Republican farmer., 1918-05-24

unity to her and sweep was dis
tinctly heard to drag over her hull.
For two hours the destroyers searched
diligently for her, but without sue
cess.
Some failures may be described as
more glorious than victories and the
attempt of a submarine to pass
through the Sound into the Baltic is
surely one of these. replete as it is
with pluck and persistence.
TT was known that the German feet
was exercising In the Baltic, and three
submarines, x. Y. and 2. were detail
ed to make thep assage Of the Sound
and attack.
1t was essential that the three YES
sells should pass through the Sound
the same night, but unfortunately x
developed certain defects and was un-
able to keep up with the other two.
The result was that she reached the
entrance to the Sound the night after
7 and z had successfully made the
passage. Their presence was discov-
cred in the Baltic and the enemy took
all possible steps to prevent either
their getting out of the Baltic or
others getting in.
What x found was four merchant
ships in line abreast proceeding
through the narrow entrance to the
Sound, and from the accurate station
they kept it was evident they were
sweeping. Beyond them were de-
stroyers.
These ships were all showing navi
dfv3ey
thought it would be best to do So.
too, hoping to pass without attract
ing attention.
she had not proceeded far before
she was detected by a destroyer which
tried to ram her. Her only course
was to dive and as she sank in water
she heard the threshing of the enc
my's propel1ers above her.
ITO make the passage with lights
burning was clearly out Of the Ques-
ton, and, nothing daunted, she re-
turned, silently and stealthily creep
ing on the surface, until she got into
the wake of vessel proceeding
through the Sound, trusting to be able
to follow her unobserved.
For a while it seemed as If the
plan would succeed but suddenly the
vessel she was following stopped. As
luck would have it she was a destroy
er which at once endeavored to ram
her. Again she dived.
"a third and a fourth attempt
brought no greater success. The
enemy thoroughly alarmed, were ever
on the alert to ram her.
have been hopeless but would have
unjustifably risked the boat and the
lives of the crew, so she returned ,
her base, as her gallant commando;
expressed it in his report, prior to
making a further attempt"
The enemy, however, is up to
many tricks and his innocent looking
decoy ships have been known to give
a submarine a sharp surprise. On
enc occasion the submarine sighted
what appeared to be merchantmen
and gave chase showing the signal
stop engines and send a boat
when the submarine had closed to
German naval ensign and opened fire
with six-inch guns. at the same time
increasing speed and altering course
so as to ram the submarine.
"At the time the submarine gun was
manned, the signals were still hyins
and there were altogether IL men on
the deck, but she just managed to
dive in time Two or three minutes
later two loud explosions were heard
overhead. Beyond the shaking the
boat violently they did no damage.
From time to time instances &C.
cur of encounters between our sub
marines and those of the enemy,
which prove inconclusive. After
many hours of reckoning a sub
marine cannot be very sure of her
position and in one such encounter
British submarine thought for some
time that her adversary, which was
approximately end on, was her con-
sort out of station.
Realizing her mistake she diveG
at once, but before she could pick uu
the German in her periscope the las-
ter dived. Under the circumstances
"stalemate" was practically inevitable
and after an hour and a half, during
which they simultaneously rose and
simultaneously dived again. each
manoeuvering for favorable posi-
ton for attack the German retired out
of the area"