Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1917-02-23
alfred MOVES Goes
! SUBMARINE FISHING
English Poet Describes How
Great Fleet of TrawlerS
Trap U-BOatS
NATION USES LONG
NETS OF STEEL

NEW YORK. Feb. 23.-Germany
thrust her submarines out into a new
Atlantic zone because the British pa
troll fleet Of 1000 vessels made furth-
or depredations in the Nome waters
impossible, according to Alfred Noyes.
AS Mr.. Noyes phrased It.
Two years ago the U-boats were
sinking six or seven ships a day in
the Irish Sea, even of Liverpool
Itself But that is past. If a sub
marine entered the Irish Sea now IL
would be caught by the continnons
~, ,i,io Vi nets stretched from the Eng
- i,'i 10 the IRISH coast. or If by chance
, ~ uiu get IN. 1t couldn't get out again.
nat Is the real cause Of the At
,anlic campaign. Submarine war
rare mas come nearer America he
cause 1t has been driven away from
The English poet and lecturer re-
turned TO the United States three
weeks ago. after nine months abroad.
lie observed lighting on the Somme
front, saw how German prisoners
were faring in English interment
camps and by permission of the Adj
mlralty spent some time with the pa
trol fleet watching how tho swarm
OF traw lers. whalers, fishing boats
ana private yachts dld their bit I'm
reducing the submarine menace.
About 200 Submarines Gone.
Mr.. Noyes estimates that at least
200 submarines had been captured or
sunk up to the time he left England
ana that for every four ships sunk
by the Germans. a German raider
was destroyed.
cant tell everything I saw" h,
said, but ] think I saw everything
The Admiralty has mapped the home
waters into squares and each boat of
the patrol fleet has its own square
10 look after. Each has wireless. and
within twenty-five minutes the Admir-
allty Office in London can communi-
cate with all the patrols at a given
Dase. Some OF the craft are eXcur-
sion steamers such as one sees on
Long Island Sound some are thick
ribbed whalers manned by fishermen
from Newfoundland, some arc smart
power bOats-every sort of vessel and
all co-operting splendidly.
some of the old sea dogs take Ar
mageddon rather lightly. I'm afraid
There was, for example, Scotch
skipper patrolling i'm the Mediter.
ranean. His ship had to be sem
back to the base for engine repairs
When it got there an officer noticed
that the skipper and a few of nj,
men were not aboard. He asked
where they were.
"'Oh.' one of the crew answered
when the ship was disabled the,
went off in the dingies and they'r,
back there now blockadin' the Bul
CARS
Employees 10000 Fishermen.
Mr.. NOyes said that all sorts OF an
ti-submarine devices were bein
used by the patrol fleet and that be
tween 10000 and 70lOO0 fishermen
drilled in gun practice are in nava
uniform and engaged in this part o
the war.
"They run from lads up to men VIII
have passed their three score and ten
but who are rugged from outdOo
life" he went on. IAN old Scotch
man was in command of one of tn
boats I was on. / asked him IL h
didn't get cold on raw winter nights
Not at ALL he told me. L just soal
my sea boots and sea gloves in sal
water, and that keeps me warm
This skipper had a Bible in his cabin
also an odd volume of Froude his
tory. dealing with the Spanish Ar
mazda. and. I regret to say. a nov,
by Guy Boothby called The Beauti
full White Devil In one of our con
versations he said to me:
lone NIGHT suddenly my ship wen
six points off her coorse. / needn
tell We what had happint. It wa
what had happint. IL was what tn
Admiralty intended TO happen to lad
with U-boats who tried our prett