THE NORTHERN PATROL.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 132, 14 January 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE NORTHERN PATROL.

HOW BRITAIN'S NAVAL BLOCKADE IS MAINTAINED

In all her pians of naval war Germany reckoned on the British blockade of her commerce being imperfect, that a certain number of swift merchant ships would be able to slip through the long line between Scotland and Norway. Certainly if Britain had depended on her regular war-craft plus the auxiliary fleet such a thing might have happened. But immediately war broke out hundreds of swift pleasure yachts, of fish parriers accustomed to racing through heavy seas, of fast trawlers and drifters, were enrolled and given light armament as additional patrol ships. And they closed the great "North-a'uout" door to both block-ade-runners and enemy mine-layers, and often put a period—sometimes a final step—to the raids ot the submarines. Germany had again blundered, and the cost of her blunder was the extinction of her commerce. CEASELESS VIGILANCE. In the village-ports of the far North, in tedious railway journeys through and beyond the Grampians one has talked to many men of the patrol fleet, and grim stories they have had to tell. Their life is by no means one of ease and security, for beside ceaseless voyaging and vigilance for strange craft, they have to cover with their light guns the minesweepers and the craft which are planting destruction in the way of the canal boats and their submarines. Or, by way of a change, a whole flotilla may dash to within a few miles of the German coast —there is information needed, and obtained, though the big guns of Heligoland and of the mainland forts growl and the submarines come nosing out of the boom-defended channels. A torpedo or two may be launched from these furtive war craft, but they do not desire close acquaintance with the patrol fleet in fighting trim. Too many U's have been entrapped by clever battle evolutions. Back r.ml forward, in and out, at this and that, will go the patrol ships. cntil the submarine lieutenant puts out his periscope to locate a victim, and is greeted by a shower of small shells. Lucky for him if his tanks can be emptied swift enough to bring his craft awash before the water leaking through the broken deck weighs submarine and crew down to the bottom. Or it may be that some patrol boat gliding at five-and-twmty knots is smartly deflected tc that, furtive black object; there is a grinding sound along her keel, an ui.rise of oil and air, and another U boat has gone to balance the leoovrt which our patrol men have against the enemy.

and shattered, our patrol ships come home. What crowds of craft there are, working .along the Atlantic lane from Liverpool to the territorial waters off Sandy Hook, from Bristol to Gibraltar, along the .Mediterranean trade routes and away across to the West Indies and down to the Cape. And what a variety of shipping—the tiny motor yacht, which guards the outer edge ot the estuary minefields, and is more a police appanage to catch the wily signaller from land or the spy whose trick it is to get out to sea on a longshore fishing boat; the fish-carrier, which swings rapidly up and down the trade route from Newcastle to Christiania; the fast trawler which can slip in behind Heligoland; the yacht of the wealthy man, which never ceases its gliding between the Hebrides and the edge of Norway; the armed liner, able '.o call any "tramp" to account. And the more sinister ships—those which in old times were "of the line." but are now aged and out-of-date. Yet their guns, their torpedoes, their speed and seaworthiness are but little imuaired for the new purpose in hand.

Every class of warship built l:y Britain is represented in these patrois and even the German battle cruisers are not quite easy about their present* afloat of the old heavy-weight. It is possible that improved guns have been shipped on them since the dread game of war oegan. The sec-ond-class ships of the enemy will do well to avoid these seasoned craft. for they ere well handled, well equipped, and fighting snips to the core. There are torpedo-boat destroyers in the patrol fleet which once held records (since surpassed) for speed and handiness. Should such a craft glide within torpedoing range of a floating fort her message will be just as effective as if launched by the newest craft in the ?ervke.

TALES THAT .MAY NOT BE TOI.D

One would like to write of adventures told by men of the Northern patrol, but the Censor forbids so much. Yet one may say that dining the first winter of the war more than one ship held he* 1 course against the railing Atlantic for four months without rest or relief. A grim task, with never a friend or an enemy sh:„' in sight. A dangerous one. too. for the gales seethed around night till day, and the decks were deluged with great wa'ves. Yet so vigilant t'rat the alien steamer, tearing along, without showing a light, was detected and arrested. Up there, on the Northern patrol, winter is indeed a time of darkness, for the sun scarce reaches the horizon at all on some days. And at best day is but a feeble glimmer between two deserts of darkness.

