New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-11-19
The North Sea
And Peculiartes of the German Coast Line Shouting h
Difficulties Which the Fleets Encounter
Bp Cheradi Davis


have given a simple description OF the
ships of our navy In my previous articles
and have outlined some Of the work those
ships may be called upon TO do. AS the war
goes on 1t is quite evident that we must
take the laboring oar, and it is slowly but
steadily being impressed on our country
that we have ahead Of US herculean task,
the duration Of which no man knows. One
by one the Allies associates seem to be
giving way. Russia is clearly out Of the
war, Rumania has been conquered, Serbia
no longer exists, and now the Germans are
on Italian soil and all the Italian military
advantages have disappeared. But on the
water. in spite Of the submarines, the Allies
are still supreme, and now that our own
ships are taking part in actions on the other
side, we naturally long to know what they
are doing and how the naval situation
stands.
Up to the present time the hard work has
all been borne by the English navy, and
the North Sea has witnessed all the more
important naval engagements that have
taken place in European waters. The Eng
lsh navy includes every class Of vessel |
have referred to as in our own, but in vastly
greater numbers and there are in addition
in service the much Wanted battle-cruisers.
The English have numberless motor patrol
boats built on this side of the Atlantic
as q rule. They have taken over, as we
have, all the available private yachts; they
have armed merchant ships as cruisers, as
we did with the German liner Eitel Fried
rich, now the De Kalb, and they have used
every trawer and other smaller craft they
could lay their hands on; they have also
monitors of a peculiar type, built to fire
their guns at extreme angle and pro-
tected with double skin, which is supposed
to make them welnigh torpedo proof. All
these are being used in one way or another
in the North Sea, the waters where the
final naval decision, if it ever comes, will
surely be made.
The North Sea
The North Sea is very peculiar sheet
of water. Roughly speaking, it is pear
shaped with the point at its southwesterly
corner, where the Strait of Dover connects
it with the English Channel. 1t lies be-
tween Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium
and England. Part of Norway, separated
by the wide Skagerrak from Denmark, is
also on the North Sea, which itself is about
400 miles wide. It's easterly coast is nearly
a due north-south line; its southerly coast
has a southwesterly trend, while England
and Scotland on the west have a slight north
west trend. The Skagerrak leads TO the
Cattegat and the several other channels and
straits running to the Baltic. The east
erly coasts Il shall omit Norway from fur
Their consideratioa) as we'll as its southerly
are sandy. The English and Scotch coasts
are of varied geological formation, but they
have no islands in front of them, as have
the other coasts. Along these latter and
between them and the islands are endless
channels, bars and shoals, fact which
chart emphasizes even to landsman's eyes
by the vast number of lighthouses which
are there shown.
very striking feature Of the North Sea
| is its shoalness 1t is not much as 300
! feet deep except close TO the Norwegian
shore. Vast areas Of it are not over 100
| feet deep-in fact, south of the latitude OF
/ Newcastle (55 degrees north, which Is
about that Of the Danish-German frontier,
the greater part is considerably less than
| 100 feet deep. of Long Island, which is
also sandy coast, the ocean deepens
RAPIDLY, and within about 100 miles is 1000
fathoms 5000 feet deep. The color OF the
/ North Sea, a pale gray-green, OF itself SHOWS
| how shoal the water is.
! Along the Schleswig- Holstein shore-the
lower part Of the east coast-are sandy
islands, and west Of the mouth of the Elbe,
which is where the shore turns from north
south to southwest, there are ALSO islands.
Especially noticeable is the row iof islands
along the last forty miles Of Germ shore,
from the entrance to WilhelmshaFen to the
estuary Of the Ems. These sandy Islands have
dunes much like our own Long Island shore
near the Hamptons, and were faYorite bath
ing resorts before the war began.
Within a distance Of thirty miles from
the Schleswig- Holstein coast, going south
west. are three great ports two CONNER
cial-Hamburg, which lies well up the
Elbe, and Bremerhaven, which lies some
distance I'D the Weser-and one military.
the great naval station of Wilhemshaven
on the Jade Bay. This bay runs inland
from triangular blight of the North Sea
into which the Weser empties, the entrances
to the Weser and the Jade (the great chan
mel from the bay to the North Sea- being
at the tip of a great shoal. At the mouth
of the Elbe, that rivers west bank, is
Cuxhaven, a submarine and destroyer base
of some Importance. Beyond Wilhelmshaven
the coast line is unbroken until the Ems
estuary is reached. On the east side of this
Is Emden, connected with Wilhelmshaven by
q canal, and itself the sea terminal of the
famous DortmundEms Canal. Across the
estuary is Holland There are no ports on
the Schleswig- Holstein coast, but the Kiel
Canal joins the Elbe between Hamburg and
the sea.
Il does not require much familiarity with
a chart to realize that to approach any part
of such a sandy coast without the aid of
pilot who himself must rely on buoys, light
houses, beacons and various landmarks,
would almost surely result in the vessel
going aground. And this is especially the
case in connection with the approach to