M. A. DeWolfe Howe
Portuguese troops were fighting in France and the sentiment of the people was very strongly with the Allied cause. They realized that the hope of ultimate victory lay in the tremendous energy with which the United States had finally hurled itself into the war, but there had been no opportunity to behold and applaud the valiant soldiers from across the seas. Now, at length, there came into the harbor of Lisbon two war vessels of the powerful Uncle Sam, a large and graceful yacht and a bulldog of a destroyer, and the blue-clad sailors who flocked ashore were the first to set foot there since Portugal had entered the war. The Corsair and the Preston were something more than storm-tossed ships in quest of a haven. To Lisbon they were a memorable event and one worthy of a celebration.
The colony of foreign diplomats and military officers, British, French, American, Spanish, and all the rest, accepted the entertainment of the American officers and sailors as a social responsibility. And they were quick to recognize the fact that in the war-time American Navy the “gob” was as likely to be a young gentleman of manners and education as the ensign or the lieutenant. Tactfully and easily the barriers of shipboard discipline and ceremony were ignored for the time, and the invitations to teas, garden parties, receptions, and theatres seldom raised lines of distinction between the youthful seaman with the flat cap and the rolling collar, and the gold-striper severely buttoned to the neck in his service blouse. This might have been awkward in some circumstances, but the crew of the Corsair knew how to carry it off. They met the loveliest girls of Lisbon and were gallantly attentive, as was quite proper.
The American Minister to Portugal, Colonel Thomas Birch, fairly adopted the whole ship’s company. They might have been so many long-lost sons and nephews. The Legation belonged to them as long as they stayed in port, and he appeared to enjoy it all as much as they did. Captain Ross, who was representing Gaston, Williams, and Wigmore of New York, was ready with help, advice, and hospitality, and as a host and friend the Corsair found him true blue. The American Consul-General, Mr. W. L. Lowrie, was also most courteous and friendly and took particular pains to make these American exiles feel at home.
In letters written home by one of the petty officers, you may read between the lines and conclude that there might have been worse fates than to be marooned in Lisbon for seven weeks:
December 24th. You cannot imagine what a sensation it is to find yourself all of a sudden walking down fine, broad streets with rows of palm trees, and geraniums and other flowers in bloom. The leaves are falling now and the rainy season is beginning, but as they have had no rain in five months we ought not to complain. There are many picturesque street scenes, flocks of turkeys driven by small boys with long sticks, and if you want a turkey you halt the procession and pick out your bird and carry it home under your arm; little donkeys almost smothered in vegetables are led gingerly along;—everywhere women are selling fish which are carried in baskets upon their heads. Lottery tickets are shoved at you from every corner. A crowd gathers wherever we American sailors stop or loiter, and we are great curiosities. At the best hotel, the Avenida Palace, several of us ran into a bazaar for the benefit of the French and Portuguese war widows and orphans. The American Minister, Colonel Birch, a fine old boy, introduced us to all the girls, English, French, and Portuguese. There were some beauties among them, and although it is a long time since I talked to a girl I sailed right in and had no trouble.
LISBON HARBOR AND THE TUG THAT TOWED THE CORSAIR TO THE DOCKYARD
THE AMERICAN LEGATION AT LISBON, WHERE THE CORSAIR’S CREW FOUND A HOME
I also met the French and Chinese Ministers and talked to them. I get along in French now and carry a conversation with ease. One of the most attractive girls was the daughter of the chief of the British Military Mission, Lieutenant-General Barnardiston, a soldier and gentleman of the finest type. He commanded the British forces which operated with the Japanese at Kaio Chao. Yesterday I saw them after church and met the mother who is an American. She asked us to tea. Four of us went and stayed two hours. The General was tremendously interesting, of course, but he would have been more so if one of our men had not tried to talk him to death.
To-morrow being Christmas, we are trimming the ship with greens and flags and have hoisted a Christmas tree clear to the top of the foremast. Mr. J. P. Morgan, the owner, is very kindly blowing us off to a dinner by cable, and we are looking forward to the occasion. It is the first Christmas away from home and I know how you’ll miss us all, but it should be very joyous because we passed through that hurricane in safety. We have a fine large cat as a mascot and as one of the men said, “Tommy used up eight of his nine lives in the big blow.”
