New Britain herald., 1915-07-30
Converted Merchantmen Lure German Vessels to DestructionWooden Ships w Wooden Turrets, Wooden Sailors and Wooden Officers Are Playing An Import
 Part In Great Britain's Naval Strateov

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 wooden ships with wooden turrets and wooden guns, wooden sailors 2 and wooden of1cerstust like the toy ships of Toyland-are being used by the British navy as decoys to draw out the Germany navy from hiding. These wooden ships com pose England's phantom navy as it was called until few months ago when it was found the ships are real.
 Ten former passenger liners un- dor command of Captain J. H. Had dock. former master of the Olympic, compose the phantom feet" The vessels are painted gray to resem- able warships, and turrets of wood and guns of the same material have been placed on the decks to make the appearance more realistic.
 One of the vessels is the American liner Marion, which piled between Philadelphia and Liverpool under the British flag. Others are the form Cunarder Campania. the Cevic and two boats formerly in the Der muda service, the Oratava and the Carribean.
 These vessels make their base at Queens Island, Belfast. Their duty Is to approach near the German base and draw forth the German battle ships. They are manned with but small crew and in case one was sunk the loss of life, if any, would be slight. the victory would be nil and the loss nothing as what would be accomplished by the British navy while the vessels of it's adversary were thus engaged in bombarding the decoy.
 .WATCHFUL
 WAITING.
 When Germany deeidsl on a "watchful waiting policy on the sea as the best means Of lighting an overwhelming number of vessels. the English were in a quandary. They knew their navy was many , times larger than that of their Teu- ton foe and that in single engage ment they might send the whole German navy to the bottom of the sea. The Germans, too, realized this and decided to take no chances. It was decided to keep the German warships in hiding, in and about Helgoland, the great naval base, and sally forth only as raiders when they were able to single out Brit ish warship sailing by itself.
 From the first the Germans saw they must depend mostly on their subm arines to have an equal chance with a navy much larger than theirs. In fact. many years ago some great German commander realizing that 1t would take billions of dollars and many years time to increase the German navy to the size and strength of that of Great Britain, and realizing that dczen subma- rines might be built for the cost of one first-class battleship, decided on the less expensive and more effec- tive undersea machine of war.
 At the time the first rumblings of war were heard through Europe the German batt1eships were ordered to their bases and their commanders instructed to remain there and take no chances with superior foe. However, they were given permis- sion to engage any English battle ship provided their number of ships were as great or greater than that of Great Britain.
 This rule gave the English an idea. If they could expose one ves- sel to danger in the neighborhood of Helgoland or other German ports e1lOy n1ASAI Sednu e eAdHSS VI cASaS- ing the Germans in a naval battle. How to draw forth their opponents from hiding ther became the ques- tion. Manifestly, the ship used as decoy would stand great chance of being sent to the bottom riddled with shells and England, no mat ter how big her navy, cannot afford to lose ship costing several mill lion dollars and sacrifice several hundred lives.