Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights Part 17

The chaser may continue to circle the submarine awaiting her opportunity which will of necessity come when the U-boat attempts to submerge. The submarine must go through the regular form of running back her gun, and battening down the water-tight hatches, before she can submerge, and the latter process again takes several minutes. Therefore while the submarine is preparing to dip, the chaser can run upon her and let loose the fire from its rapid-fire gun.

A POOR SURFACE FIGHTER.

The submarine, by very virtue of the qualities which make it a good submarine, is a poor boat for surface fighting. It can carry no very heavy armament, and it is not heavily armored. The problem of stowing away all the heavy machinery, supplies, torpedoes and devices necessary for her operations and maneuvering has presented about all the difficulties the constructors have been able to handle. The highest speed of the submarine is not in excess of 20 miles an hour. The submarine must be light and easy to handle. It gains in steadiness and certainty of operation with increased size, but it loses in capacity for quick and delicate maneuvering.

In addition the submarine has what is termed a strategic vulnerability.

A shot which might mean nothing more serious than a hole in the side to a surface boat would end the submarine's usefulness for underseas work and convert her into a helpless hulk of surface craft.

The submarine is an easy quarry for a chaser, for even when submerged and moving along, the U-boat creates a distinct wave on the surface of the water which can be followed by the chaser. The little boats are just what their name implies--chasers--and besides having the qualities already described they may conceal themselves behind large steamers, and when the submarine in preparing to launch a torpedo makes its presence known the chaser may speed from its hiding place and drive the underseas craft away, even if it does not succeed in injuring it.

OPERATING IN CONNECTION WITH AN AEROPLANE.

The chasers also have a special facility of operation in connection with the aeroplane or seaplane, princ.i.p.ally because of their high speed; and next to the chaser the aeroplane is one of the submarine's worst enemies. Used in conjunction with the regular torpedo boat destroyers of the navy, the chaser and the aeroplane promise in future wars to minimize the effectiveness of the underseas craft. This is proven by the fact that immediately after the United States naval forces joined those of the Allies in European waters, the disasters resultant upon submarine attacks were greatly reduced. The speedy destroyers, while not actually sinking many submarines, by their vigilance prevented the submarine from operating.

Large types of the chasers ordered in this country by the Russian Government are 72 feet long by 11 feet 3 inches wide and draw 3 feet 3 inches of water. Each boat carries three of the 8-cylinder 6-3/4 x 7-3/4 Duesenberg, 350 to 400 horsepower motors. The boats carry an 18-inch torpedo tube amids.h.i.+ps and a 47-millimetre rapid-fire gun on the forward deck. They are controlled from the bridge deck with a sheltered cabin for the quartermaster, with controls from either the shelter or bridge deck. They have a guaranteed speed of twenty-eight knots.

Deck arrangements consist of the following: A hatch to the fo'castle, followed by; the emplacement for the rapid-fire gun. Following this is the steering shelter containing duplicate controls, &c., for the engine room and for the steering. Immediately aft of the steering shelter is the bridge deck, located on top of the engine room trunk house. The entire after half of the vessel is a clear sweep of deck with the exception of a b.o.o.by hatch to crews' quarters well aft.

The boats are arranged for wireless with foremast and jigger mast. Rail stanchions in the way of the torpedo tube are hinged down, giving clear sweep to the tube for firing purposes.

PROVISION FOR OFFICERS AND CREW.

Below decks ample s.p.a.ce has been provided for the crew and officers. The forepeak is arranged for chain lockers and bosun's gear lockers, followed by s.h.i.+p's galley, which has two pipe berths. Next to the galley is located the officers' cabin and wireless room, which is entered by a hatch from the steering shelter. This cabin accommodates two officers and includes lavatory, officers' desks, wireless desk and folding mess table.

Next aft is the machinery s.p.a.ce, in which are located the three eight cylinder Duesenberg motors, a three k.w. universal lighting set, the necessary oil tanks, batteries and a work bench. The next compartment contains fuel tanks, with 1300 gallons capacity. Aft of this compartment is located the crew's quarters, berthing eight men, with lavatory attached. The hull is divided into six water-tight compartments by steel bulkheads.

The hull is of wooden construction, as developed for this service by the builders.

The 72-footers develop a speed of twenty-eight knots and have a cruising radius exceeding 1200 miles. The design of the hull is the concave bottom, square bilge type, developed for this particular service. It furnishes a steady gun platform, which, with the necessary speed, is the most vital feature of a submarine chaser.

The demand for speed and stability was borne out by the experience of the Russian and Italian navies in their active work and no consideration at all is given propositions from these two countries which do not range well about twenty-five knots.

Exceptional success was attained by the Russian Black Sea and by the Italian high speed fleets in actual use and their demand for exceptional speed was based on experience.

It is a well known fact that the Russian government was successful in patrolling its sh.o.r.es and in protecting its harbors and s.h.i.+pping. The Italian government also was exceptionally successful in maintaining its mercantile fleet in comparative safety and in protecting its harbors against the offensive work of enemy submarines. The entire Italian fleet of submarine chasers consists of high speed, high powered motor patrol boats, most of which were equipped with American made motors.

CATALOGUED AS "PATROL BOATS."

In a general way the "chasers" are catalogued in naval circles as "patrol boats." England has thousands of them, ranging from motorboats to naval auxiliaries, raking the English Channel, the North Sea and the waters all about the British Isles. As a rule the boats work in groups of five or six, one boat serving as a flags.h.i.+p--and often there is a "blimp" attached to the fleet. The armament of these small vessels is distinctive. Each carries, besides a deck gun, a "depth charge," half a dozen lance bombs and arms for each member of the crew. The deck gun fires a sh.e.l.l that weighs about thirteen pounds.

