CHAPTER I.
IN WHICH THE "YANKEE" GOES INTO COMMISSION.
U.S.S.

"NEW HAMPSHIRE," April 26, 1898.
Report at "New Hampshire" immediately, ready to go on board auxiliary cruiser "Yankee." (Signed) JOHN H.BARNARD, Lieut, commanding 3d Division, N.Y.State Naval Militia.
It was this telegram, brief but extremely comprehensive, received early on the morning of the twenty-sixth of April, which sent me post-haste to the old receiving-ship "New Hampshire," moored at the end of an East River dock.

The telegram had been anxiously expected for several days by the members of the First Battalion, and when I reached the ship I found the decks thronged with excited groups.
"War was a certainty, and the very air was filled with rumors.

The prevailing topic was discussed from every point of view, and within sixty seconds as many destinations had been picked out for the 'Yankee.' It was variously reported that she was to go to Havana, to Manila, to Porto Rico, and even to Spain.

This last rumor brought shouts of laughter, and 'Stump,' as we termed him, a well-known young insurance broker of New York, remarked, in his characteristic way: "It probably won't be this particular 'Yankee,' boys, that will go there, but there'll be others." There was much cleaning of kits and furbishing of cutlasses.