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008 - British Navy Dealing with the submarines The navy and the mine · Military Strategies Mountain and Naval Warfare

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Speaker 1: Part eight of two essays on military history, strategy and
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Speaker 1: Tactics Mountain Warfare nineteen o nine and Naval Strategy nineteen
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Speaker 1: seventeen by various This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: Part eight British Navy, Chapter five, dealing with the Submarines.
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Speaker 1: My name is Captain Kidd. Captain Kidd, My name is
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Speaker 1: Captain Kidd. Captain Kidd, my name is Captain Kidd, And
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Speaker 1: wickedly I did God's law. I did forbid as I
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Speaker 1: sailed old nautical ballad. Having seen the British Fleet and
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Speaker 1: the fleets allied with it operating in the North Sea,
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Speaker 1: the Oceans and the Mediterranean, we may suitably turn to
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Speaker 1: some special features of the duties and work of the Navy.
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Speaker 1: In the war. The submarine came as a sign and
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Speaker 1: a portent of new developments in the means and the
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Speaker 1: practice of warfare at sea. Regarded once as the weapon
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Speaker 1: of the weaker power, it was adopted into the name
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Speaker 1: naval armory of the strongest when, in nineteen o one,
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Speaker 1: under Lord Fisher's administration as First Sea Lord, a beginning
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Speaker 1: was made in submarine construction by the ordering of five
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Speaker 1: Holland boats many people were taken aback confessedly. The part
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Speaker 1: to be played by the submarine lay at that time
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Speaker 1: in the realm of speculation, but the British Navy could
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Speaker 1: not afford to ignore it. Every advance must be watched
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Speaker 1: and studied as it developed. The development has been rapid,
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Speaker 1: and there are British submarines of astonishing powers, which have
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Speaker 1: no equals in the world. They have made their mark
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Speaker 1: in many a theater of war. The French had led
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Speaker 1: the way the Germans followed in nineteen o six. There
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Speaker 1: is indeed the best reason to believe that Grand Admiral
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Speaker 1: von Tirpitz, chief of the Navy Department, looked with no
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Speaker 1: kindly eye upon submarine boats. He was a believer in
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Speaker 1: battleships and the creator of the high Sea Fleet, with
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Speaker 1: its battle squadrons and cruiser divisions. Concessions were made to
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Speaker 1: the Admiralty staff, and a few submarines were put in hand,
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Speaker 1: but it was not until the beginning of the war
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Speaker 1: that Turpitts became inspired with the fervor of the convert
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Speaker 1: Even now, the relative position of the submarine in the
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Speaker 1: category of warships is obscure. Admiral Sir Percy Scott thought
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Speaker 1: that the knell of the battleship had been wrung by
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Speaker 1: its growing power. Yet ships of the battleship class, carrying
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Speaker 1: incredible armaments, possessing speed beyond the dreams of antebellum naval constructors,
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Speaker 1: and infinitely superior for a dozen reasons to anything the
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Speaker 1: Germans had thought of, have recently been completed and will
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Speaker 1: probably play a decisive part in any future naval engagement.
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Speaker 1: But if the submarine has not dethroned the battleship, she has,
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Speaker 1: in the hands of the enemy, done other remarkable things.
