The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1915-10-30
IS T|RELESS GAME
Hunting of Submarines Like
Playing Hide-and-Seek.
Most Of the Romance and Action Of
Sea Warfare Is Now With
the seaplanes and the
Destroyers.
BY FREDERICK PALMER.
international News Service)

ENCWS oCtNiCcB
London.-Strangest looking OF all
the ships with the grand feet is the
Atlantic liner which has been trans
/ formed into mother-ship for the sea-
planes. There are platforms in place
Of the promenades where passengers
used to lounge, bombs in place Of
deck quoits, and the dining salons
have been fitted up as workshops
Everything that a seaplane needs in
the way of repairs can be supplied.
A crane that once had taken pas
sengers' trunks out of the hold lifted
a seaplane of a platform and deposit
ed it on the water, where it bounced on
the waves before the motor was start
ed and 1t SKINNED across the surface
for hundred yards or more, rose. cir
cled around the feet two or three
times and then disappeared out at sea-
Most of the romance and the action
of sea warfare while the British grand
feet waits for the German feet to
come out are with the seaplanes and
the destroyers. The dreadnaughts re.
main in harbor, except for occasional
cruises into the North sea; but the
planes and the destroyers are always
on the move. They work together in
hunting Fritz as British officers
and men universally refer to submar-
ines.
A submarine Is visible to an aviator
when it is cruising below the surface.
1t never travels deeper than thirty or
forty feet and leaves a characteristic
ripple and air bubbles and streaks of
Oil. When a plane has located a sub
marine 1t signals the hunters where
to 60. But before they arrive a squall
may have hidden the track. A sub
marine may be known to be in a GER
tain region and be lost and seen and
then lost and seen again. Submarine
hunting is tireless game of hide-and
seek. Naval ingenuity has invented
no end Of methods of location and of
destruction Experiment has proved
some to be effectual, and some useless.
Strictest kept II naval secrets these.
Very thin is she skin of submarine
and very fragile and complicated it's
machinery. 1t does not take much Of
a shock to put it out of order or a
large cargo Of explosives to dent that
skin beyond repair.
THE difficulty rs to know when you
get them" an officer explained; "for
1t is In the nature of the submarine to
sink, whether vitality injured or not
1t may have gone to the bottom to
stay in fifty fathoms of water, or it
may have submerged under a choppy
sea and made safe its escape We
have been hunting them for a year
now, and no doubt we are getting the
better of them We have not only
learned how to keep them of from our
great ships. but how to destroy them"
II oil and bubbles come up for a
long time in one place or if they come
up with rush, that is considered
fairly good evidence of success There
is no escape for the crew. They can
not make the submarine rise or get
out of it. 1t becomes a steel casket. in
a watery grave. No nautical mind Is
required to realize that by casting
about on the bottom with a grapneI
you will learn IL an object with the
bulk and size of a submarine is there;
and the death" of submarines is es-
tablished in this way.
THE admiralty will not accept any