ty-five second-line
battleships, nine armored cruisers, twenty-four other cruisers, seven
monitors, fifty destroyers, sixteen coast torpedo vessels, seventeen
torpedo boats, forty-four submarines, eight tenders to torpedo boats,
twenty-eight gunboats, four transports, four supply ships, one hospital
ship, twenty-one fuel ships, fourteen converted yachts, forty-nine tugs,
and twenty-eight minor vessels. There were about seventy thousand
regularly enlisted men, besides eight thousand five hundred members of
the naval militia. Many yachts together with their volunteer crews had
been offered to the government by patriotic citizens.

For the complete mobilization of the Navy, as it then stood, 99,809
regularly enlisted men and 45,870 reserves were necessary. About
twenty-seven thousand of these were needed for coast defense, and twelve
thousand at the various shore stations. Retired officers were called
out, and assigned to duty which would permit officers on the active list
to be employed in sea duty. The Navy therefore still lacked thirty-five
thousand men to bring it up to its full authorized strength at the
beginning, but after the declaration of war an active recruiting
campaign brought volunteers by thousands. The service was a popular one
and recruits were easily obtained.

One of the first phases of the mobilization was the organization of a
large fleet of mosquito craft to patrol the Atlantic Coast, and keep on
the watch for submarines. Many of these boats had been private yachts,
and hundreds of young men volunteered from the colleges and schools of
the country for this work. Many boat builders submitted proposals to
construct small boats for this kind of patrol duty, and on March 31st a
coast patrol fleet was organized by the government under the command of
Captain Henry B. Wilson.

The Navy took possession immediately on the declaration of war of all
wireless stations in the United States dismantling all that could not be
useful to the government. War zones were established along the whole
coast line of the United States, making a series of local barred zones
extending from the larger harbors in American waters all along the line.
These harbors were barred at night to entering vessels in order to guard
against surprise by German submarines. Contracts were awarded for the
construction of twenty-four destroyers even before war was declared, and
many more were already under construction.

[Illustration: Map]