WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 199, 11 May 1918, Page 7

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

HAD THF. GTOR-MANR REALISED TKEIIt OPPORTUNITY.

How seriously the German subniarino might havo crippled the Britsh Navy in the'early" days of" the war, when there was not a'single British naval harbour protected from'submarine attack, was told by Lord JWlicoe, formerly First Sea Lord of tho Admiralty, in a speech at the annual meeting in February of tho Hull Sailors' Orphanage. "The work of the fleet was a good deal more arduous in'the early days of the war than it has been since," said Lord' Jellicoe. "In those days there were; no bases protected I'iom subniarino attack, and tho fleet was hunted from pillar to post to find security to carry out the necessary operations of coaling. Somo of the coaling operations' wero performed under very exciting conditions, the base being open to any submarine that cared to come in. '

"If tho Germans knew it, they never had the pluck to try it. Jf they had doho'so they-might have reaped a rich harvest. But we always had to bo thinking of the possibility of such attack, and whenever I'was inside a base I spont many anxious moments, and some very amusing moments—amusing to look back upon, ] mean, but not amusing at tho time. There were constant scares of. submarines, and wc knew that if a submarine got r'nsido tho 1 harbour it might sink a battleship with each of tho lon or twelve torpedoes it carried. Put yourself in such a position, and you may bo able to appreciate tho anxiety that wa3 felt whenever a signal was given that a submarine had been sighted near by.

"As usual in timo of anxiety we called upon the merchant marine, und an ar. rnngcmoiit was mndo that if a submarino got insido a base Merchant ships should placo themselves i.longside until the warships could i;et under way. Then, if the torpedoes wore fired, the merchant ships would receive them.instead of the battle, ships. That was tho arrangomont. Tho merchant marine, ns usual, did exactly what they wcro asked. Scores of small craft dashed, about the harbour at full speed to keen tho submarine under water, and if they iiaw.it to endeavour to ram it. It. was extraordinary, having regard to the conditions of sen and weather, that many collisions did not occur. Tho skill with which the whole programme was carried out time after time was a great testimony to tho seamanship of thoso.in charge of tho trawlers and bigger ships.