THE "SEA WASPS."

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 30 March 1917, Page 6

THE "SEA WASPS."

NEW SUBMARINE CHASERS. SAX FEAXCISCO, Feb. 28. The last shipment of the order of 550 submarine chasers for the British Government was being made by the United States by the Submarine Boat Corporation when the German submarine reign of terror was announced. The order was completed in 550 days, and the novel submarine chasers —or "sea 'wasps" a ra they have been commonly termed in America—have proved to be the backbone of the British anti-sub-E marine defence. These remarkable little boats, which are manned by a complement of ten men, work in co-opera-tion with aviators who at 3000 ft can see the U-boats forty feet below the water surface, indicating their presence by dropping smokebombs. Then the chasers come out. By this method over three hundred enemy submarines are said to have been captured or sunk. This type of auxiliary but 80ft in length makes torpedo attack ineffective. They can continue at 22 miles an hour for 700 miles. At 10 miles an hour they have a cruising radius of 1500 mile's, spid they can stay at ser on patrol duty for ten days. They arc n built as to be able to turn in their o- -n length. They aiount forward a 3jn fire srr-n £l3 The desir-xing and build' -' of this immense flVt in the Tern?.: 1 - ' sliort time constitutes the most- "-""""-ftable manufacturing or boai.- 1 ' "-" achievement in the history o" *>« United States, it is claimed in America. . .. ,'■ '^^^^iTpf'^rS