THE NORTHERN PATROL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16098, 11 December 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE NORTHERN PATROL.

BRITAIN'S NAVAL BLOCKADE.

HOW IT IS MAINTAINED. Is- all her plans of naval war Germany reckoned on the British blockade of her commerce being imperfect, that a certain number of swift merchant ships would be able to slip through the long line between Scotland and Norway. Certainly if Britain had depended on her regular war craft, plus the auxiliary fleet, such a thins; might have happened. But immediately war broke out hundreds of swift pleasure yachts, of fish carriers accustomed to racing through heavy seas, of fast trawlers and drifters, were enroiled and given light armament as additional patrol .'hip-. \ud they closed the great "' North about" door to both 1.-i... i"-?ani. s and enemy mine-layers, and often put a period—sometimes a final stop —to the raids, of the submarines. Germsny had agai i blundered, and the cost i>t her blunder was the extinction i-f her commerce. Ceaseless Vigilance. In the village ports of the tar North. in tedious railway journeys through and beyond the Grampians one has talked to lnai'y men it the patrol fleet, and grim stories they have had to ted. Their life is by no cleans one a! ease and security, fir be*:oe teaseiess voyaging and vigilance t"r sii«iiigo .raft, they have to cover with thfjr light guns the mine-swee]>ers and the craft which are planting destruction i.i the way of the c&c&l befits and their submarines. Or. -\ way of a, change, a whole flotilla may dash to within a few miles of the German coast — ti'r-re is information needed, and obtained, though the tMv guns of Heligoland and of the mair. lino torts growl and the suhmarines come nosing out of the boc-m-drienJed cl:*r.n« .s. A torpedo or two may be launched from these furtive war craft. Hut they do not desire close aiTjuaintani'e with th- patrol fleet in jilting trim. Too many Us have been entrapped by clever ha.tue evolutions. Back and forward, in and out. at this speed and that, will the patrol ships, until tin* submarine lieutenant- puts out f>..- periscope to locate a victim, and is greeted _by n shower of small shells. Lucky for him if his tanks can be emptied swift enough to bring his craft awash before the water leaking through the broken deck weighs submarine and crew down to the bottom. Or it may be that some patrol boat gliding at ' five-and- | twenty knots is smartlv deflected to that furtive black object: there is a grinding sound along her keel, an unrise of oil and air, and another U boat has gone to balance the account which our,patrol men have against the enemy. Watching for Contraband. Another duty of the patrol boats is to hold up every merchantman bonnd for enemy or neutral porta. 'But Germanv has long disappeared from the list of importing nations, so there are only ships now for the neutral lands to deal with. With the breaking up of the enemy's fleet of commerce raiders, their consorts with coal and —yes, sometimes out of British ports and 'flying the British flagalso went. And" the "trawler," with her shelves and holds full of enemy mines, has also departed, thanks to the patrol fleet. No ship seems able to spend a day on the North Sea without.coming under observation. The good ships pass quietly on, and are even convoyed for leagues, but for the sinners, with their cargoes of contraband, there is arrest. One has watched a great tramp steam slowly and unwillingly into some northern roadstead with -no more escort than a small p&cht. But that has indicated nothing of the exciting time out on the open sea. Then the hi? ship, going at her best speed, ignored the signals of some " darned cockboat," and was making merry way towards the Land of Fiords. The knots were reeled off rapidly, more and more pressure given the engines, until the little patrol craft apparently gave up the chase. And then away in front rose the stumpy mast of some destroyer too old and slow for the fighting line, but still nimble, enough to outdistance anv ' merchant steamer. '• Anned, too, with powerful guns, and with torpedoes waiting in their tubes to mate assurance doubly sure. British might and British power, the sign manual of the Empire of the Sea. Sullenly, as a flag ran up. the tramp's captain'rang off his engines, and a minute later she rolled through the swell, steam hissing through her safety valves, her engines at rest. The rest of that ship's story is told to a judge in some Prize Court* for on board she has enough forbidden stuff to condemn her from keel to topmast, and her papers are a study in ingenious dishonesty.

Every class of warship built by Britain is represented in these patrols, and even the German battle cruisers are not quite easy about their presence afloat of the old heavyweight. It is possible that improved guns hare been shinned on them since the dread game of -war began. The second-class ships of the enemy will do well to avoid these seasoned craft, for they are well handled, well equipped, and fighting ships to the core. There are torpedo-boat destroyers in the patrol fleet which once held records (since surpassed) for speed and handintss. Should such a craft glide within. torpedoing range of a Boating fort her message will be just as effective as if launched bv the newest craft in the service. Tales That May Hot be Told. One would like to write of adventures told by men of the Northern patrol, but the Censor forbids 60 much. Yet one may say that during the first winter of the war more than one ship held her course against the roaring Atlantic for four months without rest or relief. A grim task, with never a friend nor an enemy ship in sight. A dangerous one, too, for the gales seethed around night and day, and the decks were deluged with great waves. Yet so vigilant that the alien steamer, tearing along, without showing a light, was detected and arrested. Up there, on the Northern patrol, winter is indeed a time of darkness, for the sun scarce reaches the horizon at all on some days. And at best day is but a feeble glimmer between two deserts of darkness. One patrol went regularly up past the Norwegian coast, until in the clear air there was seen the gleam of floating icefields. Another patrol held a thousand miles of unfrequented .Atlantic, and was never in sight of land. A few patrol shirs ran into the narrow firths of the > orth and of the islands for shelter when the storms could not be faced, but at thefirst ease in the gale they were out again to do duty. And little escaped them. r Much of the refitting, the reprovisionmg of the Northern patrol is done in lonely bays and roadsteads Chi a certain day the supply ship come§ £? anchors, and the patrol runs down to the pace There are. mails, too, on the sun nlv ship, and books for lonely Jack £ her advent is always welcomed' For land exercise the men are put ashore on tinv uninhabited islets-a welcome change i£ And the Men. One is warned by the previous sentence that no word at all has been written of the men of the patrol service They are even more a medley than their i ships. The aristocrats „ of course the men of the regular navy, backed up by the veterans of the Royal Naval Reserve J hen come the men who have volunteered' their yachts and crews for the patrol se7 ce. And further down in th P e ShTo - class (really an obsolete peace-time distinction) are the men who have f*7Z childhood followed the sea as fehermT deck-hands, engine-men, and the like- In the Northern patrol one expects, and fag men of the Moray Firth nf m« o , ' the Shetland*, and of the wild £«&*?*■ -But these are not all, for the slow ♦"** of the Channel ports the \f t ? QgUe West Country, the speech Jk ♦I the West Ireland, 'and th^StuLW and the men who sail out rfinV U * I $ 0t ° the Mersey is 0 en heard *fe fwood "d called all men of BrS J* 16 ™ *?* flag whk-h "for a [r h b °° d to the g, braved the battle Lad haS