Page:The Wireless Operator with the U.S. Coast Guard.djvu/141

 She was some hundreds of feet long, and made Henry think of a huge log afloat. Her rounded sides rose only a few feet above the water. Amidships was the conning tower, with its periscope. There were short masts for wireless antenn&aelig;. The very top of the hull was flattened, so that the crew could walk on it. Along the sides of this narrow deck were short uprights with eyelets at their tops, which a life-line pierced, and this line was the only rail the sailors had to keep them from falling into the sea. Perhaps it was the big guns fastened to the deck that most interested Henry. There was no way to protect them from the sea, and when the ship was running submerged, he saw that these guns would stand right up in the water. The horizontal rudders, by means of which the ship was enabled to dive under the waves, were also interesting. They were pivoted, so that, when not in use, they folded back into depressions in the hull of the ship, just as a fish’s fins are sometimes folded close against its body.

When Henry walked to the next piers he was thrilled, indeed, for there lay two of our great fighting ships, the battleships ' and '. What ponderous, grim, menacing hulks they were. How high their decks were. How their superstructures towered aloft. How threatening their turreted guns appeared. And