THE Q-BOATS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 123, 18 February 1919, Page 5

THE Q-BOATS

MYSTERY SHIP ON EXHIBITION , During Christmas week the "mystery ship" Hyderabad was moored m the Ship Canal at Manchester,, and .visitors were able to gain eome knowledge of the. strangest and most desperate side of the . war with the submarines.- The .Hydera-. bad is a vessel 250 ft: 'long and carrying, two in. and two 12-poundcr guns, bhe, looks like anything but what she really. The secrecy required for "the. Trade" . .. was of the deepest. ■: Ott« comj mander described; to me (wiMS J.ti. ; in tho "Manchester Guardian" -how at his base ho never went near the Naval Club met no other officers, and visited t and took his instructions direct from a high authority instead of m the usual service, way. His friends passed him. in his disguise without the lightest suspicion that he ■ was ■ ; not. what he seemed; His men, too, when in port lived strictly up to their disguise. It was not so in all ports, but ia the larger bases it was essential.- .... Tho understanding between officers and crew was unusually close. The men were all volunteers, aid their lives were to an unusual, hands of their commander.-; ■'JTlierj- were many 11.N.8. nicn among'the'erews, and they :, enjoyed exaggerating the characteristics e of their former life in cargo.boats..., ~ Tho commanders took tlie utmost care in every detail. "I thoiight,"pone ■ fftinons commander told me, that 1 should like to have a nigger in my 'abandon ship' party. 1 thought it would look better and more natural for assort of ship. A nigger, you know, somehow rounds off. a boat's crew. I got permission, and had a look at nil the niggers in.the harbour. There was one big chap, and I asked him if he. would like to coineonspecialship work. I said ( he would have a difficult time, and he . replied, 'Oh, J know about torpedoes. I havo been torpedoed two times. ■ Hβ, proved a useful and a pretty touch in our movie show." Xho enthusiasm of, the Q-ship captains for their 'men 18 beyond ordinary. . „ There were cases-where a second abandon ship" party liad to be sent off andthe wreck of the ship was almost swallowed up when her final screen was. slid off and her shot got home. _ There was the rase of the Salvia, which, was struck by a' torpedo and her depthcharges exploded, wrecking the poop and throwing the lin. gun overboard and the ■ engines out of action. The enemy came to the surface, shelled the ship, and the . remainder of the crew had to jump over in Cariey floats. The submarine closed villi tin , ' floats and took the captain prisoner. Five men were killed. . 'lhis failure—tliurc were not many of them—gives one the clearest idea of the dangers of the special "trade." ■ ■■• ■ The Q-ship Mitchell,. on, the other hand, got two .submarines in one day. .A submarine camo after her. coming at full speed dead astern, and submerged • when the range was getting good:— "When he was about fifty, yards off he suddenly went full speed' ahead for twenty yards, and then.putting helm hard a etnrboard began to rise quickly. As 'the top of his conning-tower appeared, Mitchell cleared away, hoisted the, flag, and when almost two feet of his bull were up the after-gun hit him three or four feet below the conning-tower, piercing the rounded side about a foot above the water. A lnrge blue flash and a volume of yellow vapour came from the hole. . . . There was it cloud of black smoke; yellow 'smoke, steam, and spray as the submarine seemed to give a convulsive lurch forward and go down by the head, listing heavily to port with a loud gurgling and hissing noise. Oil, large bubbles, and eddying were observed." ; ' ■ ■ ■ i This is the best description of the death-throes of a submarine that appears in these terse and grim records. The second submarine came to its end in this way.— : , . ....... .■ «

"Altogether twenty rounds were fii*d at. him, and he submerged to deck, level, then rose Quickly nbout eight feet, iind, turning over, descended sten\ first with bow well out of tlie water."-