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Speaker 1: She has struck a mortal blow at what many excellent
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Speaker 1: people have hitherto regarded as the settled and accepted code
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Speaker 1: of international law. She has appeared as a pirate commerce destroyer,
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Speaker 1: without warning and without pity. She has sunk fishing vessels,
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Speaker 1: tramped steamers, stately liners, and hospital ships. The code of
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Speaker 1: honor is not observed by her. The German submarine officer
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Speaker 1: has orders to run no risks, although in the old Wars,
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Speaker 1: naval officers who had no means of submerging, either to
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Speaker 1: attack or to escape, gladly ran every risk incidental to
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Speaker 1: the service in which they were engaged. When the Lusitania
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Speaker 1: was sunk, it was explained that if the commander of
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Speaker 1: the submarine had permitted the passengers to take to the
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Speaker 1: boats before firing his torpedo, this would have meant the
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Speaker 1: certain destruction of his own vessel. There was no evidence
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Speaker 1: that such would have been the case, but the risk,
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Speaker 1: which implied a danger merely incidental to naval service, was
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Speaker 1: held to justify the sinking of the great liner with
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Speaker 1: twelve hundred souls on board. The wildest imagination could not
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Speaker 1: have conceived that any human being could take such a
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Speaker 1: distorted view of right and wrong and of the plain
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Speaker 1: duty of the seaman. The submarine has accomplished other remarkable
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Speaker 1: things in the war. She has converted benevolent neutrals into
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Speaker 1: resolute enemies. She has brought the United States into the
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Speaker 1: war in support of the Allies. She has transformed the
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Speaker 1: mercantile marines opposed to her into actual fighting forces. A
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Speaker 1: few merchant ships were armed before the war began, but
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Speaker 1: now because of ruthless submarine attack, the British Mercantile Marine is,
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Speaker 1: for practical purposes embodied with the Navy, in the sense
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Speaker 1: that it is under naval control, is provided with means
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Speaker 1: of defense, and acts directly under naval orders. Moreover one
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Speaker 1: half or more of its shipping has been taken over
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Speaker 1: by the naval service. The same is true of the
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Speaker 1: merchant ships of the Allies. The German submarine has had
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Speaker 1: a further effect. She has created a whole array of
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Speaker 1: means directed to her destruction. Countless inventors have been set
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Speaker 1: at work, and extraordinarily ingenious methods have been employed with
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Speaker 1: the purpose of putting an end to submarine activities by
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Speaker 1: sinking every boat as she appeared. In the early days
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Speaker 1: of the submarine, it was believed that she might be
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Speaker 1: sunk by using spar torpedoes fixed in swift boats, which
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Speaker 1: would bear down upon the submarine as she submerged and
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Speaker 1: explode the charge against her hull. But it soon occurred
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Speaker 1: to semen that if a swift vessel, destroyer or other
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Speaker 1: could run down a submarine, she might more easily sink
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Speaker 1: her by the impact of her sharp stem or a
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Speaker 1: special keel. This method has been practiced in the war,
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Speaker 1: and by this means a number of enemy submarines have
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Speaker 1: been dispatched to Davy Jones Locker. There was an early
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Speaker 1: case in which a certain destroyer going at high speed
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Speaker 1: actually impaled a German submarine on her stem and carried
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Speaker 1: her onward so injured that she sank. Another early case
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Speaker 1: was that of the German submarine rammed and sent to
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Speaker 1: the bottom off Beachy Head on March twenty eighth, nineteen
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Speaker 1: fifteen by the Thordies, commanded by that plucky skipper, Captain Bell,
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Speaker 1: who set an example to many. Another plan was to
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Speaker 1: use suitable vessels and pairs, each pair dragging a cable
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Speaker 1: connecting them, from which hung on short lines small mines
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Speaker 1: to be electrically exploded when a submerged. Obstruction, probably a
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Speaker 1: periscope or conning tower, put attention upon the connecting cable.
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Speaker 1: The disadvantage of this system was that the entrapping vessel
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Speaker 1: could not travel swiftly without bringing the cable near to
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Speaker 1: the surface, and the chance of a submarine fouling the
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Speaker 1: cable was remote. Yet it may be conjectured that the
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Speaker 1: features of this system may have furnished the germ of
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Speaker 1: procedures now in use. Capture or sinking by the use
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Speaker 1: of nets was also an early idea, probably suggested by
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Speaker 1: the nets used by big ships at anchor for protection
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Speaker 1: against torpedoes, and Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson devised a large
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Speaker 1: steel net for the purpose. Possibly this method too has
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Speaker 1: developed into the nets employed in dealing with enemy submarines
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Speaker 1: at the present time. But submarines were continually increasing in
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Speaker 1: strength of structure, speed and handiness, so that new systems
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Speaker 1: were necessary and have developed with the requirements. What the
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Speaker 1: actual methods employed by the Navy are cannot be explained.
