"That"s the way the Admiral gives his orders to the other ships,"
volunteered d.i.c.k. "You"ll notice they run up every set of flags first on the flagship, then the ships behind follow suit, finally when the order is understood by them all and it comes time to do that which the Admiral wants done, down they all go together."
"Jinks! I"d think it a pretty tedious way of sending messages,"
remarked Donald Barry, watching the gay flags go fluttering upwards in the breeze; "just imagine spelling out all those words. I"d think that sometimes they"d all go ash.o.r.e or run into each other or something before they half finished what they wanted to say."
d.i.c.k, having spent considerable of his spare moments in reading up about naval matters, smiled at Donald and continued his explanation.
"It isn"t necessary to spell out the words. Each group of flags means some special command, and all you have to do is to look it up in the signal book as you would a word in the dictionary. Most of the commoner signals become so well known after a little experience that it is only a matter of seconds to catch the meaning."
"I wish we could go on board one of the ships, don"t you, fellows?"
mused Robert rather irrelevantly. He was generally the silent one of the party, but the lads agreed with him that his wish was a good one.
Yet such luck was hardly to be expected.
The flagship was pa.s.sing but a few yards away, and the watchers could readily see the sailors on her decks all dressed in white working clothes, while on the broad quarter-deck a line of men, uniformed in khaki and armed with rifles, were drawn up in two straight military rows. Near these men glistened the instruments of the ship"s band as they stood playing a lively march.
Suddenly the boys heard a sharp command wafted to them over the water.
"Haul down!" were the words, and simultaneously from every ship in the column the lines of flags were hauled down to the signal bridges. Then came the splash of anchors, the churning of reversed propellers, the smoke and dust of anchor chains paying out through hawse pipes, and the fleet had come to anchor. Hardly had the great anchors touched the water when long booms swung out from the ships" sides, gangways were lowered, and from their cradles swift launches with steam already up were dropped into the water by huge electric cranes.
"What is the blue flag with all the stars they hoisted at their bows when they stopped?" questioned Donald, turning to d.i.c.k as being the best informed member of the party.
"That is the Union Jack," d.i.c.k replied, "and they fly that from the jack staff only when a ship is in dock, tied up to a wharf or at anchor; and also, if you noticed, they pulled down the National Ensign from the gaff on the mainmast and hauled another up on the flagstaff astern at the same time. When the flag flies from the gaff it means the ship is under way."
"It certainly is a shame, d.i.c.k, you cannot go to Annapolis in my place,"
remarked Gordon, regretfully; "you already know more than all of us combined about the Navy. But do you know, seeing these ships to-day and the businesslike way they do things has stirred my blood. It is just wonderful! But for the life of me I cannot see how a chap can learn all there is to know about them in only four years. I rather think I shall have to do some pretty hard digging if I ever expect to be a naval officer."
"Keep your ship afloat, Admiral Graham, and hard digging won"t be necessary," interposed Tommy, and a roar of laughter followed his quip, as was usually the case.
The boys now began rowing towards the flagship, which in anchoring had gone several hundred yards beyond them. Nearing her, the strains of a lively march were heard, and an officer in c.o.c.ked hat, gold lace and epaulettes, went down the gangway into a waiting motor boat. No sooner had the officer stepped into the boat than she scurried away for the sh.o.r.e landing. Again the boys stopped to watch proceedings. When the motor boat started from the gangway one of the sailors on deck blew a shrill call on a pipe and the khaki-clad line of men, who had been standing immovably with their rifles at the position of "present arms,"
brought them to the deck as if actuated by a single lever, and a moment later they were marched away.
"Those soldiers are marines, aren"t they?" asked Robert. "Anyway, they are dressed the same as the marines up at the Navy Yard."
"Sure they are marines," answered Tommy; "I know all about "em, for my Uncle Fred was a marine officer once. He swears by "em, and says they are the best fighters in the world."
This was Robert Meade"s first year at Bankley High School, having spent all his life previously in an up-state town, and the soldier element on board ship was not clear in his mind.
"I always used to think that the marine was a sailor," said he. "At least, most of the papers half the time must be wrong, for you see pictures supposed to be marines landing at this or that place and they are almost always dressed as sailors."
"That"s because the papers don"t know anything," commented Tommy indignantly. "Why, the marines are the oldest branch of the service; older than the Navy or the Army. Aren"t they, d.i.c.k?"
