men of the U-boat sunk by the _Fanning_ made no effort to
conceal their satisfaction at their change of quarters, while Germans in
other cases have told their British captors that they were glad they had
been taken.

There is the story of the storekeeper of the German submarine which sunk
several vessels off our coast last June. He said he had formerly served
on a German liner plying between Hoboken and Hamburg, and his great
regret was that he had not remained in this country when he had a
chance. Life on a submarine, he said, was a dog's life.

Even under peace conditions this is so. The men are cramped for room, in
the first place. In a storm the vessel, if on the surface, is thrown
almost end over end, while the movement of stormy waves affects a boat
even thirty feet below the water-level. Cooking is very often out of the
question, and the men must live on canned viands. They have not even the
excitement of witnessing such encounters as the vessel may have. Three
men only, the operating officers, look through the periscope; the others
have their stations and their various duties to perform. If a vessel is
sunk they know it through information conveyed by their officers. There
was a story current in Washington before we entered the war, of a
sailor, a German sailor who had had nearly a year of steady service on a
submarine. He was a faithful man, and