to get into the fight and keep fighting. He has been
the sponsor for a naval increase which sees our active roster increased
from 56,000 men in April, 1917, to more than 400,000 at the present
time, and our fighting ships increased, as already pointed out,
fourfold.

And while our vessels and our fighting men are playing their part on the
high seas the counsel of our trained technical experts is eagerly sought
and constantly employed by the admiralties of the Allied nations. When
the naval history of this war is given to the world in freest detail we
shall know just how much our officers have had to do with the strategy
of operations adopted by all the Entente navies. It is not violating
either ethics or confidence, however, to say that our influence in this
respect has been very potent and that the names of Admiral William S.
Benson, chief of operations, Vice-Admiral William S. Sims, Admiral Henry
T. Mayo, and Rear-Admiral Albert Gleaves are already names that are to
be reckoned with abroad as at home.

As for incidents reflecting gloriously upon the morale of our officers
and men, the navy has already its growing share. There is the destroyer
_Cassin_ struck by a torpedo and seriously crippled, but refusing to
return to port as long as there appeared to be a chance of engaging the
submarine that had attacked her. There is Lieutenant Clarence C. Thomas,
commander of the gun crew on the oil-ship _Vacuum_. When the ship was
sunk he cheered his freezing men tossing on an icy sea in an open boat
far from land, until he at length perished, his last words those of
encouragement. There is Lieutenant S.F. Kalk, who swam from raft to raft
encouraging and directing the survivors of the destroyer _Jacob Jones_
after a torpedo had sent that vessel to the bottom. There are those two
gunners on the transport _Antilles_ who stood serving their gun until
the ship sank and carried them down. There is the freighter
_Silver-Shell_ whose gun crew fought and sank the submarine that
attacked the ship, and the gun crews of the _Moreni_, the _Campana_, and
the _J.L. Luckenback_--indomitable heroes all. There is Osmond Kelly
Ingram, who saved the _Cassin_ and lost his life. There is the glorious
page contributed to our naval annals, by the officers and crew of the
_San Diego_. History indeed is in the making--history that Americans are
proud to read.

In all that has been written in this foreword the design has been merely
to sketch, to out