Evening star., 1919-12-14

ber of my staff. was associated with
Admiral Duff in this important work. 1t
was Capt. Longs duty to coordinate
the movements of our conveys with the
much more numerous convoys of the
allies; he performed this task SO ef-
flciently that. once the convoy organ
ization was in successful operation, I
eliminated the whole subject from my
anxieties and requested Capt. Long not
to inform me when troop conveys sailed
from the United States or when they
were due to arrive in France or Eng
land. There seemed to be no reason
why both Of us should lose sleep over
the same cause.
The most conspicuous feature of the
convoy room was a huge chart. entirely
covering the wall on one side Of the Of
flee; access to this chart was obtained
by ladders. not unlike those which are
used in shoe stores. 1t gave compre-
hensive view of the North and South
American coast, the Atlantic ocean, the
British Isles and a considerable part OF
Europe and Africa. The ports which it
especially emphasized were Sydney
(Cape Breton, Halifax, New York,
Hampton Roads, Gibraltar, Sierra Leone
and Dakar, ports on the west coast of
Africa. Thin threads were stretched
from each one Of these seven points to
certain positions in the ocean just out
side of the British Isles, and on these
threads were little paper boats, each
one Of which represented a convoy.
When particular convoy started from
New York, one of these paper boats was
placed at that point; as it mad: it's way
across the ocean the boat WAS moved
from day to day in accordance with the
convoy's progress. At any moment.
therefore. mere glance at this chart.
with its multitude of paper boats, gave
the spectator the precise location of all
the commerce which was then en- route
to the scene of war.
But there were other exhibits on the
chart which were even more conspicu-
Gus than these minute representations
of conveys Little circles were marked
off in the waters surrounding the Brit
ish Isles, each one of which was in
tended to show the location OF a Ger
man submarine. From day to day
each one of these circles was moved
positions Of the submarine which it
represented, a straight line indicating
its course on the chart.
Perhaps the most remarkable fact
about the allied convoy service was
the minute information which it pos
sessed about the movements of Ger
man submarines. A kind of separate
intelligence bureau devoted its en-
tire attention to this subject. Readers
of detective stories are familiar with
the phenomenon known as shadow
ing" 1t is a common practice in the
detectives fascinating profession TO
assign a man, known as shadow"
to the duty Of keeping a particular
person under constant observation.
With admirable patience and skill an
experienced shadow" keeps in view
this object of his attention for TWEEN
ty-four hours; he dogs him through
crowded streets, tracks him up and
down high office buildings. accompa-
nies him to restaurants, trolley cars,
theaters and hotels, and unobtrusive-
ly chases him through dense thor
oughfares in cabs and automobiles
1--WE get him up in the morning and
we put him to bed at night" is the
way the shadow" describes the as
siduous care he bestows upon his un-
suspectng victim. In much the same
fashion did the allied secret service
shadow" German submarines: it got
each submarine "up in the morning
and put it to bed at night" That is
to say. the intelligence department
took charge of Fritz and his crew as
they emerged from their base, and
kept an unwearied eye upon them un-
til they sailed back home. The great
chart in the convoy room of the ad-
miralty showed. within the reasonable
limits of human fallibiiity, where each
submarine was at a particular mo-
ment. and also kept minute track oc
its performances.
Yet 1T was not so difficult to gather
this information as may at first be
supposed. 1 have already said that
there were comparatively few sub.
marines perhaps not more than an
average of eight or nine, which were
operating at the same timc in the wa.
ters south and west Of Ireland, the
most concerned. These boats betray-
ed their locations in u multitude OF
continuation sixth PageJ