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Speaker 1: When mister Frederick Palmer, the American writer, visited the Grand Fleet,
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Speaker 1: he asked how the thing was done, and officers said,
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Speaker 1: sometimes by ramming, sometimes by gunfire, sometimes by explode, and
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Speaker 1: in many other ways which we do not tell. M
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Speaker 1: Joseph Rainach also visited the fleet and said in the
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Speaker 1: Figaro that the submarine was pursued by net, gun, explosive bomb,
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Speaker 1: and other means. Squadron Commander Bigsworth on August twenty sixth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen, destroyed a submarine off ast End by dropping
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Speaker 1: bombs upon her from his aeroplane, and there have been
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Speaker 1: several other episodes of the same kind. When the first
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Speaker 1: American transports were attacked in the Atlantic, bombs fitted with
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Speaker 1: a short time fuse were employed. Which burst at a
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Speaker 1: predetermined depth below the surface of the sea. The Royal
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Speaker 1: Naval Air Service plays a large part in the anti
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Speaker 1: submarine campaign. Its seaplanes are always scouting over our waters
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Speaker 1: and site enemy submarines from afar. Flying high, they can
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Speaker 1: and do discover submarines navigating below the surface, and by
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Speaker 1: wireless or other signals, bring destroyers or other craft to
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Speaker 1: the scene, whereby special means submarines are destroyed. Probably gunfire
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Speaker 1: is the chief means by which submarines are sent to
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Speaker 1: the bottom. A German submarine may attain complete submergence from
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Speaker 1: the cruising trim within about three minutes, but the time
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Speaker 1: may be longer if she has a gun mounted, wireless,
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Speaker 1: rigged and other top hamper from the awashed position, in
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Speaker 1: which her speed is reduced, she may submerge in about
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Speaker 1: two minutes. A swift destroyer, knowing the position of such
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Speaker 1: a submarine, may advance toward her, covering a nautical mile
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Speaker 1: within two minutes, so that she has an excellent chance
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Speaker 1: of coming within range and putting in shots with effect.
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Speaker 1: Gunnery is carried to a high pitch of proficiency in
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Speaker 1: the Navy, and one destroyer may be mentioned which knocked
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Speaker 1: out the periscope of a German submarine at a range
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Speaker 1: of over two thousand yards with her first round. There
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Speaker 1: is nothing an enemy submarine likes less than to see
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Speaker 1: destroyers tearing down towards her at high speed as she
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Speaker 1: is getting in her gun, with drawing her periscope, lowering
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Speaker 1: her masts, often in disguise, and filling her tanks. Moreover,
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Speaker 1: complete submergence may not be as sure protection for her
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Speaker 1: if she is watched, or she may be destroyed by
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Speaker 1: an explosive bomb. German submarines have also learned to fear
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Speaker 1: armed merchantmen, which have not seldom used their guns with effect,
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Speaker 1: sometimes compelling their assailants to submerge and so evading their attack,
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Speaker 1: and sometimes by obtaining direct hits. The Dunrobin in September
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Speaker 1: nineteen sixteen carried on a lively action for some minutes,
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Speaker 1: hitting her assailant in the vicinity of her conning tower
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Speaker 1: with a T and T shell, thereby causing an internal
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Speaker 1: explosion from which dense smoke arose, followed by three common
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Speaker 1: shell each of them making a direct hit, after which
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Speaker 1: the enemy suddenly plunged at a sharp angle, evidently going
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Speaker 1: to the bottom in March nineteen seventeen, the Bellardo was
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Speaker 1: attacked by gunfire from a submarine, whereby her master, chief
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Speaker 1: officer and a seaman were killed, while her gunners put
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Speaker 1: such shot into the assailant that she was silenced and
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Speaker 1: manifestly disabled. Further, it is not permissible to go on
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Speaker 1: describing how submarines are accounted for. The catalog of methods
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Speaker 1: is a long one. There could certainly be no single
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Speaker 1: and decisive weapon for the destruction of this new engine
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Speaker 1: of warfare. There is no remedy for the effects of gunfire,
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Speaker 1: and if submarines discover targets possible to be attacked, they
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Speaker 1: will certainly attack them. Some surprise was expressed that the
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Speaker 1: British Admiralty did not at once suppress the submarine menace.
