FATE OF THE GERMAN SUBMARINE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2920, 4 November 1916, Page 6

FATE OF THE GERMAN SUBMARINE

RECORD OF BRITISH EFFICIENCY

SLOW BUT SURE METHODS

(By Alfred No.ves, in the "Morning Post.")

JTlio rosiuiiptioii of German soa piracies lately lends a special inforpst to tho following articles (of which this is tho first), by Mr. Alfred Noyes, tho well-known poet.]

There is a talo in Devonshire that Sir Francis Drako bas not merely listened for his drum during tho laeb Uirco hundred years, but lias also heard and answered it ou morn than ono naval occasion. It was hoard, as the men-of tho Brixham trawlers oau testify, about a hundred years ago, when a. little man, under tho pseudonym of kelson (for all Devonshire knows that Nelson wajs a reincarnation of Sir Francis) went sailing by to Trafalgar. Ask of the Devonshire men, For they heard, iu the dead of night, i Tho roll of a drum, and they saw him 1 pass, On a sbit> ajl. shining white/ . Ho stretched out his dead cold face, And he sailed in the grand old WU*. Tho fishes had taken an cya and an arm; But ho swept Trafalgar's bay! It was only a littlo beforo tho groat; Baval 'action in tho ..North Sea—perJiaps the'groat British victory since Trafalgar—that word came from tho Brixham • trawlers again. They Lad "heard Drake's drum beat,'.''and wero

now'assured that'the ghost of Sir Frances Drako was inhabiting the body of Sir John! Jcllieoe. There is good reason why;tho.trawlers should be aware of this first ; fpr it is among tbo three thousand _ o<id trawlers, drifters, and other fishing craft of the British auxiliary fleet that tho seamen who broke the Armada would find themselves most at home to-day. In this hoßt of auxiliaries England has, in fact, brought to life again and organised on a huge scale, with certain modern improvements, the men and the fleets of Drako and Hawkins; and it is these fleets and these mn that' have struck terror into tho German submarines and driven them from "the seas. The Weapon of Silence.

There lias been, some discussion in America as. to whether Mr. Wilson's Notes, or somo other more secrot and certain power, caused the Germans to abandon their deadliest sea-weapon. Inasmuch as this weapon ceased to troublo tho English a littlo earlier than it ceased to sink neutrals, tho latter alternative might bo accepted as probable, even witliout further Knowledge, but further knowledge absolutely confirms- this probability. Nothing is more striking in the conduct of this war than tho way in which the British method of '.'slow aud sure" justified itself. Tho superficial clamour for sudden and sensational proofs of'"what England is doing" began in tho first fortnight of the war. Neutral countries oven wondered why the'first month of the war had produced no great historian. In the meantime, England was making the history of the next thousand years; and that can only bo done ou vast and deeply sunkefU foundations, which must be laid 111 silence. Results, and solid results, of granite and oak were England's aim. Thosd-aro now appearing; and while her great new armies are demonstrating what England has created on that side, it is now possible to give a glimpse of the far-reaching method that destroyed the menace of the German submarine. It was done in silence, and silence was olio of the weapons. .Submarines •weiit out and never returned. Other submarines went out, perplexed, against a mystery; and these, too, never returned, or returned in mysteriously diminishing numbers. Nothing was said about it till tho destruction of the fiftieth was quietly celebrated at a small gathering -in London; and then neutrals began to inquire, with a new.note of curiosity, "What is England doing?" Wo heard tales of steel nets—as vaguo as tho results would have been but for certain great prelim-

inaries of w'hich wo nevor heard. A fow days ago I had the opportunity of seeing the unfinished system, and this throw a flood' of light on the immense work that must have gono before in oven this one branch of our sea-war-fare. An Auxiliary Fleet. To begin with, a body of men, larger thaii the United States Army, was chosen from the longshoro fishermen and 'trawler crews. They were gradually drilled, disciplined, and trained), and put into naval uniform. This force is now over a hundred thousand strong. They were chosen, of courso, on an entirely different principle from that of the Army. They were tough sea dogs, of all ages, inured to all the way's of the sea, but not at all to any form of discipline. This in itself implies very great preliminaries, for the finished product is fit to mau a battleship.

