rpedoes are manufactured, has been
greatly enlarged and its facilities in the way of production radically
increased. Numerous ammunition-plants throughout the country prepare the
powder charge, load and fuse the shell, handle high explosives, and ship
the ammunition to vessels in the naval service. Among recent additions
to facilities is an automatic mine-loading plant of great capacity and
new design.

Schools of various sorts, ranging from those devoted to the teaching of
wireless telegraphy to cooking, were established in various parts of the
country, and from them a constant grist of highly specialized men are
being sent to the ships and to stations.

In these, and in numerous ways not here mentioned, the Navy Department
signalized its entrance into the war. While many new fields had to be
entered--with sequential results in way of mistakes and delays--there
were more fields, all important, wherein constructive preparation before
we entered the war were revealed when the time came to look for
practical results.

CHAPTER III

First Hostile Contact Between the Navy and the Germans--Armed Guards on
Merchant Vessels--"Campana" First to Sail--Daniels Refuses Offer of
Money Awards to Men Who Sink Submarines--"Mongolia" Shows Germany How
the Yankee Sailorman Bites--Fight of the "Silvershell"--Heroism of
Gunners on Merchant Ships--Sinking of the "Antilles"--Experiences of
Voyagers

In the way of direct hostile contact between the Navy Department and
Germany we find the first steps taken in the placing of armed
naval-guards on American merchantmen. While this was authorized by the
government before war was declared, it was recognized as a step that
would almost inevitably lead to our taking our part in the European
conflict and the nation, as a consequence, prepared its mind for such an
outcome of our new sea policy. Germany had announced her policy of
unrestricted submarine warfare in February, 1917, and on February 10 of
that month two American steamships, the _Orleans_ and the _Rochester_,
left port for France in defiance of the German warning. Both vessels
were unarmed and both arrived safely on the other side--the _Rochester_
was subsequently sunk--but their sailing without any means of defense
against attack aroused the nation and spurred Congress to action.

On March 12 the first armed American merchantman, the _Campana_, left
port with a gun mounted astern, and a crew of qualified naval marksmen
to ma