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Speaker 1: When the submarine campaign began in February ninth, eighteen fifteen,
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Speaker 1: it resulted in the sinking of a number of British merchantmen,
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Speaker 1: but having risen to its height, it declined with fluctuations
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Speaker 1: until it was described as being well in hand. The
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Speaker 1: methods employed had been successful. Then after several months the
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Speaker 1: submarines began their depredations again, carrying them into the Atlantic
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Speaker 1: and the Mediterranean with great violence. They also penetrated the Channel,
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Speaker 1: though they never checked the great stream of transport for
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Speaker 1: the armies between English and French ports, which the Navy
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Speaker 1: was guarding with complete success. The reason for this recrudescence
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Speaker 1: of submarine piracy was the intense energy which the Germans
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Speaker 1: devoted to the production of standardized and powerful classes of submarines,
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Speaker 1: whose parts were produced in many districts of the German Empire.
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Speaker 1: The new boats were practically submarine cruisers, capable of high
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Speaker 1: surface speed, which enabled them to overhaul slow merchantmen, and
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Speaker 1: they were armed with powerful guns. The early enemy submarine
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Speaker 1: carried a one point four inch gun, but a two
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Speaker 1: point nine inch twelve pounder was provided. There is now
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Speaker 1: reason to believe that the caliber has risen to four
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Speaker 1: point one inches and, in the case of some of
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Speaker 1: the more powerful boats, to five point one inches, these
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Speaker 1: larger guns being shorter and lighter than the same guns
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Speaker 1: mounted in cruisers. But obviously submarines of these classes, carrying
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Speaker 1: on their work over wider areas and in distant places,
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Speaker 1: will not be so easy to destroy as the smaller
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Speaker 1: boats of the early submarine campaign, and this may account
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Speaker 1: for the difficulty in providing a complete protection from the attack.
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Speaker 1: Submarine sections have been sent overland and assembled at Trieste
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Speaker 1: for the Adriatic and Mediterranean, and at Varna for use
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Speaker 1: in the Black Sea, and also doubtless at the Golden
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Speaker 1: Horn or in the Gulf of Ismid. There is much
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Speaker 1: uncertainty about the future of the submarine. She exercises no
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Speaker 1: command at sea, and she makes many fruitless attacks upon
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Speaker 1: armed merchantmen, but she is dangerous. Nevertheless, the British Navy
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Speaker 1: has devoted exhaust less energy in applying every possible agency
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Speaker 1: for dealing with hostile submarines, and its great success encourages
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Speaker 1: the hope and belief that the scourge will yet be exterminated. Destroyers,
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Speaker 1: motor launches, patrolling ships of many classes, seaplanes, observation balloons
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Speaker 1: and other craft are at work every day, and many
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Speaker 1: of them every night. But whatever element of uncertainty there
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Speaker 1: may be as to the complete success of these agencies,
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Speaker 1: there is none in the conclusion that the submarine will
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Speaker 1: never bring England, still less her allies, to the verge
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Speaker 1: of famine or anywhere near it. Scarcity of food does
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Speaker 1: not due so much to the submarine as to the
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Speaker 1: great demand on the world's supplies and the enormous volume
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Speaker 1: of shipping absorbed by the naval and military requirements of
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Speaker 1: England and her allies. The Navy, which has done such
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Speaker 1: wonderful work in the war, is not and will not
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Speaker 1: be ineffective against the submarine. Chapter six. The Navy and
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Speaker 1: the mine. They sink, They slink, they seek the boat,
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Speaker 1: grisly horns stuck through their skin, ready to sink all
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Speaker 1: things that float, these villain boxes shaped of tin. The
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Speaker 1: fissure sees the death therein, but reaches down with his
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Speaker 1: long fling and grasp the chain that holds them in,
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Speaker 1: and draws the fangs they hoped would sting anonymous. The
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Speaker 1: British Navy fights for the great ideals of the people,
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Speaker 1: acting upon the lines of old and loyal traditions. But
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Speaker 1: while doing so it has encountered the desperate devices of
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Speaker 1: the enemy, who has used the latest achievements of scientific
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Speaker 1: and mechanical invention in such a manner as to overthrow
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Speaker 1: many preconceived methods and accepted conventions of naval warfare. We
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Speaker 1: have already spoken of the submarine. Now we shall see
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Speaker 1: what the mine is and how it is dealt with
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Speaker 1: by the Navy and the services the Navy controls. It
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Speaker 1: has been said with much truth that the essence of
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Speaker 1: war is violence, and that moderation in war is futility.