January 2nd. Our gaieties continue and we are having the best time since leaving New York. Colonel Birch gave us a reception at the Legation to meet the diplomatic corps. The officers and fifteen men went from this ship. All nationalities were there, from Brazil, Uruguay, Belgium, Spain, and of course Portuguese, French, and English. It was great fun to meet them, and most of the diplomatic people could talk to us in English. We had some dancing, the first I had done since February, and everybody was in the finest possible spirits. The girls were stunning. The Spanish Minister is a delightful man and has spent a lot of time in Mexico and the United States. Our host, the genial American Minister, resembles former President Taft in size and quality and seemed to be having the time of his life.
New Year’s Eve we were all on board ship and celebrated it in combination with a French destroyer which lay alongside us. At the stroke of midnight we banged out eight bells for the old year and eight more for the new, and then both ships opened up their whistles and we startled the Portuguese with the pandemonium. The Frenchies had a terrific siren. After this outburst we sang the “Marseillaise” together and the effect was stirring. Then we sang the “Star-Spangled Banner,” and the Portuguese sailors who had come aboard from the Navy Yard sang their national anthem and everybody cheered everybody else, and it was a grand old time.
On New Year’s Day I went sight-seeing with a buddy from the ship and visited several cathedrals. In one of them all their dead kings are tucked away, and they lift the lid off so you can look right down at the relics of royalty. As they have been dead for hundreds of years they are none too attractive. We had a fine dinner on board ship in the middle of the day, turkey, mince pie, etc., and another in the evening at the hotel. It is mighty pleasant to have all these distinguished people so polite to us and we also appreciate the attitude and the courtesy of the officers of the Corsair.
January 9th. Last evening six of us called on those delightful English people, the Barnardistons. The Spanish Minister and his two daughters were there. The General played the piano for us and is very musical. Miss Barnardiston played beautifully and the Spanish young ladies also performed. We were represented at the piano by Tibbott who upheld the honor of the Corsair. You ought to see the row of decorations on General Barnardiston’s coat—Victorian Order, Rising Sun of Japan, African Campaign, and so on. Yesterday afternoon we went to tea at the Girards, the French people. The night before we were invited to amateur theatricals at the British Club, given to entertain the Corsair and the Preston and the French destroyer. It was very cleverly done. The actors were Portuguese and the girls were very pretty. They sang, in English, lots of American songs. Between acts they served cake and tea and afterwards we sang the national airs. I was fussed to death to have to get up on the stage and lead the whole outfit in the “Star-Spangled Banner,” giving the key, etc., but our captain made me do it. Our jolly American Minister, Colonel Birch, gave me a wink which made me feel more comfortable.
I went to the English church last Sunday and they had a special service, appointed by the King, to pray for Allied victory, and it was fine. The English always pray for the sailors and soldiers—sailors first. They certainly are devoted to their Navy. After church another man and I went over to the Legation with Colonel Birch and sat around in his biggest armchairs for an hour. He treats us like princes and we can’t say too much in appreciation of all he is doing for us. He is to give us another party next Saturday and we are looking forward to it, for he has promised to have all the charming Portuguese girls there. We are lucky young sea-dogs to have tumbled into all this, and we are having the time of our lives. I was made quartermaster, first class, the other day, and am naturally very much pleased. I shall be glad to get back and finish my examinations for a commission, but since the hurricane little things like that don’t bother me very much. We have not forgotten the storm and still talk about it—all the acts of courage and the many close shaves.
January 14th. Last night there was another dramatic performance by the Portuguese young people, so that the whole ship’s company could see the show. This time I sat with the pretty French girls and it seemed almost like New York. I dropped in to call in the afternoon. We sat in front of a log fire and it was cozy and homelike. Their father, M. Girard, was French Minister to Haiti for two years, during a revolution down there, and had some very unpleasant experiences. The Haitian President was dragged from the Legation and butchered before their eyes, and other acts of savagery committed, but our marines and bluejackets landed soon after and promptly had the situation well in hand.
Ensign Schanze enjoyed himself as much as the rest of them and described the hospitality of Lisbon as follows:
Here we are, still in Portugal, where we have been undergoing extensive repairs and entertainments. Never in all my experience away from home have I come across people who were as strenuously cordial as our hosts of the city of Lisbon. There are two leading social elements, the native Portuguese and the foreign colony. Both have gone the limit to make us welcome and the result has been that we have never had less than two engagements a day, most of the time three.
