AFTER BIG "FISH"

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3065, 28 April 1917, Page 9

AFTER BIG "FISH"

HUNTING DOWN THE SUBMARINE PIRATES

HOW THE TRAWLERS WORK

I am confident that it is because the Admiralty has driven the submarines from, tho homo waters that Germany, announced her intention to create a. wider zono (says Alfred Noyos in ono of his submarine' articles). We have 4000 private yachts, whalers, and fishing-vessels,' and 60,000 men. in the anti-siibmarino fleet. Every boat is armed with guns throwing 12 or 14pound explosive shells, and has 1000 yards of steel netting trailing behind. We have'destroyed 200 submarines. All the home waters are mapped out in blocks and every block patrolled. Four thousand ships and sixty thousand men 1 Nor is this all, for these figures include only the so-called patrol or trawler ■ fleet gathered to protect the English Channel and the waters around tho British Isles. In addition to tin's, _ largo fleets of mine-layers placo mines in tho entrances of German harbours, while the' submarines are away/ and prevent them from returning.- There are numerous esquadrilles of aeroplanes, manned by the French; the constabulary constantly search/the shores of the, British Isles to ferret out the concealed submarine bases, and lately, at least, the skipper of every armed merchantman is, upon occasion,»a submarine hunter. 'Netting Tin Fish. •Many of the skippers of these trawlers and patrol-boats are Scotchmen. In fact, there are between 60,000 and 70,000 fishermen who have already been uniformed, trained, and practised; even in gunnery, for anti-submarine service. Many of them are Scotch, and all are seamen who range in age from the twenties to the three scores and tens. Yes,' some of them are even as old as that,'but they are the hardiest set of men'l' ever saw. I asked one old fellow how he .stood the extreme cold, arid he replied that he, like the rest!' soaked Ms sea.-boots and gloves in.the.'wateiy Really, they believe the water is>'armer than the air, and perhaps theyare right. It was one of'these old chaps who told me how he had been "shooting his net"—that's, the term they use for dropping one of their nets into position.' They throw off a heavy buoy to which one end of the net is .made fast, and, then steam away, paying out tho net as they go. When several- are in a group all pay. out their nets in this way, and' then eaoh trawler takes up the buoy of the adjoining vesselj so that the nets are stretched between the. boats at intervals of 1000 or, 1500 yards, depending upon the width of' the net. The weighted nets' sink to the bottom, and the lino 'of by steaming ahead' in tnison, can sweep the sea behind them for whatever width they desire, tho only necessity being that sufficient ships join the line to give this width. I once sa,w the nearer units of a line which, I was, told, comprised sixty trawlers and' stretched from the English shore to the Irish shore, across the Irish Sea. Well, this old chap had no more than got his net shot than he felt a jerk in ' it-that threw'.him six points off his' course.. A submarine had 1 become entangled in the net. . "How did you get rid of it?" I demanded.. ' . '. ! Said he.: "I caana tell ye juist what happened, but it was what "the A'miralty meant should happen when one o' these undersea lads gets entangled in pur nets. And, mind ye, the nets are verra. expensive." Trailing tho Quarry. How submarines are located and captured is told by Captain William S. Simms, the United _ States naval observer, in an article in the Philadelphia "Public Ledger." The TJ-boat is forced to come to the surface at least once a day to 'fill' her air-tanks and recharge her storage batteries, for the gasoline Bngines cannot be used when submerged. Both these operations make a good deal of noise, which is often heard by a patrol near by. As soon as tho submarine perceives she has been sighted, he says, she has goi to submerge. The commander of the patrolboat sends out a wireless saying that it such and such a time—say, , 7.30 a'clock in tho morning—the submarine ivas at a certain place.' An hour later, allowing for its maximum submerged speed (not over twelve miles an hour), it cannot be outside of a -certain definite area, no matter in what direction it may have been running. By 9.30 it cannot be outside of a certain larger area, the commander of the patrol-rflotilla leploys his boats accordingly.- At the same time aeroplanes go out and look ; or signs'Of the submerged submarine. The latter, though under water, is not vholly hidden. A moving body of ;hat size makes some disturbance at the surface. The surface waves are if a certain regularity, which, is per;eptibly disturbed by tho submarine, even though she be. as far as 150 feet lelow—that being about the limit of lepth to which she could venture, lest ;ke pressure of the water crush her. The man in the aeroplane is able to iverlook a very large expanse of seasurface. As soon as he perceives the 'ripple" of a submarino he signals the learest patrol-boat, and'the latter proseeds to lower a net in front of the submarine. The, latter, of course, vhile under water, is blind. It does lot know that it has been located; it loes not know what is going on overlead on the surface of the sea. It s groping its way through darkness by lompass. But the submarine, thus leteoted in its underwater travel, can ae easily followed. The direction of its course is plainly seen. To drop a net in front of it is a simple porformmce. The* undersea-boat pokes her lose into it—through one of the meshes —and is caught, like a fish in a gilllet. The business isi just a kind of ishing. Once the submarine is caught in a net it has small hope of escape, for the nets used are of special construction, and even the latest U-boat models, which have shaped prows for netr Hitting, are rarely 'able to break away, riie net used for tho purpose is much ike a fishing net; but it is made of wano-wire instead of cord, and its neshes aro about ten feet square. It s about three hundred yards long and i hundred feet deep, with floats to uplold tho upper edge, and ilong the lower edge 'to maintain it in i vertical position, like a fence. The yiro being so small (though very strong) and the meshes so large, a net jf tho size described can bo rolled lip into a bundle of no great bulk and eadily stowed in the patrol-boat. Tho net, when once _ tho isubmarino on:ounlers it, furnishes an elastic bar--ier—incomparably more difficult to penetrate on that account. Tn fact, because it yields, it can not be pencirated. It yields, yet holds. Meanwhile, the floats on the surface attached to tho not. show by their movenont the struggles of the submarine to escape,. If some of the floats sink it s manifest that the' trapped boat is trying to get ajjay by sinking and massing beneath the net. But such an effort rarely, if ever, succeeds. The netted submarine may sulk and refuse [o come to tho surface. That doesn't natter at all. If those on board prefer to die. for lack of air, it .is up to them to deckle. But experience has proved that they invariably prefer to ;ome up and surrender before their airsupply "gives out. ,In then- oase, the ;aptors are content to wait'j *