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[Illustration: Cover]

[Transcriber's Note: Bold text is surrounded by =equal signs= and italic
text is surrounded by _underscores_.]



OVER THE SEAS FOR UNCLE SAM

[Illustration: "Only the hits count!"]




OVER THE SEAS FOR UNCLE SAM

BY ELAINE STERNE

    _Author of "The Road of Ambition," "Sunny Jim" Stories, Etc._


    "We're ready _now_!"--Navy slogan.


    NEW YORK
    BRITTON PUBLISHING COMPANY




    Copyright, 1918
    BRITTON PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.

    Made in U. S. A. All rights reserved.




    _To the Honorable Josephus Daniels
    Secretary of the Navy,
    whose devotion to the interests of the men in the
    American Navy has been an inspiration to them
    no less than to the nation as a whole._




CONTENTS


                                       PAGE
    THE WHEREFORE OF MY LITTLE BOOK      11
    SUNK BY A SUBMARINE                  21
    WAR CLOUDS GATHER                    35
    THE STUFF HEROES ARE MADE OF         49
    DEPTH BOMBS AND DESTROYERS           61
    IN TRAINING                          73
    ZEPS AND TORPEDOES                   91
    "THE LEATHER NECKS"                 107
    THE WAY WITH THE FRENCHIES          119
    A YANKEE STANDS BY                  135
    A TASTE OF HELL                     147
    THE WANDERLUST AND THE WAR          161
    UNDER THE RED CROSS BANNER          175
    "ABANDON SHIP!"                     191
    PRISONERS OF WAR                    209
    FRITZ GETS TAGGED                   221
    THE FLOWER OF FRANCE                233




THE WHEREFORE OF MY LITTLE BOOK


We have learned some things in war times that we did not know in days of
peace. We have made the amazing discovery that our own fathers and
brothers and husbands and lovers are potential heroes. We knew they were
brave and strong and eager to defend us if need be. We knew that they
went to work in the morning and returned at night just so that we might
live in comfort; but we never dreamed that the day would come when we
would see them marching off to war--a war that would take them far from
their own shores. We never dreamed that, like the knights of old, they
would ride away on a quest as holy as that of the Crusaders.

As for army and navy life--it had always been a sealed book to us, a
realm into which one was born, a heritage that passed from father to
son. We heard of life at the army post. We saw a uniform now and then,
but not until our own men donned khaki and blue did we of the outside
world learn of the traditions of the army and of the navy, which dated
back to the days of our nation's birth.

We did not know that each regiment had its own glorious story of
achievement--a story which all raw recruits were eager to live up to--a
story of undaunted fighting in the very face of death that won for it
its sobriquet.

Because the army lay at our very door, we came to know it better, to
learn its proud lesson more swiftly, but little by little the navy,
through the lips of our men, unlocked its traditions, tenderly fostered,
which had fired its new sons to go forth and fight to the finish rather
than yield an inch.

As a first lieutenant in the Girls' National Honor Guard, I was
appointed in May, 1917, for active duty in hospital relief work. It was
then that I came to know Miss Mary duBose, Chief Nurse of the United
States Naval Hospital, whose co-operation at every turn has helped this
little volume to come into being.

The boys of the navy are her children. She watches over them with the
brooding tenderness of a mother. Praise of their achievements she
receives with flashing pride. With her entire heart and soul she is
wrapped up in her work. Through her shines the spirit of the
service--the tireless devotion to duty.

I had never before been inside a naval hospital. I had a vague idea that
it would be a great machine, rather overcrowded, to be sure, in war
times, but running on oiled hinges--completely soulless.

I found instead a huge building, which, in spite of its size, breathed a
warm hominess. Its halls and wards are spotless. Through the great
windows the sun pours in on the patients, as cheery a lot of boys as you
would care to see.

There are always great clusters of flowers in the wards--bright spots of
color--there are always games spread out on the beds. There is always
the