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Speaker 1: It is also true, as we see in the cruel
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Speaker 1: operations of zeppelins and bomb dropping aeroplanes, and not less
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Speaker 1: in the attacks of submarines as directed by the Germans
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Speaker 1: and their allies, that the non military populations suffer the
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Speaker 1: horrors of war in much greater degree than was the
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Speaker 1: case in the wars even of recent times. But the
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Speaker 1: Germans at the very beginning of the war outraged neutral
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Speaker 1: sentiment by employing ostensible merchants and passenger vessels flying neutral flags,
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Speaker 1: and without giving warning to the Neutrals, in the deadly
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Speaker 1: work of scattering mines indiscriminately in the open sea on
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Speaker 1: the main lines of trade. They acted in direct contravention
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Speaker 1: of the rules of war as previously accepted. These disguised
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Speaker 1: mining vessels had traversed the trade routes as if pursuing
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Speaker 1: peaceful purposes, thus enjoying the immunities which had always been
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Speaker 1: accorded to innocent neutral vessels. And yet they had wantonly
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Speaker 1: endangered the lives of all who traversed the sea, whether
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Speaker 1: neutral or enemy. The Admiralty were soon able to declare
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Speaker 1: publicly that this mine, laying under a neutral flag, as
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Speaker 1: well as reconnaissance conducted by trawlers and even by hospital
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Speaker 1: ships and neutral vessels, had become the ordinary methods of
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Speaker 1: German naval warfare. The later history of the war shows
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Speaker 1: how far the Germans were prepared to go in casting
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Speaker 1: off any restraint in their efforts to do injury to
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Speaker 1: their enemies. They compelled the British Admiralty to adopt countermeasures.
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Speaker 1: For years past, the Germans had devoted unremitting attention to
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Speaker 1: the study and practice of mining, and the production of
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Speaker 1: very powerful types of mines. In that respect, they were
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Speaker 1: undoubtedly ready. The state of war between England and Germany
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Speaker 1: began at eleven p m. On August fourth, nineteen fourteen,
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Speaker 1: and on the morning of the next day German mines
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Speaker 1: were being laid on the east coast of England. The
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Speaker 1: Kernigan Louise, a former Hamburg America liner of two thousand,
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Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty three tons, was caught in the
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Speaker 1: act off the Suffolk Coat and was sunk by the
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Speaker 1: light cruiser Ampheon and the third torpedo flotilla. On the
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Speaker 1: next day, the Ampheon, herself, the first British warship destroyed
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Speaker 1: in the war, fell a victim to the mines she
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Speaker 1: had laid. This disguised mind layer had initiated a practice
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Speaker 1: which has since been many times followed in the War,
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Speaker 1: of throwing minds overboard in the track of pursuing vessels.
