NETTING THE SUBMARINES.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 January 1916, Page 8

NETTING THE SUBMARINES.

THE CAPTURED CRAFT. NO MORE CREWS AVAILABLE. "I have seen a good deal in the papers here, one time and another, about how the submarine netting is arranged on the English coast," a naval officer told a Dunedin Star reporter in the course of a chat on ntvy matters, "but have not yet seen an accurate description. The net 9 have "proved very effective, and a distinct factor of that effectiveness has been the British patrol fleet whose ceaseless vigilance compelled the underwater boats to approach the English coast submerged. Never at any time, even when they were doing the most destruction, were they able to swarm round as one might be inclined to think from reading the reports of vessels sunk. The wire-netting fence was effective, but the submarines were brought captive to the surface by other means as well, and very fine craft some of those enemy submarines proved to be. It is true that the number caught was never published, but there may have been more than one reason for that. When the pick of Germany's submarines -left their home ports amidst cheers and flagwaving, and never returned to tell the lal,e and when they kept on leaving, and not returning, a mysterious dread of the unknown became associated with them in the minds of possible future crews. This developed into a repulsive horror that even the sinking of a western ocean liner could not serve to dissipate. Thus romance and the glory of dealing an uninspected blow at a hated enemy gradually dissipated, and the supply of voluntary crews has gradually dwindled. Military conscription may be effective, but submarine conscription is a horse of another color. "One way and another we have managed to work to windward of the underwater Hun. The submarine menace is now somewhat like the modern fable about the decadence of British seamen: it doesn't count for much in the North Sea."