The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-04-27
Hunting Subn1drines-Bntish
NdUdl Officer Tells of the
Great Game on the Ocean
CRy Associated Pressl

Washington, April 81. Rear Ad
miral Sir Dudley r. S. DeChair. tn,
veteran naval officer of Great Brit,
aims war commission to the United
| States gave a group Of Washington
| newspaper correspondents a first HAND
story of some of his experiences dur.
| ing the two years he commanded 9
patrol fleet chasing German sub,
marines. Without minimizing the
gravity of the submarine menace he
confidently predicted it would be
overcome.
The admiral spoke of the memorable
lessons the allies had learned in the
war and said he and his colleagues
had come to place them at the dis
| posal of the American government.
II only WISH" he said, that could
| tell you the number Of German sub
marines that we have sunk. Unfor-
| tunately, however, that is naval
secret, as also are the means of de-
lection of submarines and Of combat
ing with them. Your navy has been
furnished with full details, however
by theApresent mission"
OF the prospect Of submarines ap-
, pearing in American waters Admiral
DeChair said:
1T would not pay Germany to in
augurate general submarine cam
paign off the American coast unless
she could also establish bases here.
Each submarine carries from eight to
ten torpedoes, besides a limited fuel
supply, which would be wasted in the
long trip over and back, not to men,
ton the warm reception she would
probably receive.
Mother submarines to supply fuel
and torpedoes are known to be in
mn i'm hNYt ovid "a
has been received that they are sue
cessful. The great difficulty in locat-
ing the submarines on patrol is large
ly responsible. AS a result the Ger
mans prefer to stay out for two or
three weeks, then return to port.
Nobody knows how many sub
marines the Germans are building but
we know they are working at feverish
speed and have heard reports that
they are turning out from two to three
week. The time of construction is
about eight months, with a similar
length of time for torpedoes and
great uncertainty exists as to how
long Germany can continue to supply
both vessels and torpedoes.
The crew of submarine requires
from six weeks to two months train
ing, but the officers and other experts
require at least six months. There
have been many reports that the Ger
mans have been forced to weaken the
personnel of the high sea fleet to
maintain their supply of seamen. but
of this we are uncertain. 1t is, how
ever, absolutely true, that some of the
captured crews are nearly crazy and
wholly sick of their job.
THE best defense against sub
marines, we have found, is the armed
ship. During the early days they en-
tirely veered away from such vessels
and even now only attack them sub
merged, when 1t Is necessary to waste
a torpedo, which can often be lodged
and to expose the submarine itself to
destruction. We have found that they
are very much disconnected If an arm
ed ship turns on them direct and tries
to run them down.
might attacks by submarines are not
to be feared, as it is nearly
as easy for a vessel to see submarine
as 1t is for a submarine to see a ves-
sci. Usually they run on the surface
at night, charging their batteries, and
leave behind them q plain phosphores-
cent wake, as does a torpedo fired at
night. 1t Is at night only that they
have opportunity to rig up their small
devices to receive orders from
home.
Submarine chasers are very vaIu-
able, as they are fast and especially
with the under-sea boats. A
three-pound gun is effective IL 1t
strikes the vessels shell, but where
the submarine is submerged four
inch gun is desirable to break down
the armored coming tower Sub
marines, we know, are carrying four
inch guns themselves, and some are