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Speaker 1: It was resorted to by the retreating Germans in the
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Speaker 1: Battle of the Dogger Bank. Here it may be remarked
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Speaker 1: that the Germans have always claimed the right to subject
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Speaker 1: every consideration to their necessity to win. Though at the
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Speaker 1: Hague Conference in nineteen o seven, Baron Marshal von Bieberstein,
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Speaker 1: the German Delicate, said that conscience, good sense, and the
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Speaker 1: duty imposed by the principles of humanity would constitute the
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Speaker 1: most effective guarantee against abuse, and he proclaimed je ladis
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Speaker 1: au vois that German naval officers would always fulfill in
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Speaker 1: the strictest fashion the duties which emanate from the unwritten
19:48
Speaker 1: law of humanity and civilization. Any technical description of German
19:54
Speaker 1: minds would be out of place here, but it may
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Speaker 1: be said that generally they approximate to a spherical shape
20:00
Speaker 1: and are provided with projecting horns, almost in the shape
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Speaker 1: of drumsticks, concussion with which is calculated to break a
20:08
Speaker 1: small vial within whose contents cause the detonation of the
20:13
Speaker 1: enormous charge of T and T explosive. Each mine is
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Speaker 1: provided with a sinker which drops to the bottom and
20:20
Speaker 1: is attached to the mine by a cable or sounding line,
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Speaker 1: paid out by special mechanism to any desired length, whereby
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Speaker 1: the mine may be kept at the intended depth below
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Speaker 1: the surface. There are other types of mines, and in
20:34
Speaker 1: particular one of cylindrical form, containing a prodigious quantity of
20:39
Speaker 1: explosive incapable of the widest destruction. This has probably been
20:44
Speaker 1: used only in special situations. The ordinary mines can be
20:48
Speaker 1: laid with great rapidity by a specially fitted mine layer,
20:52
Speaker 1: provided with rotary gear, bringing mine after mine along a
20:57
Speaker 1: special track to the dropping position. The drifting mines which
21:01
Speaker 1: the Germans at the very beginning of the war set
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Speaker 1: afloat in the main trade route from America to Liverpool
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Speaker 1: via the North of Ireland, can be laid with still
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Speaker 1: greater rapidity. When mine laying in British waters by surface
21:16
Speaker 1: boats was made extremely risky or almost impossible, the Germans
21:21
Speaker 1: resorted to the employment of submarine mine layers, one of
21:25
Speaker 1: which was exhibited in the Thames. Vessels of this class,
21:29
Speaker 1: so far as they are known, probably carry a maximum
21:32
Speaker 1: of twelve big mines in six chutes or air locks,
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Speaker 1: the lower mine in each chute being released by means
21:39
Speaker 1: of a lever, after which the other drops into its place,
21:43
Speaker 1: ready to be let go in the same way. The
21:46
Speaker 1: boat exhibited in London and elsewhere was of a rough,
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Speaker 1: rudimentary character, indifferently built, and her speed was probably not
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Speaker 1: more than six or eight knots. Undoubtedly many of the
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Speaker 1: submarine mine layers are of better type. They are constantly
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Speaker 1: at work, especially on the east coast of England, and
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Speaker 1: some losses have resulted, but the effect of their operations
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Speaker 1: is nearly always overcome by the means adopted by the Navy.
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Speaker 1: The first measure set on foot by the Admiralty is
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Speaker 1: to organize a system of search for suspicious craft, and
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Speaker 1: to declare the North Sea a war area within which
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Speaker 1: it was dangerous for any vessel to navigate except through
22:27
Speaker 1: channels indicated by the naval authorities. The Germans replied with
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Speaker 1: their now famous and futile Blockade Order of February nineteen fifteen.
22:38
Speaker 1: New regulations were issued from time to time regulating navigation
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Speaker 1: through the British minefields, and the result has been, in
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Speaker 1: association with the patrols to exercise a very close supervision
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Speaker 1: over the navigation in home waters as to distant mining
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Speaker 1: operations of the enemy. The First Lord of the Admiralty
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Speaker 1: stated on March eighth, nineth eighteen seventeen that they had
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Speaker 1: been carried very far, and the p and O liner Mongolia,
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Speaker 1: sunk off Bombay on June twenty third, nineteen seventeen, was
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Speaker 1: not the only vessel mined in the Arabian Sea. From
23:14
Speaker 1: time to time it has been announced that males for
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Speaker 1: and from the East and Australia have been lost at sea.