WATCHING FOR CONTRABAND. Another duty of the patrol boats is to hold up every merchantman bound" for enemy or neutral ports. But Germany has long disappeared from the list of importing nations, so ♦here are only ships now for the neutral lands to deal with. With the breaking up of the enemy's fleet of commerce raiders, their consorts with coal and stores—yes, sometimes out of British ports and rtying the British flag—also went. And the "trawler," with her shelves and holds full of enemy mines, has also departed, thanks to the patrol fleet. No ship seems atle to spend a day on the North Sea without coming under observation. The good ships pass quietly on, and are even convoyed for leagues, but for the sinners, with their cargoes of contraband, there is arrest. #ne has watched a great tramp steam slowly and unwillingly into some northern roadstead with no more escort than a snudl yacht. But that has indicated nothing of the ex. citing time out or. the open sea. Then the big ship, going at her best speed, ignored the signals of some "darned cock-boat," and was making merry way towards the Land of Fjords. The knots were reeled off rapidlv, more and more pressure given "the engines, until the little patrol craft apparently gave up the chase. And then away in front rose the stumpy mast of some destroyer too old and slow for the fighting line, but still ..amble enough to outdistance any merchant steamer. Armed, too, with powerful guns, and •with torpedoes waiting in their tubes to make assurance doubly su re British might and British power the sign manual of the Empire of the Sea. Sullenly, as a flatran up, the tramp's captain rang oil his engines, and a minute later she rolled through the swell, steam hissing through her safety valves, her onsines a t rest. The rest of that ship's story is told to a judge in son- Prize Court, for on board she has enough forbidden stuff to condemn her from keel to topmast, and her papers are a study in ingenious dishonesty.

One patrol went regularly up past the Norwegian coast, until in the clear air there was seen the gleam of floating ice-fields. Another patrol held a thousand miles of unfrequented Atlantic, and was never in eight of land. A few patrol ships ran into the narrow firths of the North and of the islands for shelter when the storms could not be faced, but at the first ease in the gale they were out ajraTn to do duty. And little escaped tliem.

Much of the re-fitting, the reprovisioning, of the Northern patrol is done, in lonely bays and roadsteads. On a certain day the supply ship comes up, anchors, and thepatrol runs down to the place. There are mails, too, on the supply ship, and books for lonely Jack, so her advent is always welcomed. For land exercise the men are put ashore on tiny uninhabited islets—a welcome change indeed.

SILENT AND EFFICIENT. Silent vet efficient in its work if our patrol fleet. The commerce ot the enemv has beeu utterly cut off. and sooner or later economic pressure will make itself felt in the great mass of the German population. The public can see nothing, hear nothing, and may even judge that nothing' is being done- For the patrol fleet issues no reports to the newspapers: a ship loaded with contraband quietly comes to anchor in a Northern roadstead, a flotilla of tranins is convoyed from the British to the Norse coast, a fishing bank is protected against the deadly submarine. Not a line of description anywhere. And not even when the guns of Heligoland and of Cuxhaven hurl great shells thrown the dawnmist is the British public told of the strangle-hold which our patrol fleet is bracing tighter round the enemv. But some day a glorious b;s_ tory will be unfolded, a story of wac by minor ships, of heroism, of skill and energv which will rouse the Briton's interest in the Northern patrol, which by then will have passed out of existence.

WHEN "THE DAY" COMES. Oi "The Dav" when the German Fleet elects to faee battle, in the ft „en our northern patrol will do veonian service. They will be the Wtirst to detect a certain "liveliness in the North Sea." they will relay the jovnil wireless message to the Grand Fleet ; n roadstead or on manc-juvres, the- will sweep round the enemy's flank and capture the armed transoms which the German will assured. v 'launch if there is a chance ol „.,,. : ni; -'cannon fodder' on the P.riSVcoast. On that day. when the i.ie u ins are hurling tons of steel at L a c>i other, when the air will reek witl'i blood and the seen! of high ex- :,;.--, when the fighters are too mL nt ' .'.'aline- destruction to think ol :,nvthinP else—on thai day the patrol JUt will find new t,uMes '" Bav,n . g th 'o crews of sinking ships Rut it is a harsh maxim ol nouc-in >\.irfore -hat such rescues are !:arg,i! i, lh pe.il from H.a.1.r,,, -So our patrol craft ma, l' '• ' Cosily employed in "g<; 'tng bach <o;!: .. ~f their own ;o attenu to ,t. < MARVELLOI'S ARRAY, v-' at a marvellous array one win JVten with the enemy's 'leet sunk

AND THE MEN. One is warned by the previous .sentence that no word at all has been written of the m .1 of the patrol service. They are even more a medley than their ships. The aristocrats are of course, the men of the regular Naw. hacked up by the veterans of the Royal Naval Reserve. Then come the men who have volunteered their vachts and crews for the patrol service. And further down in the .scale of -class" (really an obsolete

peace-time distinction i are the men who have from childhood followed U,<. -,m as fi-hermen. deck-hands, elig'inemen. and the like, in the Northem patrol one everts, .and finds. men of the .Moray Firth, of the Orkneys, the Shetland's, and of the wM 1 Hebrides. But these ; :■• not all, for the slow tongue of the Channel potts. tee burr of Hie West Country, the speech of North and West Ireland, .-,„,. t iie rattling dialect of the no- i v.iio sail out 01 Fleetwood and I lie Mersey is often heard. The war has calledall men of British Mood to tin[lag which "for a thousand years has braved the battle and Up breeze -■" The Weekly Scotsman.'