Evening star., 1919-12-14
CR first division of destroyers
reached Queenstown on a Fri
day morning. May A., 1917; the

AOho"iib MOiudy tuey put TO
sea on the business of hunting the sub
marine and protecting commerce For
the first month or six weeks they spent
practically all their time on patrol duty
in company with British destroyers.
sloops and other patrol vessels. Though
The convoy system was formally adopted
In the latter part of May, it was not
operating completely and smoothly until
August or September. Many troop and
merchant conveys were formed in the
intervening period and many were con-
Quoted through the submarine zone by
American destroyers; but our ships
spent much time sailing singly, hunting
for such enemies as might betray their
presence, or escortng individual car
goes. y sE>
The early experiments had demon
strated the usefulness of. the convoy
system. yet certain number of pes
simsts still refused to accept it as the
best solution of the shipping problem:
and to reorganize practically all the
shipping of the world. scattered every
where on the seven seas, necessarily
took time.
But this intervening period furnished
Indispensable training for our men.
They gained an every day familiarity
with the waters which were to form
the scene of their operations and learned
many of the tricks of the German sub
marines.
1t was a strange world in which these
young Americans now found themselves.
The life was hard one, of course. in
those tempestuous Irish waters, with
the little destroyers jumping from wave
to wave. sometimes showing daylight
beneath their keels, their bows fire.
quently pointing skyward. or plunged
deep into heavy seas, and their sides
occasionally plowing along under the
foamy waves. For days the men lived
in world of fog and mist; rain in those
regions seemed to be almost the normal
state of nature. Much has been written
about the hardships of life aboard the
destroyer. and to these narratives our
men could add many details of their
own. Yet these hardships did not weigh
heavily upon them. for existence in
those waters. though generally monoto-
nous. possessed at times plenty of in
terest and excitement.
The very appearance of the sea
showed that our. men were engaging in
kind of warfare very different from
that for which they had been trained.
The enormous amount of shipping
seemed to give the lie to the German
reports that British commerce had been
practically arrested. A perpetual stream
nf oil l. Df yoSca1S--linerS trHnnS.
schooners and fishing boats-was pass
ing toward the Irish and English coasts
Yet here and there other floating OBJ
jects on the surface told the story. Now
it was stray boat filed with the sur
vivors Of torpedoed vessel; now raft
on which lay the bodies of dead men:
now the derelct hulk of a ship when
the Germans had abandoned as sunk.
but which persisted in floating a'miessiy
around. constant danger to navisa-
ton. Loose mines. bobbing in the wateT
limited at the perils that were corr
stantly threatening our forces. In the
tense ina gination Of the lookouts. float
ing spars or other debris easily took
the form of periscopes. Queer-looking
sailing vessels, at a distance, aroused
suspicious tnat tHty IiiSh' oS ~"
marines in disguise. A phosphorescent
trail i'm the water was sometimes MIS-
taken for the wake of torpedo. Ihe
cover of a hatchway Noating on the
surface, IL seen at a distance Of rev
hundred yards, looked much like the
coming tower of a submarine, while the
back of an occasional whale gave life
like representation of U-boat awash-
in fact, so lifelike that on one occasion
several of our submarine chasers on the
English coast dropped depth charges on
a whale and killed 1t.
II X X X
But il was the invisible, rather thah
the visible evidences of warfare that
especially impressed our men. The ar
all around them was electric with lte
and information. One had only to put
the receiver of the wireless to his ear
to find himself in new and animated
world The atmosphere was constant
ly spluttering messages of all kfhus
coming from all kinds of places. Some
times these were sent by Admirai
Bayly from Queenstown; they would
direct our men to go to an Indicated
spot and escort an especially valuable
cargo ship; they would tell particu-
lar commander that u submarine was
lying at a designated latitude ana
longitude and instruct him to go ana