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Show FACTS ABOUT NAVY V-l at B. A. C. During the next few weeks we will feature In this column facts about the various fighting ships that may give the V-l enlistee a better Idea of what the various ships are like. -USN- "Tin Cans" First choice o f approximately forty-five per cent of all officers, the "tin-cans' or destroyers are listed at 35 knots plus average 300 to 340 feet in leng.h, carry crews of 150 to 200 men and roll from side to side once every eight seconds. sec-onds. The old superstition of a piece of zinc In one shoe and n piece of copper in the other as a preventative of seasickness has no practical basis but sin:e the pitching pitch-ing of a ship rather than the rolling roll-ing produces seas'ekness the new arrival aboard a destroyer won't find this rolling unpleasant. No officer chooses dmy in a destroyer de-stroyer for a lazy life. The destroyer destroy-er belongs in the classification of the "dungaree Navy" that is made up of adventurous crews desiring action and a chance for glory. The crews who go down to the sea in little ships can usually be spotted ashore by their cockiness and a certain swagger not noticeable a-mong a-mong sailors who man the larger vessels. In action, destroyers are used for laying smoke screens around the slower and heavier units of the fleet, make use of depth charges as an offensive weapon against submarines, sub-marines, carry sixteen 21-lnch torpedo tor-pedo tubes that fire their cigar like projectiles by means of compressed com-pressed air or explosives and mount heavy machine guns In addition to four 5-inch guns. |