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MARINES FROM ADMIRAL SAMPSON'S FLEET, RETURNING FROM A REVIEW ON SHORE, UNDER THE COMMAND OF MAJOR GOODRELL, FLEET COMMANDER OF MARINES.
only a few minutes before. One by one we steamed up to the sleeping monsters, as in darkness and in silence they tugged away at their anchor chains, while the hazy-blue smoke curled out lazily from the funnels, telling of the power of steam that was latent there. Lieutenant Staunton, carrying the great speaking-trumpet, stood in the bow. "'Puritan,' ahoy!" "On board the 'Iowa!'" he shouted.
"Aye, aye, sir," came back the ready reply.
Then followed the invariable order given to battleships and cruisers alike: "The commander-in-chief orders you to get up full steam under all boilers as quickly as possible; when you have steam to make ten knots an hour, move out into the bay and lie to the southward of the flagship; do you understand?"
"Aye, aye, sir."
Did they understand? I think they did. There was a world of difference in the accent of the "Aye" with which the first hail was answered, and the "Aye, aye, sir," with which the reception of the long-awaited orders was confirmed. The lookout men, who had been walking upon their heels like other men when the despatch boat came within hailing distance, rose upon their toes to the order. They seemed to be dancing upon invisible wires before it was given, when only the meaning was guessed at; and when the momentous words were repeated back to us on the despatch boat, their voices seemed strangely changed. And the sound seemed to come not from the deck, but from somewhere way up aloft in the fighting-tops. Yes, as we went from ship to ship, though they tried, as disciplined men, but to repeat by rote, and without expression of feeling, the words of the message, it was all in vain; for a man is not a machine after all, though he live upon a battleship and have there his number and place, just like a rivet or a steel plate. The men tumbled out of their hammocks now, and swarmed over the decks in the performance of their duties; columns of heavy black smoke poured out of the
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ADMIRAL SAMPSON'S FLEET IN DOUBLE COLUMN AT THE ASSEMBLY OFF SAND KEY LIGHT, PREPARATORY TO BEGINNING THE BLOCKADE OF CUBA.