The usual routine runs about like this—in the forenoon some Portuguese, French, or British officer blows on board to take us in charge to see the points of interest; in the afternoon there is a tea to attend at some one of the various homes or legations; and in the evening there is a dinner party followed by a theatre party or its equivalent. These things do not simply occur frequently. They are daily in their rotation.
We, on our behalf, make our best effort to counter with teas on board the ship; also lunch parties and dinners whenever we can wedge them in crosswise. Functions have become so numerous that the captain has found it necessary to detail certain officers to attend certain festivals daily. There have not been enough of us to go around, even at that. This is the first war that ever made me keep such late hours.
It should not be inferred that life was an incessant round of parties, teas, and receptions for all hands of the Corsair while at Lisbon. Many of the young men had other inclinations and fought shy of “the society stuff.” The city itself was fascinating to those who liked to wander and explore with their eyes open. In groups they loitered through the dark and narrow streets of the ancient quarter of the Alhama or enjoyed the noble prospect of fine buildings and open spaces along the Tagus, or strolled with the colorful crowds in the Praca do Commercio and investigated the luxurious shops and cafés of the Rua Augusta and the Rua da Prata. Automobiles could be hired, and parties of bluejackets might have been seen in the royal palaces, the storied old churches, and the monastery whose walls were built in 1499, on the spot where another sailor, Vasco da Gama, had embarked on a famous voyage two years earlier.
The water-front of every large seaport is notorious for low-browed rascals who look at Jack ashore as easy prey, and it was not in the least to the discredit of the hospitality of Lisbon that a pair of Corsair men should have run afoul of one of these land-sharks when they first hit the beach. The business-like manner in which the youthful seafarers handled the matter discouraged further attempts to molest them. One of the pair mentioned it in his diary:
Got shore liberty and landed in jail one hour later. The way it happened was that the driver of the car we had chartered tried to rob us and we refused to stand for it, so he had us pinched. We explained the case in French to a generalissimo and he turned us loose at once and said we were dead right. He would see that it didn’t happen again. The tough driver was laying for us when we walked back to the ship and he tried to get me with a knife and a machinist’s hammer. Dave stopped him, and I got a big club and we organized to clean up, but a crowd gathered, so we decided to quit and go on our way as a bunch of sailors from the Corsair and Preston hove in sight and were all set to make a battle royal of it. I knew this would get us into serious trouble, although I did hate to let that auto bandit get away with it, so we withdrew in good order.
THE CORSAIR IN DRYDOCK AT LISBON
AT HER MOORING BUOY, BREST
Yeoman Connolly improved the opportunity to see the sights of Lisbon and some of his impressions ran like this:
The city is the finest I have seen in Europe, barring Paris only. The public buildings are works of art and you see splendid architecture everywhere. The street cars are the most modern I have seen since leaving home, but why shouldn’t they be? I was sitting in a car the other night and happened to look around at the advertisements when I alighted on the builder’s name, “John Stephenson, Elizabeth, N.J.” It made me homesick to see the familiar name. I didn’t hesitate to tell some of the Portuguese sitting alongside me that Elizabeth was my home town, and they seemed very much interested.
I was taken through one fine building yesterday by a very distinguished-looking gentleman, elderly and good-natured, who showed a lot of interest in me and who introduced me to the Lord Mayor of the place and to some of the Cabinet members. He himself is a member of the Cabinet and one of the best-known men in Portugal, I later learned. I walked through some of the streets with him and his gold-headed cane, and almost everybody bowed to him or looked at him with awe. He understood English very well and told me a whole lot of the history of the country. As a plain American gob I got all I deserved, and then some.
This is a great old town. I suppose you have heard of the revolution that is going on here. We came just in time to see the skirmishes that are featured daily. A funny thing occurred last night. We were loafing along one of the main avenues when we came to a big bulletin in front of a newspaper office. About a thousand people were gathered in front of it and reading a notice. To catch your eye there was printed a huge hand holding a dagger dripping with blood, and beneath it the announcement of another episode of the revolution which was scheduled to take place on the following Saturday afternoon. Some class to this burg. They are not satisfied with trouble as it comes along, but even advertise it in advance.
We are all going uptown to see a bull-fight on Sunday. They have them two afternoons a week, but we have picked Sunday as we want to take in part two of the revolution as duly announced for to-morrow. In spite of the political rough-house the city is really wonderful and we are very lucky to be laid up here, even if we do miss out on a few weeks of the war. The only thing that gets me is how the deuce to talk this Portuguese lingo. We were all learning French very rapidly and can get along O.K. in that language, but the stuff these people patter is simply terrible to make out. Here we have to turn to and learn a third language, and by the time we return to God’s country we ought to be linguists of note.
