PAGE FOURTEEN BIDS BA SABA DLLADLDLLLLALLLALSSA THE DAILY BRITISH WHIG CT By ADMIRAL WILLIAM SOWDEN SIMS ORY SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1919, Having constanly before my eyes a picture of the Grand Fleet immune from torpedo attack, naturally the first question I aaked when discus- slug the situation with Admiral Jel- licoe and others was this: "Why not apply this same principle to merchant ships?" If destroyers could keep the sub- | marines away drom battleships, they could certainly keep them away from fmerchantmen. It is clear, from the | description already given, precisely [tow the battleships had been made safe from submarines; they had pro- ceeded as usual, in a close formation, or "convoy," and their destroyer screen had proved effective. Thus logic apparently indicated that the convoy system was the "answer" to the submarine. Yet the convoy, as used in previous wars, differed materially from any ap- plication of the idea which could pos- sibly be made to the present con- test. This scheme of salling vessels in groups, and escorting them by warships, is almost as old as naval warfare itself, #all their ships in convoy as a pro- tection against the pirates who were then constanitly lurking in the Baltic Sea. The government of Venice used this same device to protect its enor- mous commerce. - In the fifteenth century -the large trade in wool and wine between England and the Moor- ish ports of Spain was safeguarded by convoys, and in the sixteenth century Spain herself regularly de- pended upon massing its ships to defend its commerce with the West Indies against the piratical attacks of English and French adventurers. The escorts provided for these "floaty'" really laid the foundation of the mighty Spanish fleet which threatened England's existence for more than a hundred years. By the time of Queen Elizabeth, the con- voy had thus become the all prevail- ing method of safeguarding merchant shipping, but it was in the Napol- conic wars that it reached its great- est usefulness, The convoys of that period were managed with some mil- itary precision; there were carefully stipulated methods of collecting the ships, of meeting the cruiser escorts at the appointed rendezvous, and of dispersing them when the danger Zone was passed; and the naval offi- cords were "systematically put in <harge. The convoys of this period Were very large; from 200 to 300 ships were not an unusual gathering, and sometimes 500 or more would get together at certain im t places, such as the entrance té the Baltic But these ships, of course, were very small, compared with those of the present time. It was only neces- sary to supply such aggregations of vessels with enough protecting cruis- erg to overwhelm any raiders which the enemy might send against them. The merchautmen were not required to sail in any particular formation, nor were they required to manouvre against unseen mysterious foes. Neither was it absolutely essential that they should keep constantly to- gether; they could evén spread them- selves somewhat loosely over the ocean. If an enemy raider appeared on the horizon, the scorting cruiser or cruisers left the convoy and began chase; a battle ensued, the convoy meanwhile passing an its voyage une harmed. When its protecting vessels had @iBposed of the attackers, they rejoined the merchantmen. No un- usual seamanship was demanded of 'the merchant captains, for the whole Tesponsibility for their safety rested with the escorting cruisers. Im---- New Problems. Beating off an occasional surface raider, which necessarily fights in the -open, is quite a different proceedure from tecting an aggregation of ves- ; om the enemies that discharge oi under the water. As part ;protection against such fasiduous at« tacks, both the merchant ships and "of very slow vessels, she could of sconrse do this only when she was not Tar from the course of her advancing rey when she first sighted her. , this - ty game was usually aa verdic 2 submarine never knew in what direc- tion to go in order to &ot within torpedoing Sistance, and she could Ot 80 very far because her speed under water is slow. . The s As early as the thir-| teenth century, the merchants of the | Hanseatic League were ¢ompelled to! | This explained why, as soon as the | {merchant vessel or convoy entered the ! submarine Zone, Or as soon as a sub- marine was sighted, it began zigzag- ging, first on one side and then on the | other, and always irregularly, its | course comprising a disjointed line, which made it a mere chance whether the submarine could get into position | from which to fire with any certainty | | of obtaining results. A vessel sailing | alone could manouvre in this Way | Without much difficulty, but it is ap- { parent that twenty or thinty vessels, | sailing in close formation would not {find the operation a simple one. And {It was necessary for them to sail in {close and regular formation, in order | to make it possible to manouvre them | and screen them by destroyers; it is {evident