James R Driscoll

The Brighton Boys in the Submarine Treasure Ship James R Driscoll

"LOOK, Dick, what's that out there in the water right on the line of that ventilator?" Jay Thacker, ensign in the Navy of the United States, veteran of many months' service in the grand fleet of the American Admiral Sims in European waters, grabbed his old chum Dick Monaghan by the coat sleeve and pointed a long lean finger out to the open expanse of sea. The two bronzed boys, rugged and fit after their experiences of the Great War, erect and sturdy looking in their natty uniforms, stood on the aft deck of the giant Leviathan, United States army transport, once the pride of the German merchant marine, now a carrier of men and merchandise sailing under the Stars and Stripes. Homeward bound were they after two years' service in the naval branch of their country's armed forces. Once ordinary seamen Richard Monaghan and Jay Thacker, back in the days when they had left Brighton Academy on a balmy spring morning to enlist in the Navy, they were coming back Ensigns Monaghan and Thacker, if you please! By virtue of their splendid records while with the American fleet, they had won the deserved promotions that had brought them to their present rank.