FIGHT AGAINST SUBMARINES.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15183, 31 March 1917, Page 7

FIGHT AGAINST SUBMARINES.

J BRITAIN'S GIGANTIC FLEET. | 200 U BOATS CAPTURED.

I SAN FRANCISCO, February 28. I ' As is well known in the Antipodes, | Great Britain’s policy ever since Ger- | many resected to the use of the pi rat i;i cal sea worfaro has not been to disclose ■ an information |hat might be of nse ' to the Kaiser in regard to disasters that have befallen the hundreds of Gerg man submarine hat now lie in English harbours bn| occasionally details arc disseminated by travellers from the Old j Country in America that are of more than passing interest order to offset the baneful nlnence * r of'Gcrmaii propaganda in the U.S. that ■ German agents hare industriously cir- - eulated, England has just initiated a new departure in sending to America a number of influential commissioners, and they are now busy visiting the , principal cities of Uncle Sam’s territory to lay before the real American citizens come idea of John Boll’s efforts to wrestle with the submarine menace. Next in importance to Sir Gilbert Barker, “England's publicity man in the United States," is Alfred Noyes, the well-known English poet, who has arrived in New York on this educative mission. Accordin’ to this Britisher. England’s anti-submarine fleet consists of 4-000 private yachts, whalers, and fishing vessels, manned by 60,000 men, and that force already had destroyed 200 German submarines. Interviewed, Mr Noyes said: “Every boat is armed with guns throwing i2ib or 141b explosive shells, and has 1.000 yards of steel netting trailing behind. At’, ths Homo waters are mapped out In blocks, and each block patrolled. Imagine sixty trawlers stretching a. steel undersea net from the English to Irish coast, and yon get some idea of the British Admiralty’s anti-submarine campaign, by which German submersible* have been driven from Home waters and forced to attack neutral weasels on the high seas.” Air Noyes said he had spent many day* with the ►* trawler, and was informed by their captain* that a submarine rarely will attack an armed vessel. What becomes of a. submarine after it strikes a trawler's net, Mr Noyes says is a naval secret.

AUSTRALIAN ATTACHE’S RECORD

_ With convoy-. _of her newot 40-knot destroyers, heavily armed, circling at express train spied around fleets’ r 1 alow-moving merchantmen and freighters. Britain expects to frustrate "t! latent and meet menacing tacics of Germany’# blockade. Tfai; is the statement made by that genial Australian. Captain Guy Gaunt, 8.N., the Briti.-h naval attache connected with the Rri f Ml Consulate in New York. He says thk method will be used to protect cargoes on wh'-H Britain must depend for her very life.

‘Tn protecting our mercantile marine ► at the present time we have simply to • cw.rider the submarine," said Captain Gannt. “Half a dozen fast destroyers fe he able to afford adequate protecy ticn to a fleck of, say, .10 merchantmen t “The range of visibility of a U-boat | is not more than three miles. This means that the destroyers will not come means that the destroyers will not be compelled to stoeer a coarse more than inra miles rom the ships being protected. The big steamers will take the centre of the convoy, and the smaller tramps the fringe. Now, these small ships do not draw much water, which will make it necessary for a U-boat commander in attempting an attack to et his torpedo to travel a not more than Ahree feet below the surface. This ■ronM make it very uncertain whether i£|he torpedo would ever reach its target Mfitr at but three feet below the surface

v tae torpedo is very apt to ‘break water.’ In coming to the surface the torpedo, would probably burao a'ware and hare Its ‘gyro’ up-oi. There would be no telling then where it would eventually U»d. It might start off for the North Pc-le and hit the equator. "With every merchantman in the convoy armed, and with the destroyers ever on the alert, a convoy of merchantmen would lx? a xexr dangerous job for a submarine commander to tactic.”