The Mercantile Marine experts not only brought about the transfer of
yachts to the navy, but superintended alterations above and below deck,
arming, outfitting, coaling, painting, and provisioning the converted
war-ships. While this was in progress the Navy Department was having
built a fleet of submarine-chasers of the 110-foot class, which,
together with the yachts taken over, offered abundant opportunities for
oversea service, which the sailors enrolled in the Coast Defense
Division were not slow to accept after they were requested to transfer
their enrollment from Class 4 to Class 2, under which classification
they were eligible to be sent abroad. Thus thousands of young men who
had enlisted for coast-patrol duty, were sent aboard transports,
submarine-chasers, and war-ships generally, for service in the European
war zones.

And with this constant outflow of trained men from the various naval
training-stations of the country, the influx of newly enlisted reserves
into these schools gives assurance that the Navy Department will never
be embarrassed for lack of material wherewith to man its boats. And
there is the likelihood that as our new merchant vessels are launched
and put into commission, they will be manned by reserves from the navy
training-schools with officers furnished by the Deck School at Pelham
Bay and the Engineers' School at Hoboken. The government, of course, is
in complete control of the merchant marine; but in our present condition
many American ships have to be manned by aliens. It will be surprising
if this state of affairs will not be corrected as swiftly as the Navy
Department is able to do so, and thus we may expect to see our young
seamen diverted in ever-increasing numbers to merchant vessels, the
precise degree, of course, to be dependent upon the needs of the
fighting vessels. Young officers, no doubt, will receive commands, and