The "depth charge" is a submarine bomb, so constructed that it is discharged at any determined depth of water when thrown overboard. If the water is 100 feet deep the bomb will explode at that depth. The bombs are used to drop in places where the submarine has been located or is expected of lurking in the bottom of the sea. While the exploding bomb may not strike the underseas boat it will create havoc on board the underwater craft if discharged in close proximity, the extra water pressure exerted causing disarrangement of the delicate mechanism, if not rendering the boat unfit for service.

Some of the patrol boats of the English have been armed with "lance bombs." These are bombs of highly explosive character which are fastened to the end of a long pole or staff. They are used just as a harpoon is used when by chance a submarine may emerge from the water in too close proximity to the chaser. It is not of record that any U-boats have been sunk with these strange javelins, but official reports show that the boats are armed with them for emergencies.

CHASER TROUBLES THE SUBMARINE.

What with dragging bombs through the water, and setting traps and nests for the submarines, the chasers make great trouble for the underseas craft, but the ingenious Germans are constantly on the alert, and it has been proved that in one or two instances at least the submarines cut their way through the heavy chain nets which were set to catch them near Havre. It was said that the submarine was provided with steel knives or wire cutters, and shears operated by electricity or pneumatic pressure, which enabled the boat to cut its way through the barrier of chains and wires.

As a means of visualizing the operations of the "chaser" and giving some idea of the excitement which attends the attempt to run down the underseas craft, the following description by an English sailor is interesting. The chase occurred off the Isle of Wight:

"Offsh.o.r.e a short distance was a patrol boat lying very low and flying distress signals. We had run over to her and learned that about an hour before the periscope of a submarine had been stuck up not far from her, then the craft had submerged, appeared again about a mile away, and fired four shots, which let in enough water slowly to sink the patrol, which before the war had been nothing but a dirty little trawler.

"Finding the crew of the patrol could take care of themselves in their small boats and learning that the submarine had run over to the westward, where we knew chain net traps to be laid, we circled in that direction.

"Our powerful motors thrummed evenly. The water seemed to part ahead of us, and the gunners squinted along the surface, looking for the glimpse of a periscope or the first sign of the hull of the U-boat if she should be proceeding awash.

CREW THRILLED WITH JOY.

"Suddenly, off to the west, we made out her periscope. Intense joy thrilled our little crew. She was insh.o.r.e from us. She was between our circular course and the chain nets--in the trap. The periscope we had seen might be a dummy, for a submarine frequently casts loose a phoney periscope to draw fire, but, at any rate, she must have been between us and the nets if she cut it loose.

"Presently, probably after a look around, the periscope suddenly disappeared, and we knew it was a real one with a German U-boat on the end of it. Like a flock of falcons we were swooping down on the prey.

"Abruptly the lead boat comes to a dead stop and lists heavily to starboard. Evidently something is wrong. We see men crawl out over the stern and fish around with boat hooks and poles. Cold as it is, one man goes overboard and remains under water so long we could not believe he would come up alive. The boat had fouled the chain nets.

"Circling round in an ever smaller radius, we search the water for a periscope, a shadow, or the conventional 'streak of dirty grease' or 'line of bubbles.'

"All of us have towing torpedoes out. These are bombs on long cables which are towed astern and sink to a certain specified depth. If the cable fouls anything at all, as the boat goes ahead, the bomb pulls up to it, and, when it b.u.mps, it explodes.

"We are in line. Suddenly there is a crash and a roar just ahead of us.

I am thrown off my feet. Barrels of water splash down into our c.o.c.kpit and roll off the decks. The bow lifts itself clean for a second. I think that the submarine has blown us up. Perhaps I am dead already.

"Then we settle down again, and except for a scared look on the faces of a couple of men and rather nervous, forced jests on the lips of others, we are plowing ahead just as before.

"Nothing has happened except the towing torpedo of the boat in front of us in the line fouled a submerged spar, or a bit of wreckage, and exploded right under our bow. 'If we had been a few yards closer we would never have been there any more.'

FOULS A SUBMERGED SPAR.

"As we realized what had happened, our tongues were loosened, and, if the crew of the boat ahead could have heard what we said about them, we would have lost their friends.h.i.+p most a.s.suredly.

"Way insh.o.r.e, after a circling chase of perhaps twenty minutes, the submarine came up. She was in such shallow water that she probably was having trouble in operating submerged. She was gone then.

"What followed was very business-like. It ill.u.s.trates the att.i.tude the British have come to take toward the submarines because of their flagrant violations of every form of international law and decency. It is the att.i.tude which any country, obliged to fight against them, will a.s.sume. To the British mind, submarines must be exterminated, just as one would exterminate a nest of poisonous vipers, or a nest of hornets.

People ask me how many submarines are being captured now. Very few! Many are destroyed, but few captured.

"No sooner did the hull of the submarine show itself than we began to hammer her with our three-inch guns. She opened fire, but her shots went wild, and, in a few seconds, she disappeared.

"As fast as we could, we ran over to where she had gone down. If the principles which obtain on land, in the air or in the navy at large, existed in submarine warfare, we would have gone over to see if we could rescue any of the wounded, but it was a U-boat and we simply made sure that there was nothing left of the craft.

"About where she went down, a quant.i.ty of gas and air bubbles were rising, and the dirty patch of oil was once more in evidence. That was a pretty certain sign the career of one U-boat was at an end, for the sea must have been pouring into her, and even though all her crew did not drown, once the salt water reached the storage batteries, the chloride would do the work.