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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Burnell Poole 



THREE UNITS OF AMERICA S FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE 



The United States Navy has sixteen first-line battleships now in commission; the seven- 

 teenth (Maryland) and eighteenth (California) are completed, but not yet in commission. 

 There are nine other first-class ships whose keels have been laid and are now building. 



five men drown in the Sarrana's waters. 

 An attempt to alight would have sacri- 

 ficed her own crew. 



TRYING TO SAVE A CRIPPLED SEAPLANE 



A clay of full steam ahead brought the 

 Shawmut to the Sarrana Banks. 



This is a hopelessly desolate bit of 

 land. There is no fresh water on it, no 

 food, no trees, no grass, no men. At 

 one end an automatic, self-acting light- 

 house blinks day and night on its three 

 months' charge of carbide. All around 

 a nasty sea kicks on hidden rocks. 



The Sarrana reef was last charted by 

 a British ship ninety years ago, and the 

 depths have so changed that the inner 

 circle of the reef is a trap for ships. But 

 it had saved 431 1. Without its shelter 

 the plane must have gone to pieces and 

 its five men drowned before help arrived. 



Successive bulletins had told the 

 Shawmut that the port overhang of the 

 43 1 1 was smashed, the aileron had gone, 

 and that the tower shaft was out of com- 

 mission. There was nothing to do but 

 send for Captain "Bill" and his own 

 variety of first aid, which he carries 