In the moantimo, their fishing-boats, trawlers, and/ drifters wero gradually taken over by tho Government and fitted 1 out for the hunt, some three thousand of them. To tlioso were added a fleet of fast motor-boais,. specially built for scouting purposes. They were stationed at various points all round tho island. Nighfand day, in all weathers, section replacing scction, theso trawlers and! drifters string thoinsoives out from coaßt to .coast; while on shore thousands of workers are turning out their own special munitions and equipment— nets, mines, and a dozen mysteries which may not bo mentioned." From one of their bases a patrol-boat took me out along one of the longest lines of tho flotilla. This innocent line of trawlers, strung out for some fifty jnilos, had more niglftmaies in store for the German submaniio than a fleet of battleships. It was an odd: sensaj tion to approach trawler after trawler and note the one obviously unusual feature of each—the menacing black giui at how and stem. They were good guns, too—English, French, and ,lapaneso. The patrol-boat carried a Hotcllkiss, and most of tho trawlers had equally efficient weapons. Thoro wore other unusual features in every trawler, drifter, and' whaler, features that mado one catch ono's breath whon their significance was realised. About this I may say very littlo; but in tho matter of tho nets it was demonstrated to mo that within twenty-five minutes any submarine reported in most of our homo waters can be enclosed in a steel trap from which there is no escape. The vaguo rumours that we heard in tho earlier stages of tho war led one to suppose that these nets might ho used perhaps in the English Channel and other narrow waters. But I liavo seen traps a hundred miles long, traps that could shift their position and change their shape at a signal. A submarine may enter their seas, indeed, and even go to America. Sho may even do some damage within their linos. But, if sho does this, her position is known, and, if there be any futuro damage done, it will probably have to bo done by another submarine. For she has called upon a thousand perils, ffom every point of the compass, to close upon her return journey. [ have actually 6eon tho course of a German submarine-rwhich thought itself undiscovered —marked from day to day on the chart at an English base. The cluos to all tho ramifications of this work are hold by a- few men at the Admiralty in Loadon. Telephone and

telegraph keep them in constant touch with every seaport in tho Kingdom. But lot the reader consider tho amount of quiet organisation that went before all this. Even tho manufacture of tho nets—which do not last for over t ovon when made—is an industry in itself; and that is ono of the least of a thousand activities. We boardod one of tho

trawlers just as her nets were running out, and at the etui of twenty' minutes, when tho long, dwindling line'of fishing craft had "dressed" itself, from the British coast to tho coast opposite, all that was necessary was to wait for visitors. for thefr welcome, ono skipSor remarked to mo, cheerfully: "I on't know about tho others, but I've killed toll," What Wo Oo for Neutrals.

