BLOCKING HOSTILE PORTS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 248, 8 July 1918, Page 6

BLOCKING HOSTILE PORTS

r. » j s A HAZARDOUS ENTERPRISE. ( l Tho operation of blocking d hostile a port with ships laden with stone or conj" s crete is one which makes the severest demands on the courage of crews and ; n the skill of leaders, but which has vea_ peatedly been attempted in the course of history. In the Peloponnesian War, in , r Crusading times, in the struggles with n the Turks, such vessels were used to close the narrow entrance to enemy har(j hours. During the blockade of Boulogne, iu 1801, a similar plan was con- ; eidered by the British Admiralty, but j was not carried out. , In the American Civil War the North |._- in January, 1862, blocked the entrances •_ to the Confederate port of Savannah for a time by sinking across the channel 11 j number of hulks filled with stones. 3 _ Other attempts of the samo kind were J made at other ports without eitcces3. The recollection of these enterprises ; doubtless led Admiral Sampson in the war of 1898 between the United States 3 _ and Spain, to attempt in tho same fashion " tho dosing of the entrance to the port j of Santiago; where a Spanish squadron under Admiral Cervera lay. . Tho collier Merrimac was prepared for , the business by Lieutenant Richmond P. V Hobson. She was nearly full of coal, , Riid her crew were all volunteers. She • was to be sunk at the appointed place by ten mines fitted in her hull, but s these were not properly installed. On ; -lime 2, 1898, she steamed in at 3.80 a.m., >" moving at only nine knots under a bright " moon. The batteries opened on her as [t 1, "^γ* 1 tije entrance, but she reached » vLi'lJ ded T . most e ßllantl y ° handled by Lieutenant Hobson, and if halt the mines had not failed to explode I she might have blocked the channel. As y aw ing round leaving a considerable _ pas ..age. Hobson and the rest of her r Z\™ taken prisoners, and most chivd n ? y fl iTm l e i- Ccrvera «™ sent a out a flag of truce to inform Admiral Slemln. and Amencans ' f °«e« like e desperate attempts were made « by the Japanese m Mi' to seal the narr row entrance to Port Arthur ty sinking ■ g^wp^ a. J£ h be€ , n '''Mayed in such au entera pnse nnd yet every one of these Japan MWf* The fir6t S !, o? ° ] $ Ja P ane se steamers on Feb. o Hirl T) de T l ' ,e ° rd 7 S Of O»"nand« " Uirose. ihe Japanese found that in thu o S «" ,¥>** searchlights it waV Dl o 3 t ° Mhcnlt to _ judge distances or to reacl eil iu on them a terrific fire; three shins o were disabled before reaching the en i- ~ J } i S, Ollly one ,vork « d her way in, and she was not sunk in tho right 0 this aftair 10 were killed • d M ' rhe , J . ft P jei'eated the attempt on ? March 2fi with four old vessels and the t same officer* ,„ command :s on the p™. a nous oocaeion. "I feel," said Captain J >,^ lsuh ' r ?' addnssine; the volunteers for _ l this aftair, in ordering you, upon this , mission as I should if I°wero sending my 0 own beloved children to death. Yet had ■Lα hundred children I could not but f wish that they might all have the privilege of undertaking an errand so heo-oic; had I but one child I should yet pray that this one might bo chosen to faco. death m the performance of a mission. - so glonons." Under a fearful fire in ; which Hiroso perished maintaining '_ to the last his reputation as the bravest -■ ot the brave in Hie Japanese Navy, the ships were sunk at the appointed places, L but the channel was not closed us it had been widened by Russian dredging wl'icli had been carried on without the knowj ledgo of the Japanese. A la*t attempt was made on May 3 '■ with eight steamers, but despite all the gallantry of the officers and men concerned tho channel was etill incompletely 1 blocked. Vor the moment, however, it ' was difficult or impossible for large Rits- ; sian ehips to get out, and during this j critical period very important military and naval operations were carried out r with great success to cut Port; Arthur , cff. The record of such operations suggests ' two conclusions: 'that they requiire the [ highest discipline rnd the most splendid ' gallantry in the crews engaged, and that j tho difficulty of closing a channel with , sii.iikpn ships is very great, and is in- . creiteing with the development of artillery, mines, jiml torpedoes.