ACROSS THE EQUATOR WITH THE AMERICAN NAVY 



577 



Official Photograph, U. S. Navy 



lEARNING TO AIM TRUE) WITH MACHINE-GUNS ON THE GUANTANAMO RlELE RANGE 



With its 264 rifle and 60 pistol targets, this is the finest rifle range used try the United 

 States. It is a part of the 30,000 acres in the vicinity of Guantanamo rented from the Cuban 

 Government as a naval base. 



jaunts about the world ; he is well fed 

 and well clothed and his physical and 

 moral health are guarded. 



Upon his return to civilian life he has 

 attained to a higher and more intelligent 

 standard of citizenship. 



ON BOARD THE "BLACK HAWK" 



The departure of the Atlantic fleet 

 from the Brooklyn navy yard at dawn on 

 the morning of January 4 was unosten- 

 tatious and unpicturesque. Battleships 

 and destroyers worked singly down Am- 

 brose Channel to effect fleet formation 

 well out at sea. 



The vessels of the train — the colliers 

 and the supply-ships and the tenders and 

 the cruising foundries and repair shops — 

 smashed and wallowed in their wake. 



After a time one capitalizes The Train. 

 It is not dashing and it is a bit grubby, 

 and no one has a kind word for it ; nor 

 has The Train a kind word for any one 

 else. But it is what the lines of com- 

 munication are to the army. Without 

 The Train, the fighting craft had best not 

 put to sea. 



On board the Black Hazck one pitied 

 the raw recruits. When the old Grace 

 liner began to hit up her conservative 

 twelve knots an hour, one saw the desire 

 to see the world abate visibly in these 

 young breasts. 



The Black Hawk was dirty, of course. 

 So was every other ship in the fleet. 

 They had been lying alongside docks, sub- 

 mitting to repairs and taking in stores, 

 for weeks on end. It had not been worth 

 while to clean ship, even if it had been 

 possible in the raw air of a northern 

 winter. But no sooner were the ships 

 in clean blue water than the toilet opera- 

 tions began. 



The cargo boom of the Black Hawk 

 was astraddle with boys, many of whom 

 had never seen the sea before. The regu- 

 lar rise and fall of her deck sent them 

 perishing with agony. They clung with 

 arms and legs to the boom and put their 

 heads down on it and cursed the sea and 

 those who go down to it in ships. They 

 reminded one of nothing so much as a 

 parcel of young raccoons clinging bottom 

 side up to tree branches. 



