TRAILING THE PIRATES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2833, 26 July 1916, Page 8

TRAILING THE PIRATES

HUNTERS OF THE NORTH"

SOME NEW SURPRISES

. Travellers arriving from England bring interesting accouuts of how the British Navy is dealing with the submarine peril (states the Syaney "Sun"). It will be remembered that the first submarine campaign collapsed owing to the destruction ot practically the wnole of the German unoersea fleets by many ingenious devices. Acts caught the unwary eubmersiblos in clasps of steel, and, wftfi the aid of a "listener," the prosenco and location of many other submarines were made known to eager patrols. What might be aescribod as the most sensitive ot telephones, accurately attuned to the wnirr of the submarine's machinery, but unaffected by any other sound, would indicate immediately to the waiting war noats that a submarine was hanging round. ri, o patrol boats, in communication by wireless, would compare notes as regards the sounds, and tho comparison would give them an almost exact idea ot their distance from the German emit and the direction in which she was making. In the lull between the first and second campaigns the Herman J\ T av\ possibly brought new ideas to eliminate much of the danger of tho nets'und the possibility ot capture. The British Navy—jud»in« by .tho second lull in the submarine activities of Germany—has apparently been equally ready with new ideas for combating undersea craft, and the ingenuity of tho officers of the finest fleet in the world, combined with tho vigilant watchlnß waiting in the North. Sea, has had due effect on the piracy policy ol the Kaiser's navy. Thoroughness in Little Things, Nothing goes overboard from a war boat, not even an empty cigarette packet. Ihs British is not lacking in admiration foi the German application of science (o small matters. Tho duly ot the war boat is to find out w_bero the submarine is, not to be dogged by iblill the opportunity lor torpedoing comes; Consequently nothing goes over tho side of the war boat because tho submarine, finding a cigarette packet, for instance, will examine it with tho minutest care. Experts will tell how long it has been in the water; tides give the clue as to how far it has travelled, and the submarine alters its couivse accordingly. Years ago an imaginative person, undeservedly overlooked by naval historians, invented the term Jack Tar for the fighting sailor man. ' His reasonviewed from this distance-is obscure, but with all his imagination he probably never foresaw that in the stirring days and nights of 191b' the Jack Tar term would have unexpected significance. Wherever the submarine has been cocking a baleful eye over the waves, Jack has been very busy with tar—tar of the quite ordinary kind that the stay-at-homes walk over when it has dried hard on the roads and pathways. And the ordinary tar has saved thousands of tens of the Allies commerce, thousands of lives probably, and been u source of considerable annoyance to sundry German submarine commanders trained to expect nets and dodge mines, but totally unprepared for warfare with a black, sticky liquid that isn't mentioned in tho Teutonic text books for the encouragement of frightfulness.

Blinding the Periscopes. An ingenious navy, out to catch tha wary submersible, contrived a method that gave opportunities of capture of prisoners as well as destruction, of crafts. Whenever a submarine arose and its periscope revealed a t'oeman more than worthy of its torpedo, it would naturally dive and run, and live to rise some other day. "We've got to blind him." said the Nayy, and brilliant, or maybe lucky, gunners at times smashed a periscope and sent 'the submersible groping blindly into the depths. But that was slow. . Then, came the tar idea.

. Somewhere in' England trawler . upoitrawler began landing huge tanks w~itn tar, and 'out along the trade routes, where the submarines wore likeliest lo lurk, the. trawlers steamed, pouring out tho thick black liquid till the blue of the waves was replaced with huge patches of dense black. Some of the patches were 10 and 15 miles square.

Above the tar carpets patrol boats kept unceasing vigil, waiting for tha submarines to rise. Sooner or later, the German craft would of necessity como up to breathe and take a peep round, ana if bo rose from directly under the tar, then it was a case of good-bye, little submarine, good-bye.

The face of a submarine periscope has about the same radius as a dinner plate. An indicator tells the commander of the submerged boat when he is nearim: the surface. When he knows that the periscope is just about to reach the surface, he leaves the indicator to see what- the periscope is about to reveal, and ready to give the command to dive immediatelv if he has come up in a dangerous location. One can picture the ppriscope coming slowly out of the depths and passing through 'the slimy tar on the surface of the sea. The. submarine commander watches in vain for a glimpse of sunlight. The periscope, as it rises higher, passes through the tar, winch adheres to its face, blinding it. The* periscone is revealed to the waiting patrol boats. but the submarine commander is still waiting for tho light, quite unaware of his danger. He ris»s higher, a"d the ton of his craft is exposed. .This is what the' British stunners have waited for. There is a whizz and a roar, and the astonished German officers' anfl crew find the ton of thel* submarine ripped off as with a knife. The chagrined Teuton finds he cannot submerge except to drown, and with the; best of taste lie prefers a British internment camp to Davy Jones's locker.-