The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-11-30
First Impression in Britain Of our Type|
Destroyer. Duties Outlined for the
American Sea Dog,

must assume that one was constantly
watching them, looking for a favorable
opportunity to discharge it's torpedo.
You must not relax attention for an
instant, or you may lose an opportun-
ity to destroy a submarine or give her
"a chance to dstroy you" 1t was the
present intention to send the American
destroyers out for periods of six days,
giving them two days rest between
trips, and about once a month they
were to have five days in port for
boiler cleaning. And now the admiral
gave some details about the practical
work at sea. Beware, he said, about
ramming periscopes; these were fire.
quently mere decoys for bombs and
should be shelled. In picking up sur
vivors of torpedo vessels the men
must be careful not to stop until
thoroughly convinced that there were
no submarines in the neighborhood;
you must not risk the lives of your
crews in order to save the lives of a
few others" The admiral proclaime
the grim philosophy of this war when
he told our men that should they see a
ship torpedoed it would be their first
duty not to go to the rescue of the
survivors, but to go after the subma-
rine. The three imperative duties of
the destroyers were. in the order
named: First, to destroy submarines;
second, to convoy and protect merch-
ant shipping; and third. to save the
lives of the passengers and crews of
torpedoed ships. No commander
should ever miss an opportunity to de-
stroy a submarine merely because
there were a few men and women in
small boats or in the water who might
be saved. Admiral Bayly explained
that this was false economy; sinking
submarine meant saving far more
lives than might be involved in a par
ticular instance, for this vessel, if spar
ed, would simply go on constantly de-
stroying human beings.
The Admiral then gave large num-
Der of instructions III short, pithy SEN
fences do not use searchlights; do
not show any lights whatever at
night; do not strike matches; never
steam at a slower rate than thirteen
knots; always zigzag, thereby prevent
ing the submarine from plotting your
position: always approach torpedoed
vessel with the sun astern; make only
short signals; do not repeat the names
of vessels; carefully watch all fish,
ing veSsels-they may be submarines
in disguise-they even put up masts
sails, and tunnels in this attempt to
conceal their true character The ad-
miral closed his remarks with a warn
ing based upon his estimate of the
character and methods of the enemy.
His Estimate of the Submarines.
In substance, he said that were 1t
not for the violations of the dictates
of humanity and the we'll established
chivalry of the sea, hh would have the
greatest respect for the German sub
marine commanders. He cautioned
M nndaFrafa them.
and particular emphasized their clev-
ernes at what he termed "the art of
irregularity." He also said that up to
that time he had been unable to de-
duce from their operations any definite
plan or tactics, and advised our COM
manders also to guard against any
regularity of movement: they should
never. for example, patrol from one
corner to another of their assigned
squares in the submarine zone, or
adopt any other uniform practice which
the enemy might soon perceive and
probably take advantage of.
Did Germans Know When u. S. Ships
Arrived
At the very moment that Admiral
Bayly was giving these impressive in
structions the submarine campaign
had reached its crisis; the fortunes of
the allies had never struck so low a
depth as them An incident connected
with our arrival, not particularly i'm
portant in itself, brought home to our
men the unsleeping vigilance of the
enemy with whom they had to deal
Perhaps the Germans did not actu-
ally have advance information of the
arrival of this first detachment of our
destroyers; but they certainly did dis
play remarkable skill in divining what
was to happen. At least it was re-
markable coincidence that for the first
time in many months a submarine laid
a mine field directly off the entrance
to Queenstown the day before our
ships arrived. Soon afterwrad a par
ent ship of the destroyers arrived and