The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-05-10

1lcao 4AOI III avn Oll lis 81 CcilCoS oAAA5A
unit in man-power, the men who con-
duct its fisheries. OF these it has
more than 100000 between Maine
and Texas
AS the nursery cradle Of the Bri-
fish Navy was it's fishing fleet, SO
must be the case with the great re-
juvenated American navy that will
be called upon to course the seas If
this country decides at last to en-
force it's rights to travel afloat upon
it's lawful errands.
By turning to its fishermen at such
time as the present the country will
be repeating its history. From the
days when the fishermen of Marble
head fitted out their first privateers
and brought into patriot ports the
supply ships of the British, the heav-
lest burden Of fighting afloat for Am
erica has fallen. on fishermen.
Most Of the Naval vessels of the
War of 1912 were manned by New
England fishermen. In the Civil War
the most efficient crews on the great
fleet that blockaded the Southern
coast were fishermen from north of
Cape Cod.
But today the available recruits for
naval service from the fisheries are
greater than ever before, as Ameri-
can fisheries are more diversified
than at, any other time in the coun-
try's history.
In earlier times the fisherman was
man of the sail alone, and in taking
service in the navy he carried to it
a knowledge. then valuable in his skill
as a sailor. But with the Civil War
steam came into use. and the sailor
had to adapt himself to it when he
flo
Today the greatest factor in sea
service is a knowledge of boats that
may be used in hunting the only kind
Of craft that the United States navy
or merchant marine need fear-the
lurking submarine. 1t must be hunt
ed by men with special capacity for
their work.
In this connection the modern fish
erman will become an invaluable re-
cruit for this kind of search is exact
ly in his line. He spends his time
in searching the elusive inhabitants
of the deep, and in doing SO learns to
read the book Of the oceans face.
A keen-eyed mackerel fisherman
sailing out/of Boston for Gloucester,
who can detect the passing of a
school of fish where a landsman's
eye would not catch a ripple on the
seas face, may be relied upon to see
the periscope of submarine the sec
ond it breaks the surface, or to trace
the telltale bubbles or streaks of oil
betray themselves when. hiding be-
meath the waves.
1t win be in such watching as this
that the strength of the naval pa
troll will Ie-in finding the hidden
foe and striking him before he can
strike.
There are thousands Of American
fishermen. to- whom no thought is
given in the present war prepara-
tions, who will come to the front as
giants in the fight. They are the
men who know how to manage pow
er boats Of every sort; who live and
work at sea on board little craft that
would seem mere cockleshells to Ma
val men, and even. to the crews of
the larger and ADLER schooners that
sail out of Gloucester and Boston.
These emen are to be found in every
mile of the American coast. They go
about a business day by day, year af-
ter year, that is always dangerous.
generally disagreeable, and never ex-
hardships, and submarine chasing
would be no more a hardship to
them than their usual trade.
An example of this type Of man
is found in the lobster fishermen of
the New England coast. They brave
the toughest winter weather to haul
their traps. They know every hole
in the rocky coastline into which an
enemy vessel might dodge for shelter
or supplies.
In this connection the New Eng
land shore fisherman has already
been of service to his, government,
though the public does not know it
as yet It came about through a
quiet search that was made by Secret
Service men and a few interested CT
Williams, in the summer of 1916, for
secret submarine bases on our coast.
A very well defined runor had got
about that foreign submarines were
using secret bases on the Maine coast.
An appeal made to the shore fisher
men of Maine proved that this could
not be the case-although it was later
found that a German officer was
summering at Monehgan. ostensibly
for his health, but apparently for the
purpose of Studying the island and
the neighboring waters.
The stranger had not been 4S hours
on Monhegan before the fishermen
there ''had his number" and a Secret
Service agent was on the spot to
watch him. Nothing came Of his
visit.
But it may be taken for granted
that had Germany at that time
sought to establish a fuel station or
secret base on the Maine coast, from
which to refit boats that might have
made the Atlantic passage to attack
shipping on this side of the ocean,
her submarines could not have enter
| ed those water without Immediately
being detected by the Inhabitants OF
the shore. ~
The men of Monhegan are fine ex-
| amples Of the kind of Americans the
| government may call upon at an
early date to aid in graphing with
| the submarine menace. They are
bred to the sea, and it has few ter
rors for them. They know boats as
| few men do, and the theory of the
gasoline engine, and of the steam en-
CINE also, is no mystery to them.
The Atlantic seaboard has its fish
ermen of the Monhegan type all
along ashore. In Massachusetts Bay
they are not all native sons" Bos-
| ton, for example, has a fine body OF
seamen in its italian colony, which
operates fleet of 200 power dories
exactly suited, in theory. to spottine
submarines, though some of them
may not be large enough for cruising