The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-11-20

where, because they are strictly for
hidden to go, they naturally repair;
and you will begin to get some idea
of what the trawler or auxiliary fleet
does
Now. imagine the acreage of several
deck basins, crammed gunwale to
gunwale with brown and lumber and
ochre and rustred steam trawlers,
tugs, harbor boats and yachts once
clean and respectable, now dirty but
happy. Throw in fish steamers, sur
prise packets of unknown lines and
Understandable junks, sampanS, lorchaS,
catamarans, and general service stink
pOntoons, filled with indescribable ap-
paratus, manned by men no dozen of
whom seem to talk the same dialect
or wear the same clothes.
The muStard-colored jersey who is
cleaning six-pounder on Hull craft
clips his words between his teeth and
would be happier in Gaelic; the whit
ish singlet and blue trousers held up
by what is obviously his soldier broth
er's spare regimental belt is pure
LoWeStoft. The complete blue serge
and SCOT suit passing a wire down a
hatch is Glasgow as far as you can
hear him, which is a fair distance,
because he wants something done to
the other end of the wire; and the
flat-faced boy who should be attend
ing to it halls from the remoter Heb
rides and is looking at a girl on the
dock edge.
Inc t1ratc IherG 100.
The bow-legged man in the ulster
and green worsted comforter is a
warm Grimsby skipper, worth several
thousands. He and his crew, who are
mostly his own relations, keep them
selves to themselves and grimly save
beard barking over the rail at
friend with gold earrings comes from
Skye. The friend is West country.
The noticeably insignificant man
with a soft and deprecating eye is
skipper and part owner of the big
slashing Iceland trawler on which he
drOops like a flower. She is built on
almost transatlantic lines, carries a
little boat deck aft with tremendous
stanchions, has a nose cooked high
looks rather like hawkmoth at rest.
The small shifting man is reported to
be holy terror at sea-
The child in the Pullman car uni
form just going ashore is a wireless
operator. aged 10. He is attached to
flagship one hundred and twenty
feet long, under an admiral, aged rs,
who was till the other day third mate
of a north Atlantic tramp but who
now leads a squadron of six traWlers
to hunt submarines.
How They Work.
The principle is simple enough.
Its application depends on circum
stances and surroundings. One type
of German submarine meant for muir
der off the coasts may use a winding
and rabbitlike track between shoals
where the choice of water is limited.
Their career is rarely long, but while
it lasts moderately exciting.
Others, told off for deep sea assas-
sinations, are intended to work quietly
and without any excitement at all.
Others, again, work the inside of
the North sea, making no distinction
between neutrals and allied ships.
These carry guns and since their work
keeps them a good deal on the sur
face, the trawler fleet as we know,
engages them there-the submarine
firing, sinking, and rising in unexpect-
ed quarters; the trawler firing, dodg
ing, and trying to ram.
The trawlerS are strongly built and
can stand great deal of punishment.
Yet again, other German submarines
hang about the skirts of fishing fleets
and fire into the brown of them.
splendidly "frightful'' results, but for
some reason or other, the game is not
as popular as it used to be.
Lastly, there are German subma-
rines who perish by ways SO curious
and inexplicable that one could al
most credit the whispered idea Git
must come from the Scotch skippers) |
that the ghosts of the women drowned |
lead them to destruction. But what
form those shadows take-whether of |
stewardesses or hospital nurses, and |
what lights or sounds the thing fam |
cies it sees or hears before it is blotted |
out no man will ever know. The |
main thing is that the work is being |
done. Whether it was necessary or |
polite to reawaken by violence every
sporting instinct of a Seagoing people |
is a question which the enemy may
have to consider later on.-(Copyright |
1915, by Rudyard Kipling.)