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Speaker 1: It is an inspiring thing to turn from the picture
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Speaker 1: of mines and the scattering of them by the enemy,
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Speaker 1: to another picture, that of the gallant and successful manner
23:32
Speaker 1: in which the Navy and the mine trawlers and other
23:35
Speaker 1: vessels embodied in its service and employed in the ceaseless
23:39
Speaker 1: patrols have grappled with the deadly menace of the mine.
23:43
Speaker 1: Ever patrolling the British coast, ever facing death, often speeding
23:48
Speaker 1: to the help of vessel's mind, torpedoed, or otherwise in distress.
23:52
Speaker 1: The glorious men who manned these craft have inscribed their
23:56
Speaker 1: names in letters of gold on the role of British
23:59
Speaker 1: honor fame at sea. It was a marvelous thing, this
24:03
Speaker 1: embodiment of the vast mines sweeping and patrolling service in
24:07
Speaker 1: the work of the Navy in the war. From all
24:10
Speaker 1: the coasts fishermen have come with their trawlers, converted from
24:14
Speaker 1: the craft of winnowing fish at sea to the sterner
24:17
Speaker 1: work of bringing up and destroying the strange harvest of
24:21
Speaker 1: deadly mines which endanger all life at sea. Many a
24:25
Speaker 1: troller has been sunk by contact with her fatal captures.
24:29
Speaker 1: Others have been sunk by hostile fire and bombing by
24:33
Speaker 1: enemy aeroplanes. But never have the brave seamen quailed in
24:37
Speaker 1: the service of the country and the Allies. And in
24:40
Speaker 1: every port men are to be met whose craft have
24:43
Speaker 1: been sunk under them, and who have hastened to sea again.
24:48
Speaker 1: Hundreds of ships drawn from the mercantile marine and the fisheries, seam, yachts,
24:54
Speaker 1: motor boats, armed launches, and vessels of other classes are
24:58
Speaker 1: employed in such dangerous way. They share the trials of war,
25:02
Speaker 1: wind and weather with the regular naval patrols. Sir Edward Carson,
25:07
Speaker 1: when First Lord of the Admiralty, directed attention to the
25:10
Speaker 1: magnificent work of the mind trawlers of these patrols. The
25:14
Speaker 1: force employed at the beginning of the war numbered about
25:17
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty small vessels, but increased to three
25:21
Speaker 1: thousand or more. The whole nation should understand what minesweepers
25:25
Speaker 1: were doing. The thousands of men engaged in this operation
25:29
Speaker 1: are the men who are feeding the whole population of
25:32
Speaker 1: this country from morning till night, Battling with the elements
25:36
Speaker 1: as well as the enemy, facing dangers under the sea.
25:40
Speaker 1: A mine sweeper carries his life in his hands at
25:43
Speaker 1: every moment, and he does it willingly. Later again he
25:47
Speaker 1: expressed his thanks in the thanks of the nation for
25:50
Speaker 1: the splendid work they had accomplished. Of all the seamen
25:53
Speaker 1: who had so deservedly earned the gratitude of the country,
25:57
Speaker 1: none had had more arduous and dangerous duties to perform
26:01
Speaker 1: than the gallant fellows in the patrols. They have worked
26:04
Speaker 1: in reliefs day and night at sea, though sometimes driven
26:08
Speaker 1: to port by the fury of the elements, and they
26:10
Speaker 1: brave every kind of weather. As Admiral Bacon, commanding the
26:14
Speaker 1: Dover Patrol, has said, with reference to the security with
26:18
Speaker 1: which thousands of merchantmen had passed through the waters in
26:21
Speaker 1: his patrol, no figures could emphasize more thoroughly the sacrifice
26:26
Speaker 1: made by the personnel of the patrols and the relative
26:30
Speaker 1: immunity insured to the commerce of their country. They have
26:34
Speaker 1: trawled for mines, not only in British but in distant waters.
