Cinderellas of the fleet . ully demonstrated by the arrival of the Deutchland andthe escapade of the U-53. Our venerable confidence in our abilityto take down the old musket from its peg on the wall, if the occasionactually demanded it, and walk out and chasten the world, dependingrather on American nerve than on any equipment or preparation inparticular, was suffering a rude awakening. We thought of our de-stroyers. They were iew. We ordered many more of them. Whenwould they be completed? In two years at the earliest. We were inclined to put our trust in destroyers when it came tosuch a job a
Cinderellas of the fleet . ully demonstrated by the arrival of the Deutchland andthe escapade of the U-53. Our venerable confidence in our abilityto take down the old musket from its peg on the wall, if the occasionactually demanded it, and walk out and chasten the world, dependingrather on American nerve than on any equipment or preparation inparticular, was suffering a rude awakening. We thought of our de-stroyers. They were iew. We ordered many more of them. Whenwould they be completed? In two years at the earliest. We were inclined to put our trust in destroyers when it came tosuch a job as hunting submarines—that is, the Navy was. But fromthe first of the World War there were those who believed that the de-stroyer was not the final solution to the problem. Those of us wdiosebusiness and hobby it was to know small boats raised our voices inbehalf of them. We preached motor boats, we wrote, we i)ainted. wedid evervthino- but sins our lielief in them and finallv the idea that 58 THE CINDERELLAS OF THE FLEET. The steel bulkheads were set up on the keelson and used as molds. had got across to England and France and Italy and even to Russiabegan to get across over here. Destroyers, bully boats • that they are, cost a million apiece andcould not be built in a hurry. Submarines were a prolific breed, multi-plying with incredible rapidity, and at this stage of the game Germanywas placing her hope of victory more and more in her tmterseebootsand every available yard was given over to the fabrication of super-subs capable of crossing the Atlantic and returning to their bases ona single fueling. These boats were carrying their war over an ever-increasing area and since it seemed to be the accepted policy to pursuethe individual hornet over a great part of the North Atlantic and theMediterranean instead of attempting to burn out his nests, it becameevident that a few score destroyers were not a drop in the bucket. What was needed for this work was an immense fleet of sm
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