onnected up with telephones to the gunners who
are always ready for the 'call' and eager for action. This is only the
first of the thrilling experiences which I expect, or, rather, hope to
have." But that convoy arrived safely, too.

The convoy, by the way, was largely an American idea, a departure from
the policy of protecting a single vessel. A group of craft about to
cross, sometimes as many as a score or more, are sent forth together
under adequate protection of destroyers and cruisers. At night
towing-disks are dropped astern. These are white and enable the rearward
vessels to keep their distance with relation to those steaming ahead.
The destroyers circle in and about the convoyed craft, which, in the
meantime, are describing zigzag courses in order that submarines may not
be able to calculate their gun or torpedo fire with any degree of
accuracy.

The destroyers shoot in front of bows and around sterns with impunity,
leaving in their trail a phosphorescent wake. Sometimes in the case of a
fast liner the destroyers, what with the high speed of the craft they
are protecting and the uncertain course, narrowly escape disaster. As a
matter of fact, one of them, the American destroyer _Chauncey_, was lost
in this manner. But she is the only one.

Here is a letter from a Yale man, a sailor, which contains rather a
tragic story, the loss of the transport _Tuscania_ under British convoy:

"I could see a lighthouse here and there on the Irish and Scotch shores,
and though I knew there were plenty of ships about not one was to be
seen. (It was night, of course). All at once I saw a dull flare and a
moment after a heavy boom. Then about half a mile away the _Tuscania_
stood out in the glare of all the lights suddenly turned on. I could see
her painted funnels and the sides clear and distinct against the dark.
Another boom and the lights and the ship herself vanished. The next
instant lights and rockets began to go up, red and white, and from their
position I knew they must be from the _Tuscania_ and that she was
falling out of the convoy. Then came a crash of guns and a heavier shock
that told of depth-bombs and the blaze of a destroyer's
search-lights--gone again in an instant--and then absolute silence."

The sinking of the _Antilles_ was followed--October 25, 1917--by an
announcement that thereafter bluejackets would man and naval officers
command all transports. Up to that time, while there had been naval
guards on