AT SEA.

Taihape Daily Times, 30 October 1917, Page 3

AT SEA.

HOW IS THE BRITISH FLEET PROTECTED? THE METHODS OF SUBMARINE TRAPPERS. One of the many devices to which many German U-boats have fallen victims is described in the “Popular Science Monthly” for July. After describing how one section of the Grand Fleet lies at anchor near the Orkney the writer says:

“The fleet is protected by great steel chains woven in the form .of simple nets, which are not stationary but mobile. If they were anchored so that they could not be moved, there is little doubt but that the industrious German commanders would find some way of getting through occasionally. “The nets covering the Grand Fleet are stretched out in great arms from

the shores of the islands, completely covering the fleet. Various types of enemy vessels have come nosing up to these barriers, though, of course, under water, in the effort to catch the great fleet napping. Whenever a daring commander has attempted suen a coup ? he has always, so far, found himself not only nosing against a network of great chains, but when he turned to run he has found -himself in a circular net and doomed.

“The British operations are simple. A sharp lookout, and probably electric lookouts as well keep the chain operators informed as to what is going on. When an enemy submarine enters, the operators, taking the ends of the chain, draw it together to form a circle. The trap is then sprung,' The British wait until something happens—until the submarine comes cautiously to the surface' to lo.ok about, for there l s nothing else that the commander can do. Once up he has the choice between destruction by shell or surrender, and to the credit of the it must be admitted that very often the commander refuses to ■surrender, hoping that seme means of escape may still lie open. “The same sort of traps exist in the English Channel, where great chains are spread from the coast of France to the coast of England, with but a very few loopholes, which are' known the British officers only, through I which commerce may be carried cn in safety. Every time a raider or a submarine cargo-boat slips out of Germany, it takes the northern passage. The Channel is impossible to negotiate for any uninformed ship-captain, and it probably would still be so were the Grand Fleet in the Orkneys to be destroyed.”