_15th._ Speed 14 knots to investigate intercepted S.O.S. Spoke to British steamer _Itola_ for Falmouth with general cargo. Spoke to Danish steamer _Alf_ from Montreal for Havre, course east, speed 9 knots, with general cargo. She was not zigzagging and was making a great deal of smoke. _16th._ Exchanged recognition signals with three French destroyers, escorting cargo ships. Intercepted S.O.S. from British steamer _Devon City_, light, for Newport News. She had sighted a periscope and fired five rounds at same and it disappeared. Fired one shot from No. 2 gun at a floating barrel, making a hit, distance about 400 yards. Arrived south limit of patrol area. Changed course to west, parting company with steamer _Devon City_. _17th._ Headed for steamer on horizon. Spoke to British steamer _Medford_ for Plymouth with cargo of mineral phosphate. Changed course to escort _Medford_. Held target practice on floating wreckage. Changed course to east, speed 12 knots, making best of way to Brest. _18th._ Moored at Base. _19th._ Coaling ship. _20th._ Cleaning ship and preparing for cruise. Two more cruises were made in the month of July, but they furnished no thrilling episodes beyond the discovery of the burning American schooner _Augustus Weld_ which, no doubt, had been shelled by a U-boat. What had become of her crew was left to conjecture. This noble four-master was one of many Yankee sailing vessels which dared the war zone, tempted by the chance of fabulous profits, until the War Risk Board refused to grant them insurance. The easiest marks in the world for submarines, they loafed along in infested waters, at the whim of the fickle winds, or drifted becalmed with towering canvas that was visible for many miles. Some of them were sailed by sun-dried skippers from Maine and Cape Cod who vowed they “would take her to hell and repeat if the bonus was big enough.” The episode of the blazing, derelict schooner profoundly impressed the crew of the _Corsair_. It was their first glimpse of the heartless havoc of the U-boat. They were learning that the service in the war zone was not all adventure and exhilaration, but, for the most part, monotonous toil and discomfort, just as the soldier in the trenches had found it out for himself. To be wet and cold and slung about in a rolling ship, to return to port and shovel coal until almost ready to go to sea again—this was to be their lot month after month. The danger of it was always present, but they soon became cheerfully indifferent. It went without saying that at the explosion of a torpedo the yacht would fly apart like a box of matches, but these young men snored soundly in their uneasy bunks until the cruel boatswain’s mate bade them “show a leg” or “rise and shine.”