HOW OUR DESTROYERS FIGHT U-BOATS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 September 1917, Page 7

HOW OUR DESTROYERS FIGHT U-BOATS.

SPEED AND SKILFUL HANDLING. GREAT SWARM OF FAST PATROLS. Just how a British destroyer acts when attacked by a submarine was unexpectedly demonstrated to an Associated Press correspondent (says the Ifew York Evening Post) while travelling on one of the modern oil-driven torpedoboat destroyers from England to France. The correspondent had been taken aboard the destroyer for the purpose of observing British methods of combating the submarine menace, when the boat ,was suddenly attacked by a U-boat, a torpedo missing it by a scant six feet, thanks to the vigilance and quick action of the crew. The destroyer was one of a certain number which were convoying, in the usual manner, some large transports carrying British troops to France. The group of ships was half-way across the Channel when suddenly one of the lookouts spied a pair of periscopes rise for a moment a few inches out of the water a half mile away. They were gone the next instant, but almost before they had gone came the shout: "Submarine on port bow," accompanied by a shrill call of warning from the destroyer's whistle and the fluttering out of the flag which notified every ship in the convoy of, the enemy's presence. ;

THINGS HAPPEN. On every ship things began to happen, more quickly than the telling. Gum were swung in the direction from which the periscope had been seen, ready to speak if the periscope appeared again. Torpedo tubes likewise were swung into line, and the numerous anti-submarine devices along-deck, were in the hands of their skilled expert crews. But even while this was being done came the torpedo, plainly visible from the deck, its gleaming brass body glistening in the bright sunlight, its propellers pushing it at express-train speed straight towards the destroyer. Something was wrong with the mechanism of this particular torpedo, for it should have travelled twelve or fifteen feet below the surface. Instead, it came bounding along in plain sight, now and then leaping out of the water, like a flat stope made to skip over the surface. Even thus, it might have found its target, but for the presence of mind of the sixty-year-old coxswain. He had been first to sight the periscopes and had rushed immediately to an emergency lever whereby he instantly stopped the port engine, thus swinging the ship with a lurch to the left. The torpedo whizzed through the water six feet behind the Btern of the destroyer, its gradually lessening speed as it sank into the swirl of the engines indicating that its possibilities for mischief were nearly done. Except for the coxswain's action in twisting the ship from its course, the missile would apparently have made a square hit in the stem magazine. Meanwhile, the wireless was at work notifying the hundreds of patrols in all direct tiqgs that the enemy was near. "Wo sighted a submarine on the port "bow just off blank buoy, 2.30 Torpedo passed just behind our stern, missing us. We are proceeding with our convoy," .said the captain's message.

THE PURSUIT. It was caught simultaneously, ashore *nd afloat, by a hundred vigilant wireless operators. The destroyer's captain, according to his orders, must not leave his convoy to seek- out and attack the Üboat. Others would attend to that. Already they were gathering for the chase —trawlers, chasers, drifters, destroyers, even a dirigible airship far off on the horizon had taught the wireless call, and with the quick turn of a seagull, was Swooping down to the pursuit. Tho transports and destroyers, although fairly confident that the U-boat would scarcely dare show herself again, even for a pot-sliot, were nevertheless taking every precaution. Every ship was at full speed,"oil-burning destroyers constantly protecting their charges. The whole attack occupied bare seconds. Convoy and charges were out of range in a few minutes at the most. Nowhere had there been the slightest panic or flurry, but movements of men and ships made with almost automatic precision and speed. The efficiency of closk-work. Every cog'knows its place. There is no meddling, no clashing, no interference, but a confident, rapid efficiency which somehow demands the use of tho adjective "deadly." Twenty minutes later the transports were safe in their port of destination, and the destroyer convoy was off again, thirty miles an hour, down the coast, to its ne.vt appointment. Meanwhile the business of seeking out the enemy was going on in the fleet of submarine hunters which had gathered around ''Blank buoy." Just how the work was done, and just what was the result, it is not permitted to tell.