Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1917-07-06

ing apparatus and an Increased supply of fuel and
food which would make 1t possible for her to per-
form her service for longer periods and over
wider of action.
The whole subject of submarine mines offensive
and defensive, and the Subaqucous protection
against enemy submarines is with which our
naval and military authorities deeply engaged
II is safe to say that are going To see some re-
markable developments. and largely because our
allies are going to give the benefit of their own
experience that native ingenuity can start TO
improve upon the fruits of the labOrS of Others
Indeed, our subaqueouS dpfenses must of necessity
be of the best types possible because of the extent
of seabOard and the comparatively limited
number of vessels that the navy has for patrol
work.
The recent presidential order prescribing de-
Tense at the approaches of certain ports and
waterways had to do with the armys part pri-
marily in this matter of subaqueOus safeguards
The mine fields controlled by the military authOri-
ties. those of the Coast Artillery corps are as n
rule protected by observation mines or electric
contact mines that are made active or inactive by
the operation of a switch That is to say the vita
lizng current comes from 4 central station ashore
and neither of these types Of mines will explode
unless the electric current reaches them by way
of a submerged cable
In the case of the contact mine with the current
turned the mine will explode when bumped
and tilted over to prescribed angle. The Obser-
walton mine. on the other hand. does not have
to be touched by the enemy craft. but is subject
to the will of an observer shore.
Observation mines are planted in groups and
laid out in definite checkerboard areas and
each group is set off separately and sinultane-
5usly The observer. by means of range marks
or bearings, knows Just when the approaching foe
reaches any one of these squares. and accordingly
the within which the enemy lies ut the mo-
ment determines the group of mines to he deto-
mated.
The contact NINE may easily he understood.
does its work where observer might fail after
dark and for that reason the electric current Is
turned on with set Of and the whole area so
sown becomes instantly menace to friend or foe
II is quite likely that observation mines were
employed by the Turks at the Dardanelles and
therefore by approaching from under water 1t was
possible for the British submarine Eli to dive
beneath five of mines, probably showing
their cablcS aside and fitting the weapons and
then pushing on so that she could rise 40 the sur
face and torpedo the Turkish battleship Messu-
diyel which stationed 10 guard that very
mine field.
Had those mines been of the contact sort the
displacement Of their cables would probably have
caused their defamation and likewise the destruc-
ton of the Eli. other British submarines sue
Ceed"d in passing submerged through those Turk
iSh defonSCs. the enemy observers being unable to
see the underwater boats. 1t was the exploits Of
10 the British the weak spot in their own mine
defenSeS end led short while afterward to the
development of other protective agencies in deal
Ing with the German underwater boats.
Cnqucstionahly the most spectacular part of
submarine mining is That in which the weapons
rcSorted to in open WATERS especially in those
offShorc areas whore defense of that sort is not
ordinarily employed. The Italians were the pio-
neers in this order of subaqueouS warfare. and
they developed the art in peace such point
that other nations realized that the mine was no
longer limited in its potential usefulness either to
the defense OF port for bIockading the ships
in an enemy harbor
The Italians showed that the submarine mines
could be used extensively. to speak. If planted
secretly and placed where by strategy the unsus
pecting foe could he lurcd over and into them
The japanese during their war with Russia made
GOOD of what the Italians had taught them
and when the present conflict began Germany
fully prepared to carry the practice still fur
Their.
German mine layers were ready and numerous
August | three years ago; and we now know
the kaiser's navy lost no time in mining the marine
approaches to the fatherland. Not only that. but
these craft. in various guiSes planted mines over
wide areas in the North and I'm the waters of
the British isles.
The Hague convention of 1907 among other
things provided that iii is forbidden to lay an
chored automatic contact mines which do not
become harmless rs they have broken loose
from their mornings" and it was also prescribed