that the closer the formation { the fewer the destroyers that would | be needed to protect it. These cir- cumstances make the modern convoy Quite a different affair from the happy { 80 lucky proceeding of the Napole- {onic era. ditions apply to a zigragging convoy, 1 DEVELOPING THE Merchant Captains Did Not Like Convoy. It is perhaps not surprising that the |.8reatest hostility to the convoys has always come from the merchant cap- {tains themselves. In the old days they chafed at the time consumed in {assembling the ships, at the necessity {for slower speed to enable the less |Speedy vessels to keep up with the | procession, and at the delay in getting {their cargoes into port. In all the {wars inw hich con vOys have been used it has been very difficult to keep the merchant captains in line. In Nel- {son's day these fine old salts were jeonstantly breaking away from their convoys and takingtheir chances of running into port unescorted. If the merchant master of a century ago rebelled at the comparatively simply | managed convoy of those days it is| |not strange that their descendants of | of the present time should not have: {looked with favor upon the relatively {complicated and difficult arrange- | ment required of them in this war, jand in the early discussions with {these men at the Admiralty it is not |strprising that they were almost | unanimously opposed to the convoy. | "The merchantmen themselves are | the chief obstacle to the convoy," said | Admiral Jellicoe, "We have discus- {sed it with them Jgny times and they {declare that it is impossible. It is jail right for war vessels to manouvre {in close formation, they say for we spend our time practising in these { formations, and as they think that it is second nature to us. But they say that they cannot do it. They partic- ularly reject the idea that when in formation they can manouvre their ships in the fog or at nights without ights. They believe that they would lose more ships through collisions than the submarines would sink." I was told that the whole subject had been completely thrashed out at a meeting which had been held at the Admiralty on February 2, 1917, enterad the war. At that time ten masters of merchant ships met Admir- al Jellicoe and other members of the Admiralty and had discussed the con- voy proposition at length. In lay- ing the matter before these experi- enced seamen Admiral Jellicoe em- phasized the necessity of good station- keeping, and he described the close formation which the vessels would have to maintain. Jt would be ne- cessary for the ships to keep together, he explained, otherwise the submar- ines could pick off the stragglers. He asked the masters whether it would be possible for eight merchant ships, with a speed which varied perhaps two knots, to keep station in MHne ahead (that is, in single file or col- umn) 500 yards apart, and sail in two columns down the channel. "It would be absolutely impossible,' the ten masters replied almost in a chorus. ---------- Lack of Trained Merchant Captains. A discouraging fact, they say, was that many of the ablest merchant ecap- 'tains had gone into the navy, and that many of those who had replaced them could not be depended on' to handle their ships in such formation. "We have so few competent deck of. ficers that the captain would have to be on the. bridge the whole twenty- four ficulty urs," they said, and the dif- iy not only with i, about six weeks before America had | conviction that they preferred to sail alone, cach ship for herself, and to let into port. Difficulty in Ove the captains, and in ence. single not doubtful were merchant captains that the convoy system Santer shipping ioses than were then ie German sub- the convoy not only on tb. y Ms {ntrod ¥ ese grounds; to en, een to. twenty per cent. the time and speed which they could + Ship Ouran ey make; many ship companies eo loss of earnings sumed In awaiting escorts. Er sae Ba tial defect of the patrol system, as it was then conducted, was that it was primarily a defensive measure. Each destroyer cruised around in an as- signed area, ready to assist vessels in distress, escort ships through her own "square" and incidentally at- tack a submarine when the opportun- ity offered. But the mere fact that a destroyer was patroling a particular area meant only, as already explained, that the submarin, had occasionally to sink out of sight until she had passed by. Consequently the sub- marine proceeded to operate 'when- ever 4 destroyer was not in sight, and this was necessarily most of the time, for the submarine zone was such a big place and the Allied destroyer fleet was so pitifully small that it was impossible to cover it effectively. Un- der these conditions there were very few : encounters between destroyers and submarines, at least in the waters South and west of Ireland, for the submarines took all precautions a- gainst getting close enough to be sighted by the destroyers. Yet the British and French navies were not the only ones which at this time were