From this author's 'Our Navy at Work," Published by the Bobbs-Merrill co. In 1917, our Government took over a large number of pleasure-yachts, fitted them with a few light guns and depth-charge and sent them into French waters to hunt submarines. They were variously known as "The Suicide Fleet" and "Easter-Eggs." Mr. Kauffman spent some time at sea with them. Permission to reproduce in this book.
NOW, Mr. Wall of Wall St., he built himself a yacht,
And he built that yacht for comfort and for speed;
He didn't mean that it should go
Beyond a hundred miles or so;
He wanted something made for show,
Where he could drink and feed.
Then Uncle Sam'l went to war and hadn't any boats,
Or not enough to guard the stormy green,
And so he said to Mr. Wall: "I'll take your six-feet-over-all
And set it out to get the call
Upon the submarine."
"A cruising-fighter? Never!" (The experts chorused that.)
"She'll sink before she's half--way out to France";
But Sam cut out her bathtubs white,
He painted her a perfect fright
And loaded her with dynamite;
Says he: "I'll take a chance."
"Goodnight," said Wall of Wall St.; the experts said it, too;
But Uncle Sam was sot and sibylline;
His little plan, it warn't a josh:
Wall's boat 's as dry 's a mackintosh.
She fights, b' gum; what 's more b' gosh,
She gits the submarine!