The money here is very different from France. It is the reis, not the franc, that demands your careful attention. It takes sixteen hundred reis to make an American dollar, and when you get change for ten dollars or so, you get a basketful of junk that looks like so many United Cigar Store coupons. It costs about a million reis to buy a good meal, but the food is excellent and we get real honest-to-goodness hot rolls, just like back home, but about as big as a football. I brought a dozen back to the batteau last night and when I came to pay for them I handed the gink about seventeen hundred thousand reis, more or less. It makes you swell up and feel richer than Rockefeller to be handing out fortunes in this careless way, and it’s lucky for us, as the ship has not been paid off in the Lord knows when and most of us are flat broke. However, the moving-picture theatres are good and fairly cheap, and Charlie Chaplin is here, and we are allowed to stay ashore until eleven-thirty at night, which is a long liberty for a foreign port.
It was difficult for the officers of the Corsair to maintain the customary round of duty and discipline while the ship was under repair, with a crowd of Portuguese artisans aboard, many distractions ashore, and things more or less upset, but they succeeded in enforcing the high standards of the United States Navy aboard. No more gratifying evidence of this could be desired than the following letter from the Secretary of the Navy:
March 11th, 1918
To Commanding Officer, U.S.S. Corsair.
” ” ” ” Preston.
Subject: Good Behavior of Men in Lisbon.
The Department is much gratified to receive through the State Department an excellent report of the behavior of the men of the Corsair and Preston during their stay in Lisbon. The following is an extract from the letter of the American Minister:
I am sure that the Department will be pleased to know, as well, that all the men behaved splendidly and made a very creditable impression in Lisbon. It is needless for me to say that I was very much gratified by it all and personally felt that our men were worthy of the cordial attention and generous hospitality bestowed upon them by the Portuguese people and others.
This evidence of good discipline reflects credit alike on the officers and men of the ships and on the Naval Service.
(Signed) Josephus Daniels
To be caught in the midst of a Portuguese revolution caused the crew of the Corsair more amusement than alarm, and the only regret was that they could find no lawful excuse for taking a hand in the shindy. It was largely a local affair, between the military and naval forces of the Provisional Government, and Lisbon seemed less disturbed about it than if the street railways had gone on strike. The shooting and commotion were mostly confined to the water-front, and the experience of Quartermaster Bayne, for example, would indicate that the American sailors really enjoyed it:
January 1st. It was my day’s duty on board, so could not go to the party at the American Legation. Everybody said it was a bully good game. We created a large disturbance last night. When we blew our siren to welcome the New Year, it brought the entire town out all standing, as they thought it was the signal for another revolution. The Portuguese troops were ordered out and started to march at the double-quick to the Navy Yard, as they took it for granted that the Navy had touched off an uprising. The situation might have been serious, but some general or other found out that it was us and what we were doing, and the soldiers were ordered back to the barracks. The Lisbon newspapers gave us a write-up, and we ran true to form as the gallant but quite unexpected and unaccountable Americans.
January 4th. This has been an exciting day. I went ashore at two in the afternoon and was to meet the rest of the crowd for dinner at seven. They did not show up, and I learned later that the harbor was so rough that the ships had to shove off and anchor in mid-stream for a while, and no boats could come ashore. I spent the evening at General Barnardiston’s and then started to foot it back to the ship. The gates of the Navy Yard were locked, but the Portuguese guard let me pass through. As I wandered along to the wharf, I noticed that all lights were out in the buildings, but I didn’t think much about it, although several squads of soldiers looked me over pretty carefully.
When I got back aboard the Corsair, I saw that our guns were manned, and I was greeted with, “Thank God, you got through. How did you do it?” I asked what was up, and got this story. The Army and Navy were pulling off another revolution. Fighting had been going on between the War Ministry and the Naval Ministry buildings. Our ship was close to both. One of our coxswains, Lindeburg, was in a motor-boat at the foot of the Army Building and as he left the boat and started to beat it for the ship, he was fired at while running along the wharf. He ducked back to his boat, and the Corsair, getting uneasy about him, ordered a rescue party away. They were shot at, too, and had to seek cover.