depending upon the patrot ® 1 Thi TH ui m-- ---- CONVOY IDEA The Area Nero? Wor Collede which mere? Zor Ss 0 determine plans Lor Coordinating The efforts of he Aves ,TOWS to keep them out of New York Harbor; and our coasting vervels Saw periscopes and the wakes of tor- pedoes everywhere from Maine to Florida. So prevalent was this ap- prehension that, in the early days of {the war, American destroyers regular- ly patrolled our coast looking for these far flung submarines. Yet the idea of seeking them this Way was absurd. Even had we known where the submarine was located would have been little likelihood that we coud ever have sighted it, to say nothing of getting near it. Sup- pose that we learned that a German U-boat was operating off Cape Cod: we might have had the exact latitude and longitude where she was suppos- ed to be at a particular moment, At the time message was sent the sub- marine might have been lying on the surface ready to attack a passing mer- chantman, but even under these con- ditions the destroyer could never have reached her quarry, for as soon as the U-boat saw the énemy approaching, she would simply have ducked under the water and remained there in per- fect safety, When all danger had pas sed she would hawe bobbed up to the (rot. Twining LL SH, Clore of JHLL 20 B72, 702 S928 light. The masters emphasized their each one take its chances of getting ---- Opposition. matter rested. I had opportunity of discussing the con- Yoy system. with several merchant these discussions they' simply echoed the views which had expressed at this formal confer- 1 do not believe that British \Cers came in contact with a merchant master who favored convoy at that time. They were about the idea; they | openly hostile. The British] their frst thought r 8 ony their country and the i eir jitituge in this yi ' from their sincere conviction 'would entail And there the naval the inflicted by the 88. Many naval officers at that time hared this same view, Toca time uctioh would mean down the fit because of itt the slower average aad directors of steam. objected to the d that 1t would delay and hedce which would be con- and £4 ihe merchant marines had ettirey eliminated the convoy from considera the proposal was stil the rate at which the Germans were - merchantm 'evitable. And thers two schools | men---one oppospd the Samefthe other {nsisting given a trial irresistible wttra " 8 hiet ance the ships and urged: Yet the attitude mean ition. At the time I arrived. 1 betag discussed ; en made this in- seemed to be among the Allled naval to the convoy, and that it should be The convoy had onet 'attraction for the officer seemed to counterbal- 1 the Shjettions which were Crossed in antichation of war; papers were filed with silly ¥ about "submarine bases" | Phasize that the patrol system was |Recessarily uneuccessful, because if |made almost impossible any combats {With submarines and afforded very {little protection to shipping. . The ad« vantage of the convoy system, as ite {advocates now urged, was precisely {that it made such combats inevitable. {In other words, it meant offensive warfare. It was proposed to surd {round each convoy with a protect {ing screen of destroyers, precisely {as in the case of the battle fleet. Any submarine which attempted to tor« pedo a convoyed ship could therefore {do so only in waters that were infest jed with destroyers. Just as soon as {the torpedo started on its course and thé tell-tale wake appeared on tha surface the protecting ships would immediately begin sowing the waters {with their depth charges. Thus thea | Germans would have to fight fox {every ship which they attempted ta {sink, instead of sinking them vonven {tently in waters that were free of |destroyers, as had been their prive< {lege hitherto. The great advantage of sailing ships through waters that {were completely protected by destroy ers had been shown in the immuns zone which had been established {across the Channel from Dover ta {Calais and from Folkestona to Bou+ {logne. By arranging ships in com i pact convoys and protecting them {with destroyers we would really cred {ate another immune zone of this { kind, only it would be 8 movable one. | We should establish, say, a square {mile of the surface of the ocean in {which submarine could not aperata {without great danger, and than we I would move that square mile along {until port was reached. i | The Nervous | School Child | . | Needs Rich, Red Blood to Regain | Health and Strength. 1 | Many children start school in ex- | cellent health, but after a short time; | home work, examinations, hurried | meals and crowded school rooms | cause their blood to become weak| and thin, their nerves over wrought! | and thelr color and spirits lost. It is | a great mistake to let matters drift | when boys and girls show symptoms | of nervousness or weak blood. They: there | are almost sure to fall victims of St. Vitus dance, or drift into debility: that leads to other troubles. 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