Throughout this work or the auxiliary fleet, it is \vortli noting, that in their records of rescue and salvage a good half of their oaro is devoted to the sLips of neutral. It is, England that sweeps the sea for mines, marks them off. on her charts, warns, delays, and guides the traffic of the world through a thousand unknown perils. And England has piftd the price for it, while the neutral traffic is held up for an hour or two, as at tlio lifting of a policeman's hand, the mines are removed; but sometimes those who'remove them arc awaited in vain by their homes iii tlio little soa- • ports. That iieutrals are not altogether i'orgotful of the fact is shown ty the exceedingly , gonerous subscriptions ■..raised on the Atlantic liners among Americans and others for the widows and' orphansof the mine sweepers. On olio Dutch liner recently over a thousand dollars was contributed .for this purpose in half an hour by the passengers at breakfast, who liad come uflidisturbed through waters full of menace. But neutrals have not always escaped; and, in talking to the men on these trawlers, I was struck by the fact that a large proportion of their tales referred—as I have said aboveto the salvage or the actual saving of neutral ships. Often, a 6 in the case of the Falaba, the roscue work is attended with many perils to the auxiliary concorned. From the Fnlaba a hundred and sixteen persons were tescued; and the drifter was "bilged," a phrase that-, in this case, meant "almost foundered." On a few occasions the huntors have themselves been trapped. Three men, taken off a trawler, by a submarine, endured an eighty hour? nightmare under the sea that shattered tlio mind of one, and left permanent traces on the other two. _ Periodically revolvers were put to their heads, and they were ordered, on pain of death, to tell all they know of our naval dispositions. They saw a good deal of the internal routine of the German submarine also; and noted, characteristically, that the German crew—on this boat at any rate —were very "jumpy," too "jumpy" even to take a square meal. They munched biscuits at their, stations at odd moments. On the third morning they heard guns going overhead, and watcnod the Germans handing out shells to their own guns. Finally a torpedo was fired, and they heard it take effect. Then they emerged into the red wash of dawn and saw only the floating wreckage of the big ship that had been sunk, and, amongst the wreckage, a. shall boat. They were bundled into this, told they were free to row to England or Nineveh, and the submainno left them—three longshore fishermen, who had passed through the latest invention of tho iuodani scientific devilj two who could still pul at tho oarS] but the other too crazy to steer, as his little personal part of. the price paid by England for sweeping and patrolling the seas of civilisation. Many were the tales of neutrals, towed to port, battered but safe, by these indefatigable auxiliaries. One was towed in upside down, by fixing an English anchor in one of her German-made shell-holes; she was towed for a hundred miles, at a quarter of a knot aa hour, and arrived for the Admiral at tho base to make his inspection.

Wisdom of the Serpent,

But, even with neutrals, the auxiliary fleet finds it necessary sometimes to add the wisdom of the serpent to its general philanthropy. On one occasion a, neutral tank steamer was overhauled. She was believed to bo carrying suspiciously large supplies to a suspiciously vague destination, but was allowed to proceed for political reasons, and in tho name of tho freedom of the seas.. Nevertheless, with innocent fishing bouts' dotting our waters at intervals of half a mile, and wiroIcss telegraphy to help them, tho sea has almost as many oyes and ears today ae it has fishes; and at dusk a drifter rolled up to our neutral friend again. "Begorra, it's twins!" said tho gunner, training his twelvo-pounder on to her; and twins it was. For, tucked close under either quarter, lay a German submarine, quietly being fed. Bofore they could submerge of bunk away tho crew of tho drifter had boarded tho neutral and had persuaded the submarines, with the help of a. down revolvers, that they were prisoners of VR The skipper of another trawler that wo hoarded was a quiet-voiced man, with eyes that looked into the distance. There wero suppressed tears in them, very sternly suppressed, as ho told mo that his brother had been killed, with ail hands, on the mine-sweeper noxt to his own only a few weeks ago. Ho also told me—and I wished that Americans could have heard him —of the German attack upon the American ship tho Gulflisht, which he had seen from his own fishing hoat. The German submarine was half-way between himself and tho Gulflight, which was flying the American fins, could ho recognised at four times the distance. Tho evidence of this man and his crcw had never been asked or taken ; lnit he gave nio one significant pieco of'it—tho fur cap of one of the lost American seamen. which he hud picked up. Even this bedraggled relic of a tragedy threw a new and sharper light 011 the position of neutrals. _ No men were ever more clearlv entitled lo' go on tlbeir ways unmolested than the crew of this

nll-Aniericon merchant ship. There was 110 mistake possible, no excuse, and 110 ground for nanlou. in that one anarchist act of the German Navy. Fato of an American Ship.

The attack on tho American steamship Gulflight waß narrated to mo as follows by 'tho skipper of His Majesty's drifter Contrive. lam sorry it has not tho violent literary qualities which literary mon call realism. Sailors havo not yet learned the trick; and those who desire reality will know that the conventional expressions of this very plain yarn aro at least true, and tho speaker, the sort of man who would send his kind regards to a friend from his death-bed.

