Norwich bulletin., 1918-02-13
FACTS AND COMMENT

The first outward bound transport
 carrying American troops was torpe-
 dped and sunk off the north coast of
 Ireland last Wednesday evening, Of E2.i79 American soldiers aboard. the
 loss was under 150. As the survivors
 were landed at several north of Ire
 land ports, it has taken some days to
 check up the totals, and even yet the
 identity of all the dead has not been
 established. The Tuscania was a
 British vessel, formerly of the Anchor
 by a British crew and conveyed by
 British naval forces, but had been lent to the United States for the trans
 portation of troops.
 The loss of the Tuscania, while sad and disappointing, is after all a basis for congratulatipn in that only one vessel and so few men were lost. Con- voying, at first deemed impracticable in view of the enormous number of merchant vessels, has as last been resorted to, possibly at the insistence of American naval officers. Fleets forty vessels are now regularly met far out on the Atlantic by fotillas of deStroyers and conducted safely through the danger zone. Of course, 100 per cent safety cannot be secured and there is always a possibility that a daring U-boat may pick off 9. vessel. But of the thirteen million allied troops that have been sent overseas during this war only 3,500 have been lost, a minute fraction of 1 per cent. These figures are based on the years before the United States entered the war and show the success of the British navy alone in the difficult work of conveying, The ever increasing num- 1 ber of American U-boat. ehasers is
 bound to reduce further the percent age of loss, while the fleet of United ! States destroyers now cooperating with those of the British navy is
 making conveying very sure means | t oabsolute safety.
 l 1t is most encouraging, after hear ] ing so much and so long of our in- efficiency, to glance at one of the cases
 where our efficiency has surpassed l even the most careful calculations of 1 the thorough Germans. When in Feb ruary, 1917, the Germans began ruth less submarine warfare there were in- ! termed in American harbors 109 Ger man ships with total tonnage of 50ae00 Under orders from home the machinery of all these vessels was systematically damaged to such an ] extent and in such ways that repairs were believed to be impossible. Cylin- ders were smashed in with heavy tsledge hammers, connecting rods were cut off, powdered glass was put il l the bearings, pipes were uncoupled plugged and reconneeted, and boilers were deliberately burned out until their interiors were a shapeless mass of melted metal. Among other diabel- ical tricks. fire extinguishers were filld with kerosene or gasoline. IT 1 more than one instance the elaberats report of the German officer detailee the damage done and noted that it was rreparable, while the experts of the ] U. s. shipping board named eighteer l months as the minimum time neces-
 sary to reAt the vessels for active
 service! But even our own experts
 had not counted on what American
 naval engineers can do in an erner
 gency. By electric welding patches
 were inserted in broken cylinders
 l minor parts were replaced, the intri
 cate mass of pipes and wires wa:
 thoroughly gone over and in man!
 cases faulty original construction wa!
 made to conform with the bette, American practice. In no case wers repairs to the machinery delayed be
 yond the time needed to fit the ship as transports. As the interned officer { and crews on Ellis Island watch thei old vessels under new American namei pass out to sea laden with American
 soldiers they must have many fore bodings as to wlidt the race that ha; thus quickly repaired their own ''ir reparable'' damage will do to their owl invincible kaiser!
 The Holland American liner Nieu, Amsterdam got an unexpectedly ear , nest reception when she reached he | New York pier last Thursday morn l ing She had o,, hoard i 60S DasSen