"Well, to tell the truth," d.i.c.k answered, "I"m a bit hazy about marines myself. Of course I"ve seen them around town and on the ships all my life, off and on, but I"ve been so much more interested in the work of a sailor that I haven"t paid much attention to the military end of it."
"The marine is "soldier and sailor too,"" said Tommy, sententiously.
"That English poet, Kipling, says he can do any darned thing under the sun; and if all my uncle tells me is true, it must be so. He was a volunteer officer of marines in the war with Spain and fought in Cuba with them."
"Well, if they are soldiers also, why don"t they stay ash.o.r.e with the army?" persevered Robert, wishing to understand more about the men who had excited his interest.
"It"s a pretty long story to tell you in a minute," answered Tommy; "besides, I may not get it all straight."
"That will be all right, Tommy," Gordon called out. "I do not know anything about them, either, and I suppose I had better learn everything I can about the Navy now. I"ve made up my mind, boys, that I do want to be an officer on one of these ships, and I am going to tell my father so to-night, as I know it will please him. So, Tommy, I propose that when we start for the boat-house, as you will have nothing else to do but steer, you tell us all you know about these "Sea Soldiers." Is my motion seconded?"
As Gordon finished speaking they were lying a little off the starboard quarter of the flagship, idly tossing in the short choppy sea that the breeze from the Sound had stirred up. A whistle from the deck now attracting their attention, the boys looked up in time to see a small marine with a bugle in his hand run along the deck and, after saluting the naval officer who had summoned him by the shrill blast, receive some instructions from the officer. After giving another salute to the officer, a second or two later the little trumpeter blew a call, the meaning of which was unknown to the silently attentive lads in the rowboat.
All the boys had some remark to make at this.
"h.e.l.lo, look at Tom Thumb blowing the bugle," called Tommy, and he added, "If all the marines are his size, I should think someone had been robbing a nursery."
"Wonder what all the excitement means, anyway?" inquired Donald, as he saw various persons on the ship running about, evidently in answer to the summons of the bugle.
"You know all the bugle calls, d.i.c.k, because you were the best bugler in the Boy Scouts when we belonged; what was the call?" Gordon asked.
"You"ve sure got me buffaloed," answered d.i.c.k. "I learned every call in the Instruction Book for Boy Scouts, and I know every army call, but that one wasn"t among them."
During this time their little boat was drifting slowly astern again when suddenly a long heavy motor boat rounded the battleship, just clearing her, and at terrific speed bore down on the drifting rowboat.
Instinctively the occupants of the rowboat sprang into action.
A warning cry was shouted to them through a megaphone from the deck of the battleship, the c.o.xswain of the fast flying motor boat sounded two short blasts on his whistle, threw his helm hard over, and the crew shouted loudly. Tommy Turner in the excitement of the moment mixed his tiller ropes and sent his frail craft directly across the sharp bow of the approaching vessel.
With a smashing and crashing of wood the heavy motor boat practically cut the rowboat in two, forcing it beneath the surface and pa.s.sing over it, and more quickly than it has taken to relate it the five boys were thrown into the sea.
[Ill.u.s.tration: How the accident occurred]
How the accident occurred
1. B is the position of the rowboat when the motor boat A came under the stern along dotted line, heading directly at rowboat. Tommy pulled on wrong rope and sent his boat in direction of B". It can be seen the c.o.xswain steered in the same direction and the boats smashed at the point B". The motor boat stopped about A".
2. The diagram ill.u.s.trates also the manner of designating the directions of objects from the ship by lookouts. Example: A sailboat at "C." The lookout would call out "Sailboat, Broad on Port Bow" or he might say "Four Points on Port Bow."
d.i.c.k Comstock, coming first to the surface, looked about him for his companions. The motor boat was now about fifty yards away; her engine had stopped and her crew were looking anxiously towards the spot where the accident had taken place.
As d.i.c.k shook the water from his eyes and ears, he heard the voice of the c.o.xswain answering a question apparently addressed him by someone from the deck of the flagship.
"I can"t reverse my engines, sir. Something fouling the propellor," he called out.
By this time d.i.c.k saw the bobbing heads of Robert, Donald and Gordon not far from him.
"Where"s Tommy?" called d.i.c.k, anxiously, trying to rise from the water as far as possible in his endeavor to sight the missing boy.
To these four lads the choppy sea meant nothing, in spite of the fact they were fully clothed when so suddenly upset. But in Tommy"s case it was a far different matter, for, as has been stated, Tommy, though a plucky little fellow, was unable to swim.