"At tho time of the incident I was serving as a skipper of a vessel fishing out of Lowestoft. Wo wero lying to our nets about nine miles off tho Scillys. In fact, wo could see tho Scillys, as it was a very clear day, witli a blue sky and a fresh breeze. Many vessels had passed us during the day, and the scene was so peaceful that you could almost imagine wo wero still' at peace with everyone, and that such things as submarines and mines and 'stieh like' never existed. Of course,' I knew better, and I had good reason to remember the day the Gorman licet came to bombard my nativo homo. They weron't allowed to remain over long, as they wero chased back to port; but they stayed long enough lo sow a largo minefiold in tho way of shipping. My brother was then a. naval shipper in command of His Majesty's drifter Will and Maggie—ho met his death trying to sweep up those I mines, and his ship and his crew went [ with him. I've Been their submarines

before, although when 1 did seo them tliey were too busy trying to evade our patrols to try to sink my littlo ship. You must remember that 1 was then engaged in fishing, and could only rely ou my stout stem to attack one. One night just about sunset I saw ono. Sho passed quite close to us—not morn than ono and a half miles, I should say. Sho was a great big chap with two guns and a lot of tho crow on dock —that was about 60 miles from the Seven Stones Light Ship. "Well, to continno. My vessel, funnily enough, was called Our Friend, and, before tho eud of tho day, It was our luck to prove our friendship for our friends across tho water. As I was saying, we had shot our nets; and, about noon, wo saw a largo tanksteamer coming up channel at a good pace. Sho was coming in our direction, and I 6oon saw hor colours, the Stars and Stripes, at tho stern—a fine big ensign it was and spread out liko a board. When sho was about two miles off, to my horror, I saw a submarine omergo from the depths and cbme right to tho surface. There was no sign of lifo on tbo submarine, but she lay stationary, rising and falling in the trjnigh; and I knew instinctively that sho was watching tho steamor. She had undoubtedly come from the same direction as that in which the steamer was going, and it did not take mo long to realise what had actually

happened. I took in the situation at a glanco. Tho submarine had passed tho Gulflight (for that proved to bo her name). She had deliberately increased speed to lie in wait for her, and get a suro target, rather than attempt to fire a torpedo when overhauling hor, with the possible chanco o1 mi6sing, and wasting ono of those expensive weapons, even on an American." A Deliberate Act. "Tbo submarine was .painted light grey and had two'guns; but I could not see any number. For five minutes she lay motionless—and then, having fixed! the position of hor prey, and taken her speed into consideration, sbo slowly submerged in its direction. I knew what was coming, and it came—a dnll, heavy explosion and a silence, and then as if to seo the result of her handi-' work the submarine again appeared. She did not stay up long, as smoke was soon seen on tne horizon, and I knew the patrols had been looking for her. She knew it, too—and submerged. I hauled! in my nets, and proceeded at full speed to the sinking ship to try and save tho lives of tho crew. Out boat was launched, and I went aboard. By this time tho Gulflight's bows were well down and her fore decks awash, and she looked as if she would sink at any "minute. She was badly holed in her fore part. The Huns, I thought, had done, their work well. "Ten minutes later I saw the patrol vessels racing up for all they were worth, and one of these vessels took off the crew, two of whom were drowned. Tho captain of the Gulflight died' of shock. Soon four patrol, vessels were on the spot; and three of these vessels put men aboard with wires in double quick time. The fourth—a big trawler, with wireless (which I now know in naval langauge as a 'Trawler Leader') —steamed: round and round in the vicinity, keeping a careful watch. In less than two hours the Gulflight, her Stars and Stripes still flying above water, was being towed at a -good speed to port, with the trawlers m attendance. That is all I have to tell; vet my story is perfectly true in every detail. Later on I went to Penzance, and found that tho crew of the Gulflight were receiving every comfort and hospitality from the Senior Naval Officer, and! wcro very pleased with themselves." '