New-York tribune., 1918-05-26

0AeeI heeang merchant vessels ths
mileage is further cut dowa. a.
the average, a U-boat can stav av.~
from its base between twenty az
twenty-five days.
Have Not Got Things
All Their Own Way
To extend this time limit nav,
attempts have been made to estah
lish supply bases in the hunt;ns
waters. Food can he obtained -
course, from captured ships. but
fuel comes less easily. One n.
genious commander used to cachx
barrels Of fuel oil and petrol. loot
from tankers, at the bottom Of thA
sea in sheltered cove. But ona
day an Insignificant marker BUOY n
the middle of an 'oil spot" betrayAd
him. The customary procedure wouId
have been to carry off the barrel.
but, with a flash of genius, the Bril-.
ish commander removed the buns
poured few gallons of picric acid
a powerful explosive, into each bar.
rel, then sank them again. In rae
ing automobiles few drops Of pic.
ric acid is sometimes added to ii.
petrol to give it "kick"; but it ha.
to be done very carefully or the en-
gine is liable to be wrecked; 50 it
does not require much imagination
to picture the fate Of that particu-
lar U-boat.
Neither does the U-boat have
things all its own way in the duels
with merchant vessels. 1t fights. In
deed, at disadvantage. For where.
as a score Of shells may fail to put
a fleeing ship out of commission. one
well planted shot will send subma-
rine to the bottom, and there is al
ways the danger Of the pursued
turning like wounded bull and
charging over the pursuer. Again.
though German torpedoes have a
range Of six or seven thousand
yards, shooting is very uncertain at
such distances. A U-boat USUALLY
tries to get within 1000 yards Of
it's prey. This, especially in sbots
at convoy, entails greater danger.
for the U-boat's position can easily
be gagged by the torpedo's wake. A
few depth mines dropped around It's
head are almost certain to do tha
business.
The Ocean Seemed
To Be Empty
Then rough weather brings q
pause in the hunting Rising high
above the deck, the periscope de-
scribes far wider arc than the hull,
which thrashes around like wound.
ed whale, making both observation
and the sighting of shots impossible.
In such weather the U-boats run for
a sheltered shore with sandy bot
tom and lie there till the storm
blows over. During the extremely
bad weather last November the
U-boat bag fell from twenty-four
ships to six in the first week and
one in the second.
All of the dangers and difficulties
above set forth are intensified by ae-
curate reports of U-boat movements
from observation stations on land
and ships at sea, and while cruising
with our fleet l was astonished by
the number that streamed into our
bridge every day. Position and
course were usually given; so be-
sides drawing the patrols after them
the reports cause all merchant ships
to avoid that particular vicinity.
They quite accounted for the de-
spairing note in a radio we picked
up one evening in transit between
two U-boats:
'Have you seen any ships to-day!
The ocean seems to be empty"
This commander, no doubt, was
one of those whose pessimistic re-
ports caused the German govern
ment to account for the decrease in
the weekly bag in the following
grandiloquent terms:
Enemy shipping has been so de-
pleted by the attacks of our invin-
chile U-boats that it is becoming
very difficult to find ships to sink"
This during a week that has seen
4,600 ships sail in and out Of British
ports alone, and probably half as
many more from the harbors Of
Allied nations.
Summing the U-boat's potential
ties, we find that it is limited in
cruising radius and operations; Is
exposed to extra sea and war risks;
is, in fact, a hunted creature-hunt-
ed, moreover, so successfully that
the British First Lord was able to
report in Parliament: "We are sink
ing 40 or SO per cent of German
submarines" The loss of the ves-