FIGHTING THE U.B.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15728, 23 October 1916, Page 10

FIGHTING THE U.B.

WITH TBAWLER A>T> NET.

WORK OF THE FISHERMEN

In. connexion with. • Lady - Restt-y'a appeal far the British and Foreign Saflora' Society, the following acocnmt by Mr Alfred Koycs, of the vrork which 13 being done by tho fishermen and merchant seamen, in fighting Germau submarine, will be ica-d interest. CELEBRATING THE FIFTIETH. Nothing is more striking in the conduct of this wnr than the way in which the British method of "slow and sure'' has justified itself. The superficial clamour for sudden and sensational proofs of "what England is doing'' began in the first fortnight of the war. Neutral countries even wondered why the first month of tho war had produced no great historian. In the meantime, England was making the history of the next thousand years; and that can only be done on vast and deeply sunken foundations., which must be laid in silence.

It was done in silence, and silence was one of Uie weapons. Submarines went out and never returned. Other submarines went out, perplexed, against a mystery; and these, too, never returned, or returned in mysteriously diminishing numbers. Nothing was said about it till the destruction of the fiftieth was quietly celebrated at a small gathering in London ; and then neutrals began to enquire, with a new note of curiosity, •'What is England doing?"

We heard tales of steel nets—as vague as the results would have been, but for certain great preliminaries of which we never heard. To begin with, a body of men, larger than the United States army, was chosen from the longshore fishermen and trawler crews. They were gradually drilled, disciplined, and trained, and put into naval uniform. This force is now over 100,000 strong. Thev wero chosen, of course, on an entirely different principle from that of the Army. They were tough seadogs, of all ages, inured to all the ways of the sea, but-not at all to any form of discipline. This in itself implies very great, preliminaries, for. the finished product is'fit to man a battleship.

In tho meantime their fishing boats, trawlers, and drifters were gradually taken over by the Government and fitted out. for the hunt, some 3000 of them.. To these wero added a. fleet of fast motor-boats, specially built for scouting purposes. They were stationed at various points all round the island. HUNDRED-MILE TRAPS. From one of their bases a patrolboat took me out along ono of the longest lines of the flotilla. This innocent line of trawlers, strung out for some fifty miles, had moro nightmares in store for the German submarine than a fleet of battleships. It was an odd sensation to approach trawler after trawler and note the one obviously unusual feature of each —the menacing black gun at bow and stem. They were good guns, too— English, French, and Japanese. Tho patrol-boat carried a Hotchkiss. and most of the trawlers had equally efficient weapons.

There were other unusual features in every trawler, drifter, aud whalerfeatures that made one catch . ■ one's breath when their significance was realised. About this I may say very littlo. But in the matter'of the nets it was demonstrated to me that within twenty-five minutes any submarine reported in most of our home waters can no enclosed in a steel trap from which there .is no escape. The vague rumours that wo heard in the earlier stages of the war led ono to suppose that- theso liets might be used, perhaps, in tho English Channel - and other- narrow waters.. . But I have seen traps 1 100 miles, long—traps that could shift their position and change their shape at a signal. . . •

A submarine may enter their seas, indeed, and even-go to America. She may even do some damage within their lines._ But if does this her -position is known, arid if there be any future damage done it will probably have to be done by another'submarine. J 1 or she has called upon a thousand perns, from ev-ory--point of the compass, to close upon her return journey. I have actually, seen the course of a German submarine—whiph thought Uself undiscovered—marked from day to day on the chart at an English base. The clues to all the ramifications of this work, are held by a few 'nen at tlic Admiralty jn London. Wo boarded one of the trawiers just as her nets were running duty and" at tho ond of twenty minutes, when, the long-dwelling line of fishing craft had "dressed" itself, from the British coast to tho coast opposite, all that was necessary wa.i to wait for visitors. As for their welcomc, one skipper remarked to me cheerfully, "I don't know about the others, but I've killed ten."

Throughout this work of the auxiliary fleet, it is'worth, noting that. in. their records of rescue and salvage,..a good half of their care is devoted to.the.ships of neutrals. ' It is England that sweeps the sea for mines, marks them on her charts, warns, delays, and guides the traffic of tho world through'a'thousand unknown perils. And England has paid the price for it; for, while tho neutral traffic is held up for an hour or two, as at the lifting of a policeman's'hand, the mines arc removed; but sometimes those who remove them arc awaited in vain in their homes in the little seaports. That neutrals are not altogether forgetful of the fact is shown by the exceedingly generous raised on' the Atlantic liners, among Americans and others, for the widows and orphans of tho mine-sweepers. On one Dutch liner recently over a thousand dollars was contributed for this purpose, in half an hour, by the passengers at breakfast, who had come undisturbed through waters full of menace! SAVLXG THE NEUTRALS. -Bnt neutrals not always escaped; and, in talking to the meu on these trawlers, I was struck bv the fact that a large proportion of their tales referred —as 1 have said above—to the salvage or the actual saving of neutral ships. Often, a<s iu the case of tho Falaba, the rescue work is attended with many perils to the auxiliary concerned. From the Falaba lit! persons were resorted, and the drifter was "bilged," a phrase that, in this case, meant '"almost foundered." On a few occasions the hunters have themselves been trapped. Three men, taken off a trawler by .a submarine, endured an eighty hours' nightmare under the. sea that shattered the mind of one. and left permanent traces on the other two. Periodically revolvers .were put to their heads, anil they were ordered, on pain of death, to tell all they know of our naval dispositions. They saw a.good deal of the internal routine of the German submarine also: and noted, characteristically, that the German crew—on tiis boat, at any rate —were very ''jumpy, V too "jumpy' 7 even to take a square meal.' ' They munched biscuits at their. stations .at odd moments.

On the third moraing they •.heard guns going overhead and watered the Germans handing out shells to their own guns. Finally a torpedo was fired, and they heard it take effect. .Then they emerged into the red wash of dawn, and saw only the floating wreckage of the big ship that had' been sunk; and. amongst the wreckage, a small boat. They were bundled into this; told they were free to row to England or Nineveh: and the submarine left them—three longshore fishermen,, who iiad passed through the latest'invention

of the modern scicntific devil, two who could 1 still 'pull at • the oars, but the other too crazy to stocr, as his littlepersonal part of the price paid by England for sweeping and patrolling tiho seas of civilisation. Many.- were the tales of neutrals, towed to port, battered but safe, by these indefatigable auxiliaries. _Ono was towed in upside down by fixing an English anchor in one of her German-mado shellholes ; ■ she was towed for a hundred miles, at a quarter of a knot an houi. and arrived for the Admiral at. the base to make his inspection. But, even with neutrals, the auiUiaxy fleet finds it necessary sometimes to add the wisdom of the serpent to its general philanthropy. On one occasion a neutral tank steamer "was overhauled. She was believed to be carrying suspiciously large supplies to a suspiciously va?rue destination, but was allowed to proceed for political reasons, and in the name of the freedom of the seas. Nevertheless, with innocent fishing-boats dotting our waters at intervals of half a mile and wire.rss telegraphy to help them, the sea has almost as many eyes and ears to-day as it has fishes; and at dnsk a drifter rolled up to our neutral friend again. "BAGGING A BRACE." "Begorra. it's twins!" ssiid the gunner, training his 12-pounder on to her; and twins it was. For, tucked close under either quarter, lay a Germau submarine, quietly being fed. Before thev could submerge, or bunk away, the crew of the drifter had boarded the neutral and had persuaded the submarines, with the help of a- dozen revolvers, that they were prisoners of war.