Each boy had nearly fifty dollars in his pockets as the result of his three months’ service at the Training Station. This money, however, they had decided to deposit with the paymaster of the ‘Long Island’ as soon as possible after arriving on board. The next morning Dan and Sam were up just as the Fall River Line boat was about to pass under the Brooklyn bridge. “Look!” cried Dan. “Do you recognize that yellow building over there?” “Can’t say that I do. What building is it?” “It is the recruiting station where you and I joined the service three months ago. And now, just think of it, we are jackies. Everybody knows we are jackies as soon as they look at our handsome uniforms.” “Yes,” breathed Sam, “and there’s the very Flag under which we enlisted.” Instinctively the Battleship Boys removed their caps and came to attention, in which position they stood until the towering Sound steamer had swept on and began rounding the Battery. CHAPTER XI—ON BOARD A BATTLESHIP “Small boat with two enlisted men approaching, sir,” called out the deck watch of the big battleship “Long Island.” “What ship?” answered the officer of the deck. “I don’t know, sir. Can’t make them out exactly.” The small boat, manned by a perspiring boatman, was creeping nearer and nearer to the huge, drab-colored man-of-war, whose towering sides and huge masts dwarfed everything else about it. The small boat pulled up to the starboard or right side of the ship, and drifted in. “Boat, ahoy!” called down the quartermaster, making a megaphone of his hands. “What do you want?” “We want to come aboard, sir?” answered Dan, rising in the fragile skiff and saluting. “Who are you?” “Recruits from the Newport Training Station, assigned to this ship.” [Illustration: “We Want to Come Aboard, Sir!”] “Then you ought to know better than to try to board a man-o’-war on the starboard side. Get around to the port side where you belong.” “Aye, aye, sir,” answered Dan, touching his cap. “How are you going to know which is the port side of these tubs?” muttered Sam, shading his eyes from the sun and gazing at the ship. “I’m blest if both ends don’t look alike to me.” “Then you must be losing your eyesight, Sam. Don’t you see how the quarter-deck is cut away astern, while the bow stands high out of the water? Then there’s the Flag astern. You’ll never see the colors up forward.” “I can’t see everything at once, and you must remember that this is the first time I ever saw a real battleship close enough to touch it.” The ship was at anchor, and some distance out in the stream. A swaying rope ladder hung from the lower boom on the port side, reaching down to within some four feet of the water’s edge. The river was choppy that morning, and the little boat bobbed perilously. The boys were used to this, however, and gave no thought to it. “Will you please pass a line over here for our dunnage?” called Dan. “Pass the landlubbers a clothes line,” shouted a voice from the forecastle.