Hard duty as it was for the officers in that wintry clime, it was even harder for the enlisted men. Yet our boys bore it with the cheerfulness that distinguishes the American sailor, who, when hardship comes, "bears it with a grin,"--not only bears it, but laughs about it. For a year, every officer and man in the Grand Fleet had been waiting and hoping for a chance to get at the Germans. And, at last, when that fleet surrendered without striking a blow, their disappointment was too deep for words. That scene has been graphically described, the feeling of officers and men so well expressed by Admiral Rodman, that I give in his own words his account of the German surrender: After four years of war for the Grand Fleet, and after we have been a part of it for the last year, there came the debacle, the last scene of the great drama. Not as we had all expected, as the successful termination of a great sea battle, but as an ignominious surrender without firing a gun. Surely, no more complete victory was ever won, nor a more disgraceful and humiliating end could have come to a powerful and much vaunted fleet than that which came to the German High Seas Fleet. Let me try to describe it. The Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet demanded and received what actually amounted to an unconditional surrender of the whole German Navy. Under his orders the enemy's ships were disarmed, ammunition landed, torpedo warheads sent ashore, breech-blocks and fire-control instruments removed, and every offensive utility rendered innocuous. Then, with reduced crews, under the command of a German admiral, in one lone column, the heavy battleships leading, the Hun fleet sailed for a designated rendezvous, to arrive at a specified time, just outside of the Firth of Forth in Scotland, where the Grand Fleet lay at anchor. Before daylight the Grand Fleet was under way and proceeded to sea, heading east, in two long columns, six miles apart, our American battleship force being in the middle of the northern line. A light British cruiser was directed to meet the Germans, who were heading west, and conduct them in between our two columns. Let me diverge for a moment and recall to any one who has been in China or the Philippines the viciousness of and antipathy which the domesticated carabao has for a white man. How ready they are to attack, while any native child can, with perfect safety and impunity, go up to the most savage of them, take him by the nose, and lead him where he pleases. I was reminded of this when a little British cruiser rounded to ahead of the much-vaunted German High Seas Fleet, and hoisted the signal, "Follow me," and led them down between our columns, where our battle flags were mast-headed, turrets trained toward the enemy, crews at battle stations, and all in readiness for any act of treachery that might be attempted.