Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-12-19
AT MOLE
PROVES DISASTER
Admiral Bacon, in Book, he
veals Thrilling Tale of
Dover Patrol

London. Dec. 1s.-If you suddenly
learned that at most vulnerable point
sn sone of the most critical mo-
ments of the late war, Great BRITAIN
vas being guarded by two men ana
q boy. armed with two popsuhs'
one of which was away for repairs.
Won would experience sometnlns q
Sbe thrill given by Admiral Bacon
hook THE Dover Patrol, 1S1o-l''
writes a London reviewer.
For the one fact that STANDS OUT
,,ost clearly in these fasclnatilns
volumes is that for the very Sa.e
of England, from which we hau W
send every man and every cartriuse'
and every mouthful OF 1000 ZOE ti,e
fghting line in France the a9
miralty could only spare Few oSo'
cause. for a chance that never caille'
xve hid away at Scapa all our ooast-
ed naval strength. And yet the DO
ynr patrol was the one unit OF tne
faet that was always in touch WITH
the enemy. ,d
Admiral Bacon is sailor anu
~aadv IN carry on cheerfully ana I'M
nroyise good -humoredly wlth wv
mon and a boy, if my lords OF the
admiralty could spare him notnlns
more. But his facts are start.li,s
How splendidly he was serFeu oS
his men he is eager to ten AL,
"The men were mostiy plAit!
erfolk: the vessels ordinary nshihs
craft. The little dritter-Wlth inc
armament of a single rifle ana
Sa.u rounds of ammunition-who
used to accompany us on our POM
bordmants and be shelled with ap-
narent enjoyment, had crews OIL
hardy fellows who were seamen III
the truest sense. often they STOOD
nnnrn,ed as outposts in the Stralts
of Dover, with neither gun 10 hghe
nor speed to avoid the German oe-
6t-oyers.
.I'he trawlers with their brother
Asher. folk, swept for mines at the
rate of ESQ miles day. and during
the nrst three years OF the war
swept a total distance equivalent 10
twelve times round the earth! These
nIe1 saw their comrades blown up
and vet went on steadily and untal-
teringly with their duties.
Eccentric Monitors
OF regular navy boats-except for
monitors, of whose navigating &c
centricitics Admiral Bacon tells
some amusing stories-there We're
few:
"The interesting feature is the
phenomenally small force of de-
stroyers with the four-inch guns In
the patrol. For two years four was
the greatest number available and
once we were reduced to n single
four-inCh gun destroyer to hold the
straits, with a dozen or more Ger
man boats barely sixty miles away,
each superior In armament to our
single boat"
Little wonder that, with all their
CHEEKY confidence, the men of the
Dover Patrol, up against the war as
no other part of the navy was.
sometimes coveted, at least, one of
the countless boats boarded and
cherished in other harbors far away
from the work.
But Admiral Bacon made the best
of thingS-and what a jolly good
best it was we can realize now,
when we know how much he did for
our national safety with such made
quate orms-and the CHEEKY spirit in
which he writes is we'll illustrated
that were entrusted to him. The
Marshal Ney was a special pet:
"Her engines not infrequently ex-
ploded when asked to start, her
engine room was SCARED as If by
shrapnel from the fragments OF
burst cylinder heads. and the es-
capes of the engine room staff were
miraculous. -" When they did
not burst they usually would not
start. and when once started no one
liked 20 stop them for fear of not
being able to start them again"
1t was when new captain had
her in a gale in midchannel, and
she was doing everything but steer,
that the admiral wirelessed him to
cheer him up, "The Marshal Ney
usually navigates the waters of the
patrol sideways"
Unable with the forces at his dis
posal to fight the enemy, as his
sailors heart urged him to do, Ad-
miral Bacon was reduced to blufffns
them, and he has some amusing
stories to tell OF this:
ITO give the enemy fright and
TO give a wakeful night to several
thousand men, I sent Commander
Evans with two small torpedo boats
on Ostend to fire two bouquets OF
100 rockets each to give the mill