The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-11-21

The navy is very old and very wise.
Much of her wisdom is on record and
available for reference. but more of IT
works in the unconscious blood OF
those who serve her. She has a thou
sand years of experience and can find
a precedent or a parallel for any sit
uation that the force of the weather
or the malice of the kings enemies
may bring about
The main principles of sea warfare
hold good throughout all ages. and
as far as the Navy has been allowed
to put out her strength. these prin-
ciples have been applied over all the
seas of all the world. In matters OF
ldetail the navy to whom all days are
alike has simply returned to the prac-
tice and resurrected the spirit of old
days.
In the last French wars, a merchant
sailing out OF a channel port might
in a few hours find himself laid by
the heels and under way for French
prison. His majesty's ships Of the line.
and even the big frigates. took very
little part in policing the waters for
him. unless he were in convoy. The
sloops, cutters, gun briggs and local
crafts of all kinds were supposed to
look after that, while the line was
busy elsewhere.
So the merchants passed resolutions
against the inadequate protection AZ
forded to the trade, and the narrow
seas were full of single ship actions;
mail packets west country brigs and
fat East Indiamen fighting for their
own hulIs and cargo anything that
the watchful French ports sent against
them, while the sloops and cutters
bore a hand IL they happened to be
| within reach.
Brutal Age, but What of Today .
1t was a brutal age. ministered to
by rough handed men: and we had
put it a hundred decent years behind
US when-it all comes back again!
Today there are no prisons for the
| crews of merchantmen, but they can
go to the bottom by mine and torpedo
even more quickly than their ances-
tors were run into LIE Havre. The
submarine takes the place of the pri-
vateer: the line. as in the old days,
is occupied, bombarding and block
aiding elsewhere. but the sea-borne
traffic must continue and that is being
looked after by the lineal descendants
of the crews of the long extinct cut
ters and sloops and gun-brigs. The
hour struck. and they reappeared to
the tune of ffty thousand men in more
. |
have seen a few hundred.
Words of command may have
! changed a little; the tools are GER
tainly more complex. but the spirit or
the new men who come to the old
job is utterly unchanged. II is the
same fierce. hard-living, heavy-handed.
very cunning service out OF which the
navy as we know II today was born.
1t is called indifferently the trawler
or auxiliary feet. It is chiefly COM
posed of fishermen, but it takes every
one who may have maritime tastes
from retired admirals to the son OF
the sea-cook. It exists for the benefit
of the traffic and the annoyance of the
enemy Its doings are recorded by
flags stuck into charts; its casualties
are buried in obscure corners of the
newspapers.
serenely Sailing the Seas.
The grand feet knows 1t slightly;
the restless light cruisers who chap
erone 1t from the background are more
intimate: the destroyers working Off
unlighted coasts over unmarked shoals
come, as you might say, in direct con-
tact with IT: the submarine alternately
praises and-since one periscope is
very like another-curses its activi-
ties, but the steady procession of traf-
fc in home waters, liner and tramp,
six every sixty minutes. blesses 1t al
together.
Since this most Christian war in
cludes laying mines in the fairways
of traffic, and since these mines may
be laid at any time by German sub
marines especially built for the work.
or by neutral ships, all fairways must
be swept continuously day and night.
When a nest of mines is reported.
traffic must be hung up or deviated
till they are all cleared out. When
traffic comes up channel II must be
examined for contraband- and-other
things; and the examining tugs lie
out in a blaze Of lights to remind ships
OF this.
Tug Spies Know Their Work.
Months ago. when the war was
young, the tugs did not know what
to look for specially. Now they do.
All this mine searching and reporting
and sweeping. plus the direction and
examination of the trafic, plus the
laying of our own ever shifting mine
work, because the navy-as-we-know-
il is busy elsewhere.
And there is always the enemy sub
marine with q price on her head.
whom the trawler fleet hunts and traps
with zeal and Joy. Add to this. that
there are boats, fishing for real fish.
to be protected in their work at sea
or chased OF dangerous areas where,
because they are strictly forbidden TO
go. they naturally repair; and you will
begin to get some idea OF what the
trawler or auxiliary feet does.
A Cosmopolitan Crew.
Now. imagine the acreage of sew
eral dock basins. crammed gunwhais