This was a bit too much, so the battery was loaded and trained on the buildings, while an armed guard, carrying the Stars and Stripes, marched to both buildings. Meanwhile the captain had sent a radio message to the authorities, demanding an instant explanation and apology for firing on our men. This second party of ours was not attacked and soon returned with the other men. Half an hour later we received an official apology. Knowing nothing about all this ruction, I had walked through the Navy Building, right between the lines, and aboard ship. Copeland and Ashby were with me and for some reason we were not shot at.
That about ended the trouble, as far as we were concerned, but it looked like business for a little while, because if they had fired on our flag we should have knocked their buildings over for sure. I understood that our skipper sent them the message, “If you fire on our flag we shall attack at once.”... During the afternoon the wind and sea had been so high that most of the ships in the harbor dragged their anchors and the French destroyer next to us had to move out after knocking a hole in our side which probably means dry-dock again.
January 7th. The revolution is still on, and we are advised to keep off the streets, more or less, as there is plenty of rifle-firing, and when these Portuguese get excited they mistake our uniforms for their own Navy and so take pot shots at us.... January 8th. Big revolution to-day. The Army opened up with about a hundred shells on the flagship Vasco da Gama, and it was lots of fun. The shells passed almost over us and we watched the scrap. The Navy didn’t shoot back. The shrapnel was falling fast and the ships hauled down their colors. The whole Portuguese Navy tried to crowd aboard the Corsair for protection, but we wouldn’t stand for that. There was a good deal of machine-gun and rifle shooting uptown all day. There was no liberty, but the captain sent for me and five others and gave us special liberty to go to Mme. Girard’s for tea. Had a fine time. We were warned to be careful, as the soldiers fired at any naval uniform they happened to see. They did not bother us, although we passed a lot of infantry heavily armed.
“DOC” LAUB AGREES THAT “THIS IS THE LIFE IF YOU DON’T WEAKEN”
COXSWAIN DAVE TIBBOTT WAITS WITH THE LAUNCH
At dinner ashore, the programme was interrupted by a battle in front of the hotel, and almost everybody, excepting ourselves, left the dining-room because the bullets were popping about. We refused to budge, for there was a corking good dinner on the table and the Portuguese soldiers are pretty rotten shots. They played a dirty German trick to-day. Some of their Navy men shoved off unarmed in small boats and tried to row ashore, but the troops opened fire on them, not far from our ship, and killed a couple of the poor Portuguese gobs. It made us so sore that we felt like cutting loose on them.
January 9th. No revolution to-day. The French officers on the destroyer Intrepide have behaved splendidly to us chaps. Of course, association with enlisted men is unknown in the French service, that is, in a social way. At first they couldn’t quite understand how we happened to meet them at these various teas and receptions, but after a time or two they grasped the situation and have since put themselves out to be agreeable to us.
The report of Commander Kittinger is an accurate and interesting summary of the episodes of this sputtering little revolutionary outbreak in which the Corsair played a part during her pleasant interlude at Lisbon. He wrote as follows:
About 9 P.M., January 4, 1918, the U.S.S. Corsair, being moored to the dock at the Naval Arsenal, desultory small-arms firing broke out in the Naval Compound. The firing was observed to come from the windows of the second floor of the east wing of the building forming the Arsenal Compound. It was reported that the coxswain of the motor dory was in the immediate vicinity, securing his boat for the night. At intervals the firing was resumed, but the object which drew the fire could not be made out from the ship. Lieutenant Commander Porter and Ensign Schanze, with four bluejackets, left the ship for the Arsenal offices to arrange for the safety of the coxswain. On approaching within about fifteen feet of the door in the centre of the north wing, firing was opened, apparently at the Corsair party, from the same place, the bullets hitting the walls and pavement near them. The party entered the building without casualty.
Intermittent firing continued after this. After waiting a reasonable time for the return or for news of the first party, a second party led by Lieutenant McGuire left the ship, carrying a flag. The searchlight from the ship was used to illuminate the flag. This party was not molested and returned with the first party and the coxswain. It developed that the firing came from the windows of the Colonial Office and was directed at Portuguese bluejackets passing across the open space from the shore end of the wharf to the main entrance.
About 11 P.M. a military aide of the President called on board and presented the compliments of that official with the usual courtesies, and inquired as to casualties, if any, in our force. He was informed of what had taken place and that no damage was done. A report of the riot was made to the American Consul-General, Mr. W. L. Lowrie, whose reply is herewith attached:
From American Consul-General, Lisbon,
To Commanding Officer, U.S.S. Corsair.
