Page:Barbour--For the freedom from the seas.djvu/129



OME twenty-five hundred miles lay before them, which meant from five to six days at sea, depending on weather and other fortunes. On the Gyandotte it was pretty unanimously the opinion that the submarines had tackled a "man's job," and that those aboard them were "regular fellows." For the first two days it was customary to ask of a morning: "Have we still got 'em all? But the subs themselves appeared to neither ask nor expect sympathy. They went at their task with a fine nonchalance, plowing along sturdily and steadily at some twelve knots an hour, sometimes hidden from sight beyond the seas that tumbled them, always dripping from end to end. The bridges invariably held one or more rubber-clad forms swaying up and down, back and forth, behind the scant protection of the canvas weather shields. It was a gallant little band, and those on the larger ships were proud of them and, while never losing a 106