Page:Christian Science War Time Activities.djvu/178

 Its scant local population and remoteness from railroad connections made it an ideally isolated rendezvous. Here, behind lines of heavy submarine nets lay a constantly changing force of from forty to fifty major ships of the line with a personnel approximating fifty thousand officers and men.

Getting in touch at once with the Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet, the representative of the War Relief Committee, especially appointed for this purpose, was invited to a conference on the flagship, where the aims and the method of our work were laid before those in authority. So satisfactory were the plans outlined that this Worker was granted general and unrestricted permission to board any ship or unit under the supervision of the Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet, and was also given passes good in specified localities for assistants.

Within a week the first assistant was detailed to care for the ships at Yorktown and had his pass ready to begin operations. Though the Worker's pass permitted him the use of the Fleet's tenders or launches, it was felt by the Admiral's Chief of Staff that he would be more valuable and have a broader opportunity if provided with a boat of his own. The advisability of this was soon realized by both the Committee's special representative and the Worker, and efforts were bent towards finding a suitable launch. The boat known as “Welfare First” more than fulfilled expectations and the Scientist sent from Boston to operate it soon developed into a much-needed second Worker.

Welfare I was 35 feet in length, had a beam of 8 feet, and a draft of 2½ feet. Her engine was a 2-cycle, 2-cylinder Mianus, 15 horsepower, fully equipped with