The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-11-24
HALLS CAMOUFLAGE
AS VICTORY FACTOR
Merchant Marine Veteran Says
It and Convoy System
Beat U-Boats.
TELLS ITS TRUE PURPOSE
Not to Decrease Visibility but
to Deceive Submarines as
to Course Steered.
TELLS ITS TRUE PURPOSE


wattles OF paint beat the Germans and
ended the war, nothing else. The au
thority for this statement Is a merchant
marine OFFICER who fought and lodged
many submarines. His opinion wa,
given out yesterday by the information
bureau OF the. United States Shipping
Board. This makes the notion sort OF
| official
Convoy and camoufage were the two
devices that enabled the merchant ma.
rine to battle the pirates hidden beneath
the surface Of the seas" said the skip
per. The navy completed the Job by
protecting the merchantmen with de-
stroyers and furnishing them with gun,
and gunners. but the disguise Of camou.
mage and the ancient convoy system
the same that was employed by the
Spaniards carrying treasure ships from
the New World to the Old worid-made
the work Of the navy men much easier
than It would have been otherwise
~ ships, a single Convoy.
The old salt put forward by the Ship
ping Board gives a pretty definite de-
scription OF how the Hun boats were
lodged or fought. Let him tell the story
In his own way:
1T Is not hard to see why the convoy
system was effective Take the case of
convoy OF twenty-five ships (our mate
told me of being caught in a seventy
Two ships convoy In a sailing ship in the
bay OF Biscay). When these ships went
In convoy. instead OF there being twen-
ty-nve different units scattered all over
the zone for the U-boats to find there
was only one. That is. the Hun had
only one chance of meeting a ship where
he had twenty-five before. And II he did
meet the convoy he found It usually with
naval escort whose sole business was
sinking submarines He found. too,
| twenty-five looi<outs on watch for him,
twenty-five sets Of guns ready for him.
where there were but one each before.
IL the Hun showed himself to a convoy
and Its escort. the odds were that he was
due Tor quick trip TO the bottom.
The usual convoy formation, was in
columns in rough square. This was
the most compact and the insid& ships
were practically immune from tttacl.
The escorts ScffcieA sthe convoy, II neces-
sary. and the outside ships concentrated
their fire on any submarine that ap-
peared. F-'.. ...,,
Conveys were made hp al different
speeds, and even the rustiest old tramps
were provided for in six knot class.
In spite OF this some captains imag-
nation always tackled a couple of knots
to their ships speed. There seemed 70
be nautical version OF Home Sweet
Home'-'be It ever 50 humble, there's no
ship like mine and vessels making nine
knots on Broadway make a bare seven
Off Fire Island. These were the fellows
who were always falling back, slowing
up the convoy and bringing gray hairs
10 the heads OF naval escort COM
manders.
1T was remarkable what a snappy
escort commander could do with his
charges After a day or two together he
had them manPuvring in position like a
second Grand Fleet. many zigzagging
dark through a black night, not a ray
Of light showing anywhere II they were
in the danger zone or II a tin fish was
reported near"
Camounase ana It's Purpose.
The value OF camoufiage is described
by the same storyteller out OF his &C.
tual experience:
THE war brought no stranger spec
tscle than that OF a convoy ploughing
along through the middle of the ocean
streaked and bespotted indiscriminately
with every color of the rainbow In a
way more bizarre than the widest
dreams of sailors first night ashore.
Every American ship going across
was ordered cRmouhaged. The Allies
had similar orders. So one seldom saw
ship at sea except a neutral that was
not camoufaged. After a good look at
them you could see why the sea serpent
had the best season last summer he has
had since Baron Munchausen died.
Most people seem to think the pur-
pose of marine camoufage was the same
as that Of the land camouhage the army
used for its guns. That idea is quite
mistaken. The purpose OF marine
camoufage was not to decrease the
ships visibility at sea-indeed the
bright whites often used in camoufiage
sometimes made a ship much more
prominent than a neutral gray would
THE purpose Of the camoufiage was
to deceive the submarine as to the true
course of the ship in the distance. The
U-boat commander figured out her
course and speed in order to choose the
right time and place TO come up or put
ulb perlScope UP ana nr0 the torpedo.
II he were deceived as to its intended
victims course he came up In the wrong
place. where he could not get of a tor
pedo successfully and was perhaps dis
covered
The effect OF good camoufiage was
remarkable. ! have often looked at a
fellow ship in the convoy sailing on our
quarter on exactly the same course we
were, but on account of her camoufiage
she appeared to be making right for
uS on a course at least IS degrees DIFF
ferent from the one she was actually
steering.
1.-THE deception was remarkable even
under such conditions as these, and of
course a U-boat with its hasty limited
observation was much more likely to be
fooled
Each nation seemed to have a char
acteristic type OF camoufiage, and after
a little practice you could usually spot
a ships nationality by her style OF
camoufase long before you could make
out her ensign"