Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-01-10
INLAND NAVY Of
MOTOR BOATS IS
KAISER LATEST
Fast Little Craft Formerly
Used for Pleasure Are Now
Rugged Out for Active Ser
vice in War,
(Associated Press Correspondence. J


Brussels, Dec, 20.-The Germans
have just modified a sort of inland
navy of motorboats. which formerly
served pleasure purposes on the lakes
'around Berlin, but which now cruise
up and down the Belgian rivers and
.canals as if organized for the work
The boats are for the greater part
very fast and undertake a sort of dis
patch, police and reconnaissance SER
vice. They are painted grey, carry
machine guns and in some cases small
wireless outfits. However the oldest
part about them is possibly the crew,
Almost without exception the cap
tain Of the boat is the owner and the
crew is usually formed by men who
pass much Of the summer in the
shells of the Berlin rowing clubs.
They are all volunteers and before
they could be sent TO the front had
to be trained in the use of the rifle.
But many Of them took to this rapid
ly AT a recent fire test on the Wann-
sea the "bootsabteilung. as the SER
vice y known. established a percent
age of 2S hits, which is considered
high average. Many of the captain
owners are elderly well-to-do men.
But that it is asserted. has not les
sened their efficiency as canal cruis-
er commanders
The first of the boats were given
rather warm reception by the
French, English and Belgians near
Rathevalle, about two weeks ago.
Rathevalle is less than a mile from
Newport The boats had been sent
there to support some infantry move
ments with machine gun fire. They
had been seen by the French artillery
however, and before they got into
action shells were hitting the water
fore and aft.
The canal cruiser commanders
might have changed their coarse, but
even to them orders is orders Dis
covering that they could not reach
their objective point as they had in
tended, they began TO explore the
body of water they We're on. But this
served no purpose. Their exploration,
moreover, had brought them to the
attention OF some English troops and
then il began to rain bullets Never
theless, the fleet held its ground,
Drawing every variety of projectile of
the allies. Many of the boats were
finally pressed into the combat train
service. For almost seven days they
supplied some German advance in
fantry posts with ammunition and
food.
Carrying dispatches is one of the
missions of the fleet. For this the
speediest boats are used. Other boats
police the Belgian rivers and canals.
In recent search of the houses
along the Brugge and Ostend canals
two of the boats collected 226 rifles
which had been hidden.
Making war on aircraft is also the
business of these boats. Recently an
English aviator dropped two bombs
near one that had molested him with
machine gun fire. The bombs fell
wide, however, though close enough
to have the explosion smash every
port in the boat. Fishing for mines
is not the least of the tasks Of the
canal cruisers. Mines fastened to
pieces of ground have been found and
now cruisers approach every floating
timber with caution one boat cap
tured 100000 pounds of tobacco
and 100000 pounds of cotton