26:37
Speaker 1: Their magnificent work, under fire and attacked by bomb dropping
26:41
Speaker 1: aeroplanes at the Dardanelles, will never be forgotten. An American correspondent,
26:47
Speaker 1: mister Gordon Brace, who sailed in a mind trawler to
26:50
Speaker 1: learn its work, concluded an article in the New York
26:53
Speaker 1: Tribune in these words, I looked at those men who
26:56
Speaker 1: go out day after day, who where their life welts
26:59
Speaker 1: can see mannually, who take their tea on the decks
27:02
Speaker 1: while they peer over the rims of their cups for
27:05
Speaker 1: the death that lurks in those somber waters. I thought,
27:08
Speaker 1: how fine was their devotion to their duty, How great
27:12
Speaker 1: a part they are playing in the war out there alone,
27:16
Speaker 1: where their deeds are attended with no sounding of trumpets,
27:20
Speaker 1: where they give to their work the same quality of
27:22
Speaker 1: bravery as is required of the man in the trenches.
27:26
Speaker 1: And as I glanced at the inscription over the cabin
27:29
Speaker 1: which read England expects every man to do his duty,
27:32
Speaker 1: I knew that England would not be disappointed. The practical
27:37
Speaker 1: methods by which the Navy and its brave mind trawlers
27:40
Speaker 1: conduct their services are of great interest, but description cannot
27:45
Speaker 1: go too far. The enemy is certainly well acquainted with
27:48
Speaker 1: all British methods previous to the war. But my sweeping
27:51
Speaker 1: systems do not stand still, but develop with the progress
27:55
Speaker 1: of armaments. Generally, mine trawling is developed from the system
27:59
Speaker 1: of trawling for fish, which before the war had reached
28:02
Speaker 1: a high degree of technical efficiency, and in the application
28:06
Speaker 1: of that system to their work in the war, the
28:08
Speaker 1: men have attained great proficiency and become extraordinarily successful. The
28:14
Speaker 1: trawl net varies in size with the dimensions of the
28:17
Speaker 1: vessel using it. An average size would be about one
28:20
Speaker 1: hundred feet in length, with a spread of from eighty
28:23
Speaker 1: to ninety feet. The principal features and fishing trawlers are
28:27
Speaker 1: fore and after frameworks with fair leaders, a towing block,
28:32
Speaker 1: a powerful steam winch, and towing warps, a trawler would
28:37
Speaker 1: pay out hundreds of fathoms of heavy wire warp, the
28:40
Speaker 1: handling of which called for great skill and dexterity. It
28:44
Speaker 1: was not a very difficult thing to adapt this method
28:47
Speaker 1: of trawling to the sweeping for mines. The fishing trawler
28:51
Speaker 1: goes unaided, but in mind sweeping. The trawler's work in pairs,
28:55
Speaker 1: and the towing warp is replaced by the sweeping wire
29:00
Speaker 1: trawlers steaming abreast at a certain interval drag a weighted
29:04
Speaker 1: steel hawser, which, upon striking the mooring of a mine,
29:07
Speaker 1: brings the deadly catch to the surface, where it is
29:11
Speaker 1: exploded by gunfire from a destroyer or by rifle fire
29:15
Speaker 1: from an armed trawler or motor boat. The mine sweepers
29:18
Speaker 1: have encountered perils and hardships which have never been recorded,
29:22
Speaker 1: and fishing trawlers pursuing their peaceful occupations have often incurred
29:27
Speaker 1: the same risks. Next, after the destruction of the enemy's
29:31
Speaker 1: fighting vessels, comes the destruction of his death dealing minds,
29:35
Speaker 1: and the mined trawlers confronted with an unparalleled task, attended
29:40
Speaker 1: with extreme peril, have rendered magnificent service to England and
29:45
Speaker 1: her allies. And of Part eight