Norwich bulletin., 1918-03-19
STORIES OF THE WAR
Where the Submarines Lost a Chance.

Where the Submarines Lost Chance. |
 (correspondence of the Associated Press):
 How seriously the German sub marine might have crippled the l British Navy in the early days of the | war, when there was not a single | British naval harbor protected from submarine attack, was told last week by Lord Jellicoe, formerly First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, in a, speech at the annual meeting of the Hull Sai- l lars orphange, Hull, England, The work of the fleet was good deal more arduous in the early days of the war than it has been since" there were no bases protected from submarine attack and the fleet was hunted from pillar to post to find se- curity to carry out the necessary operations of coaling. Some of the 1 coaling operations were performed
 under very exciting conditions, the
 base being open to any submarine that cared to come in. If the Germans knew it, they never had the pluck to try it. If they had done so. they might have reaped rich harvest. But we always had to be thinking of the possibility of such | base I spent many anxious moments and some very amusing moments amusing to look back upon, I mean, but not amusing at the time. There were constant scares of submarines, and we knew that if submarine got inside the harboF it might sink hat tleship with each of the ten or twelve ltorpedoes 1t carried. Put yourself in
 such a position and you may be able to appreciate little the anxiety that was felt whenever a signal was given | that a submarine had been sighted Enearby.
 "As usual in times of anxiety, we called upon the merchant marine, and an arrangement was made that if a
 submarine got inside a base, merchant ships should place themselves along tside until the warships could get under
 way.
 Then if the torpedoes were fired the merchant ships would receive them : instead of the battleships.
 u That was the arrangement. The , merchant marine as usual, did exactly
 what they were asked. Scores of small craft dashed about the harbor at full speed to keeA the submarine . under water and if They saw it, to endeavor to ram it. It was extraor- dinary, having regard to the con ditions of sea and weather. that many collisions dAd not occur. The skin
 with which the whole program was carried out, time after time. was a 3 great testimony to the seamanship of i those in charge of the traWlers and z bigger ships.
 "The British Grand Fleet could not
 exist without trawlers. One of the i. omissions in our pre-war naval prep ' arations was that we left the navy :, absolutely unprovided with vessels ? of the trawler type. When war came D the Admiralty had to depend upon the
 generosity of the trawler owners te keep the fleets protected. So it is f not too much to say that we owe the & trawler owners and men very large ' debt It would be impossible to re- : attempted to bestow decorations an6 '' medals. don't suppose any body ir the trawler service would Do un- a decorated.
 y There have been several outstandins e deeds of gaIiantry, one or two partic- Y ularly, which would like to tell about Q but shall not tell, because they were
 performed against submarines, and i
 the particulars reached Germany, tht Germans would learn something of oul ' methods. Moreover, if they ever go s hold of any man or officer who haS l. achieved some great success agains l. the submarine. they would not Urea d him any too we'll"
 In an address at the Hull Exchange
 Lord Jellicoe said in part: You wh' 1T belong to community connected b, l- sea, know better than those who liv' = further inland the difficulties witt ' which the navy has had to deal durinI 'e the war. Those difficulties are du m simply and solely to one source, ant s that is the submarine.
 "The submarine was sprung upon tn
 British navy. at any rate the mex at methods and morals of the submarine ,e as a suprise. I remember that LOT If Fisher wrote a memorandum in 191 ~ in which he expressed the opinion tha .s if the Germans were to go to war wit ef Great Britain, they would use sub marines against merchant ship
 That memorandum went to the Boar