HOW OUR DESTROYERS FIGHT U-BOATS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3189, 13 September 1917, Page 6

HOW OUR DESTROYERS FIGHT U-BOATS

SPEED AND mm HANDLING GREAT SWSTIM OF FAST PATROLS. Just how a British destroyer acts when attacked by a submarine was unexpectedly demonstrated to an Associated Press correspondent (says "ie New York "Evening Post") while travelling on one, of the modern oil-driven torpedo-boat destroyers from England to .. France. The correspondent had been taken aboard the destroyer for the purpose of observing British methods of combating the submarine menace, when the boat was suddenly attacked by a U-boat, a torpedo missing it by a, scant six feet, .thanks to the vigilance'and quick action of the crew.' The- destroyer was ono of a certain number which were convoying, in the usual manner, some large transports carrying British troops to France. The group of ships was half-way across the Channel when suddenly one of the look-outs spied a pair of periscopes rise for a' moment a few inches out of the water a half mile away. They were gone the next instant; but almost before they had gone came the shout: "Submarine on port bow," accompanied by a shrill call of warning from, the destroyer's whistle and the fluttering out of the flag which notified every other ship in the convoy of the enemy's presence.

Things Happen. On every ship things began to happen, more quickly than the telling. Guns were swung in tho direction from which the periscope had been seen,, ready to speak, if the periscope appeared again. Torpedo tubes likewise were swung into line, and the numerous anti-submarine devices along-deck were in tho hands of their skilled expert crews.

But even while this was being done came the torpedo, plainly visible from the deck! its gleaming brass body glistening in tho bright ; sunlight, its propellers pushing it at express-train speed straight towards the destroyer. Something was wrens; with the mechanism of this particular torpedo, for it should have travelled twelve or fifteen feet below tho surface. Instead, it came bounding along in plain sight, no wand then leaping one of the water, like a flat stone made to skip over the surface. , Even thus, it might have found its target, but for the presence of. mind of the sixty-year-old coxswain. He had been first to sight tho periscopes and had rushed immediately to an emergency lever whereby he instantly 6topped the port engine, thus swinging the ship with a lurch to the left. The torpedo whizzed through the water six feet behind tho stern of the destroyer, its graduallv lessening speed as it sank into the swirl of the engines .indicating that its possibilities for mischief wexe nearly done.

Except for the coxswain's action in twisting the ship from its course, the missile would apparently have made a square hit in the stern magazine. Meanwhile, the wireless was at work notifying the hundreds of patrols in all directions that the enemy was near. "We sighted a submarine on the port bow, just off blank bnov, 2.30 p.m. Torpedo passed just behind our stern, missing us. Wo aro proceeding with our convoy," said tho captain's message'. The Pursuit. It was caught simultaneously, ashore and afloat, by a hundred vigilant wireless operators. The destroyer's captain,, according, to his orders, must not lcavo, his convoy to seek out and attack the Üboat. Others would attend to that. Already they were gathering for the chase —trawlers, chasers, drifters, destroyers, even a dirigible airship far off on the horizon had caught the wireless call, and with the quick turn of a seagull, was. swooping down to tho pursuit. The transports and destroyers, al-: though fairly confident that the U-boat { would scarcely dare show herself again, oven for a pot-shot, were nevertheless taking every precaution. Every ship was at full speed, oil-burning destroyers constantly protecting their charges. The' whole attack occupied bare seconds. Convoy and charges were ontof rango in a few minutes at the most. Nowhere had there been the slightest nanio or (lurry, out niovemcuts of men and ships made with almost automatic precision and speed. Tho efficiency of tho British naval man is the efficiency of clock-work. Every cog knows its place. There is no meddling, no clashing, no interference, but a confident, rapid eluciency which somehow demands the use ot the" adjective "deadly." . Twenty minutes later the transports were safe in their port of destination, and the destroyer convoy was off again, thirty miles an hour, down the coast, to its next appointment. Meanwhile the business of seeking out tho enemy was going on in the fleet of submarine hunters which had gathered around Blank buoy." Just how the work was done, and just what was the result, it is not permitted to tell.