Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-07-27
DROWNING A SUBMARINE.
The Inhuman Task Compelled by the
Rules of War.
(From the Worcester Telesram)

Id
Men of the British navy have taken
many submarines Of the enemies out of
their wire traps. That they make these
undersea boats over and send them out
as English submarines TO torpedo other
craft of the enemies is taken for granted
though 1t Is not admitted in the official
reports Worcester men may have made
some of the wire in the traps which
have captured the German and Austrian
submarines and there may be some sat
isfaction in that part of the work. Eng
lishmcn whose duty it is to take in the
trapped diving boats, do not like the
work. 1t is the most grewsome of all
the ghoulsh business of the great war
In Europe, they claim.
An English doctor who has been with
the rescue" crews, tells the story, but
he admits there is no sense of rescue
about it, for nothing is done to raise tho
submarine from the trap until all OH
board are desd, and It is the most hor-
rible of all the deaths OF war. the doc
tor claims. When a submarine strikes
one of the thousands OF wire nets set
all around the British Isles, there is no
known means of escape. Every move
the enmeshed wires. And the wires al
SO telegraph the capture to naval
station automatically. Then a destroy
err boat hurries to the trap like a hunt
er who discovers that game has been
caught in his deadfall The destroyer
takes a position above the submerged
boat
And the doctor is still more graphic in
further description. Then there Is moth
ing to do but wait, sometimes for hours.
sometimes for days. Officers and men
of the waiting vessel know what's 60
ing on down in the green depths They
know that in time bubbles will come to
the surface and oil will spread over the
sea The destroyer waits for the bub.
bles. death bubbles they call them. for
they tell OF death struggles going on
in the submarine" That may seem
simple to people who never tried IT, and
of course an Engishrnan should not
bother about how much an enemy Of his
country suffers in war time
! Still men are all more or less human
in their thoughts, If not in their acts.
and the doctor says II Is frightful there
over an expiring corps Of r,en who ar"
experts in the worst kind Of warfare
practiced, They suffer until the horrible
end and in some cases it appears that
the waiting men safe above them
suffer more and longer until the death
| bubbles rise to the top and show through
the oil. and then the hosting crane
comes and lifts up the submarine ana
the net and the Acknowledgement takes
place.
/ And you may expect TO read what the
English naval men find in the German
submarine. On that point the doctor
says: "Seamen who fought through the
maelstrom of Skager Rae will tell you
their story. but no sailor speaks of the
sights seen in recovered submarine
Those sights make strong men weak
and drive sensitive men delirtous with
horror" Then there is something about
the war which Is not allowed even To
get as far aS the censors. II Is too hor-
rible for the observers TO talk about
And sailors are not as a rule squeamish
For that reason and some others, 1t Is
probably not true that for months as
the cable reports have It, the German
people have been urging the imperial
government to turn the submarines loose
to do their worst with the peaceful ship
ping of all nations.