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your memo. of January 5th concerning the firing in the Arsenal Compound during the evening of January 4th. Personal representations have been made and I trust there will be no recurrence of the rioting, although as you are fully aware conditions here just now are most unsettled. I am extremely thankful that no one was hurt during the rioting and that no damage was done.
Beginning January 3rd it was noticed that conditions in Lisbon were unsettled politically. On that night some rifle-firing took place in the streets between Portuguese sailors and soldiers on patrol duty. Shots were exchanged nightly up to January 8th when the counter-revolution took place. The situation briefly is this:
The Portuguese Navy has been the controlling factor in the politics of the country. The Army has been the opponent, but has been negligible because of its ineffectiveness. The Navy deposed the King in 1910 and set up a Republic which has been perpetuated until the present time, the last incumbent being President Machado. When Portugal entered the war, the Army was largely increased and equipped, and forces were sent to the Western Front and to the Portuguese African colonies. Army preparations continued in Portugal and there is a large mobilization at present.
On December 5, 1917, the Army started a revolution and succeeded in overthrowing the Government two days later, the President being exiled on that date. As a precautionary measure, the naval forces present at Lisbon were disarmed. In spite of this, the Navy prepared plans for a counter-revolution. The present Provisional Government took steps to send the majority of the sailors to the Portuguese African colonies because of the serious reverses suffered by their troops in Africa while fighting the Germans.
The Navy took steps to defeat this manœuvre and on January 8, 1918, the Vasco da Gama (flagship) anchored off Lisbon. At 10.45 A.M. a battery of three field pieces at Saint George’s Castle in the middle of the city, opened fire on the Vasco da Gama. The flagship fired five shots in return and hoisted a red flag under the ensign. The shots of the shore battery were dispersed, but some seemed to strike the ship. Shrapnel and projectile were fired. At 11.10 A.M. the Vasco da Gama hauled down her flag and hoisted a white flag at the foremast and abandoned ship. A number of shots were then fired at the destroyers Douro and Guardiana, which also struck their colors and hoisted white flags. The cruiser Almirante Reis, a transport, and several gunboats did likewise. At 11.20 A.M. firing ceased at the shore battery. Rifle fire continued in the city streets. The Arsenal plant closed down at the beginning of the firing and the workmen employed on board the Corsair stopped about 11 A.M. No further work was done by the Arsenal force that day.
On January 9th (the next day) the Arsenal resumed operations as usual, and I was informed that the trouble was over and work would continue as before. The Vasco da Gama, with the Guardiana and Douro, stood down the river on January 11th, apparently undamaged.
The crew of the Corsair felt a personal interest in the Provisional President, Sidonio Paes, as some of them had sat at the table next to him in the dining-room of the hotel and one or two of the officers had met him at the theatre. One of the street spectacles was a huge parade in honor of Sidonio Paes, and a bluejacket described it as “tremendous enthusiasm, everybody yelling to beat the band and waving their hats, and the Portuguese thought it was great, but it wasn’t as good a show as when the Seventy-First Regiment came back from the Mexican Border and marched up Fifth Avenue.”
What the Corsair considered the big moment of the long stay in Lisbon was when the landing party marched off the yacht to rescue the two officers and the four men who had gone ashore to look for the coxswain and find out what the row was all about. The ship’s searchlight was turned and held to illuminate the bright folds of the Stars and Stripes while the gun crews stood ready for action, every sight-setter, plugman, and shell-handler taut upon his toes and blithely confident that the Corsair could knock the adjacent buildings into a cocked hat.
It was discovered that the first party had been mistaken for Portuguese sailors and fired at from a window only fifty feet distant. The bullets spattered the doorway into which they turned, and they proceeded upstairs to hold emphatic discourse with an excited Portuguese naval officer and the chief of the radio service who were earnestly telephoning to ascertain what the ruction was and who had started it. Coxswain Lindeburg had the largest grievance, however, for he had been almost potted while securing his motor-boat at the wharf, and it was solemnly affirmed that he was combing the bullets out of his hair after being escorted aboard by the comrades who had sallied forth to find him.
It seems extraordinary that in this affair at Lisbon the Corsair should have seen more actual fighting, with rifle and shell fire, than during her many months of active service with the American naval forces in the Great War. And even when the fleets in European waters, under the general direction of Admiral Sims, had increased to four hundred ships and seventy thousand men, none of them saw as much action as this almost bloodless little outbreak in Portugal, as action had been regarded in the days before the German doctrines of submarine warfare. It goes to show how new and vastly different were the problems which had to be solved by the Allied navies.
