The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1918-03-22
SUBMARINES Are
FOUND IN ARCTIC
U-Boat Sometimes Goes To
Bottom While On
Cruise.

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and yet which has furnished some
stirring incidents, is the life of the
British navy in the Arctic. A graphic
description is contained in an official
account of experience of naval men
stationed at or near Archangel. II
says:
THE long winter night of four
months is drawing to a close. The
moon, which each month has gone
round in a circle for five days at a
time without setting, no longer alb
serbs our attention. The rosy noon
day light has each day frightened and
whitened perceptibility, and now each
twenty four hours we see for a short
period the sun low down over the
Southern hills.
with the thaw come the subma-
rines, and il is not long before the
U-boats have laid their quota of ex-
plosive eggs of the entrance of the
ort. Merchantmen arrive with sides
battered from shellfire, and tales of
gallant actions and hair-breadth es-
apes, when the Kaiser-fish passed be-
meath their bottoms. Some do not ar
rive at all-then the trawlers search
the face of the ocean, and bring in
remnant of starved and frost-bitten
in open boats to the fury of an Arctic
springtime. Sometimes they are not
found and sometimes the U-boat her
self meets the fate she has prepared
for others.
In the Arctic ice was found the
telephone buoy of one who had miss
ed her prey, and coming too close,
herself became the victim. The buoy
is only let go as last resource. when
a submarine is sunk and is unable to
rise. 1t has a water-tight telephone
upon it, connected with the hull of
the sunken submarine, and by which
communication can be established
from the surface with the imprisoned
occupants. 1t bears a large brass
plate. upon which is inscribed the
legend in German:
Last Message Is Read.
"I7ndersea boat the is sunk here
Do not touch, but telegraph at once
to the commandant of the U-boats
base at Kiel."
Another submarine was equally
unfortunate. tho in a different way.
The submarine rose to the surface TO
shell munition ship which she had
torpedoed, but the submarines first
shell exploded the ships cargo of mu-
nitions. A large motor-lorry on the
upper deck of the vessel pitched over
board and landed on the upper deck
of the submarine, sinking her instant
ly. The ships boats were already so
crowded that it was humanity impos-
sible to take another soul into them,
and as il was, their crews spent four
days in them with very scaniy pro-
visions before reaching land.
"Other submarines hid themselves
.mong the ice-foes further north, and
many were the exciting games of hide
and seek played in those still waters.
with only the seals and grampus for
witnesses.
'Fogs, both in summer and winter,
are a terrible thing in these Arctic
waters. The cold wind blowing on
the warmer water raises an impene-
trable mist, and probably causes as
many losses as the enemy's best eff
forts.
Summer, that short six weeks.
would be a delightful season but for
the mosquitoes. Literally, one eats
drinks and breaths mosquitoes.
with the end of August come the |
gales again. to be followed soon by |
snow, and the whole country becomes /
bare and black and barren in a sin
gle night. Boarding becomes strenu-
Gus work, and the convoy trawlers. |
as they sweep vessels through the |
mined areas, have no easy time of it. |
Big Ship Strikes.
"In a bowling three-days' gale.
big Russian ship which had struck a
mine. was brught safely into the har-
Dor by four trawlers. two ahead and |
two astern, and each with 600 faith
oms of sweep wire out. Very peril
Gus work II was, but safely accom-
plished; tho to see her come into har-
Dor before the great breakers, with
her forecastle under water and her
stern in the air. 1t appeared almost
impossible. Then night and day I
work for everyone for a week while
her cargo is transferred, and she is
conducted safely to Archangel One
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