The Admiral, after a long day's work, spoke of how good it was to draw his chair close to the open fire. One of the three guests had to leave early, because, although he is our host's nephew, he had volunteered as a common seaman and had to be aboard ship betimes. That orderly of the commander, a Lehigh graduate with six months' experience of the service, muttered in the hall: "This is the most democratic Navy I ever saw; an Admiral helping a gob on with his coat!" That intimate view of Admiral Wilson shows the side of his character which makes officers and men love him. Strict in discipline, firm in administration, a master of his profession, he illustrates the military truth that he is the greatest officer who is the best shipmate. It was this combination of qualities which enabled him to do the big job in France, where he was beloved and honored by the French as well as the Americans. What Mr. Kauffman described at Brest was characteristic of our Navy in the war, as it was of our crews on the French coast. In one gun's crew a young New York millionaire served with a former mechanic and an erstwhile clerk from the East Side. In the crew of a yacht was a Philadelphia policeman and a Texas ranger; the first boatswain's mate had his sheepskin from Cornell; there was a Lehigh senior in the forecastle and a Harvard post-graduate assisting in the radio room. Several young men served as sailors on ships their fathers owned, and had turned over to the Government for war use. They were nearly all reservists or recent recruits, the crews of the armed yachts and sub-chasers. But they put it over like veterans, and took things as they came. And they had some lively brushes with the "subs." The yachts got a taste of U-boat warfare on the way over. The _Corsair_ was with the troop-ships when the group she was escorting was attacked by submarines. Nearing the French coast on July 2, the _Noma_ sighted a periscope, and with the _Kanawha_ circled the vicinity for some time, but without result. The next evening the _Sultana_, which was somewhat behind the other yachts, arrived at Brest, bringing 37 of the crew and 13 of the armed guard of the American steamship _Orleans_, which had been sunk, apparently by the same submarine which had been sighted by the _Noma_. The day after they began patrol duty, the _Harvard_ brought into port 59 survivors picked up from two British ships that had been torpedoed. A torpedo was fired at the _Noma_ on July 19, and on August 8th she took part in a fight between a noted British decoy-ship--"Q-boats," they were called--and a submarine in the Bay of Biscay.