This does not mean that American ships and sailors went clear of danger and disaster, but almost never was the chance offered to fight the hidden foe. The fine destroyer, Jacob Jones, of the Queenstown flotilla, was blown to pieces by a torpedo and sixty-four officers and men died with her. The Coast Guard vessel Tampa was blown up and vanished with all hands, a crew of more than a hundred. Many a time the naval guard of a merchant steamer stood by their guns and were drowned when the ship went down. These, and the yacht Alcedo, and all the other brave ships which are listed upon the American Navy’s roll of honor, were worthy of the spirit and the traditions of John Paul Jones, although to them was denied the privilege of signalling the enemy, “We have not begun to fight.”
THE CHEERY FRENCH PILOT, LIEUT. MEJECK
CHIEF QUARTERMASTER BENTON
The badly damaged Corsair required a long and costly overhauling to make her ready and fit for service, and this work was undertaken, and well done, by the organization of the Portuguese naval docks and arsenal. With a most admirable spirit of friendship and coöperation between two allies in the struggle against a mutual enemy, the Government of Portugal refused to accept any payment whatever, although every effort was made to obtain a bill for services rendered. Commander Kittinger explains this handsome incident in the following report:
The U.S.S. Corsair arrived at Lisbon, Portugal, on December 19, 1917, in need of repairs to make her seaworthy. The matter was taken up with the Portuguese naval authorities by the American Consul-General and the Commanding Officer. An engineer and a naval constructor were immediately sent off to the ship from the Naval Arsenal to estimate and report. The same day the Director of the Arsenal stated that he could and would do the work, and that the ship would be berthed at the Arsenal on the following day.
As promised, the Arsenal workmen came on board and started the work, and in the afternoon the ship was moored to the Arsenal dock. An estimate of time and cost was requested. The time was estimated at from one month to six weeks, but the cost estimate could not be given. It was suggested that the cost be made actual for labor and material, plus a reasonable overhead. To this the Director replied that the Minister of Marine had ordered the work done free of charge to the U.S. Government, stating that repairs had been done to British and French Government vessels gratis.
The work proceeded rapidly and efficiently. I made periodical calls at the office of the Chief Engineer and Naval Constructor to obtain a cost estimate. This was promised for my information, but never received. Finally I was told that if the Consul-General would write a letter on the subject to the Minister of Marine, the estimate would be given and a basis of payment arranged, but that the money would be turned over to the Red Cross.
The reply to the Consul-General’s letter is herewith attached, the substance of which is a refusal on the part of the Portuguese Government to accept payment.
I requested the Consul-General to keep at the business of trying to obtain a basis of settlement. Later on, I was informed through the Consulate that the Provisional President, to whom the Minister of Marine had referred the matter, had decided to accept payment. This was the status of the question until January 25th, the day before the Corsair’s departure, when the Commanding Officer, accompanied by the Consul-General, made leave-taking calls upon the Arsenal officials.
The Director of the Arsenal at this time stated that he had orders from the President to render no bill to the U.S. Government. As our Government had not recognized the officials in power in Portugal during this time, the American Minister could take no action.
The cost of repairs to the U.S.S. Corsair by the Portuguese Government during the period from December 20th to January 25th is a gift to the U.S. Government.
A translation of the letter in which the naval authorities of Lisbon, with the most courteous obstinacy, decline to permit the Corsair to pay for the valuable services received, reads as follows:
Office of the Minister of Marine
Administration of Repairs and
Equipment, Naval Arsenal
I have the honor to accept the receipt of your communication dated the second instant and to transcribe the decree of the fourth instant by His Excellency, the Minister of Marine, concerning the matter, viz:
The Minister of Marine, appreciating the spirit of the note, No. 830, and taking into consideration the fact that the damages were suffered in the service of the Allied Cause which we jointly defend, and desiring to have the approval of His Excellency, the Consul-General, and therefore of the Government which he represents, has decided that payment cannot be accepted for the repairs made.
It is our pleasure and privilege to give all that is within our power, and we pledge our word to coöperate with our most earnest efforts for the cause of humanity and justice.
(Signed) Pelo, Director
To His Excellency “To our Welfare and Fraternity”
The Consul-General of the
United States of America