The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-11-16
The GROWTH OF THE
CONVOY SYSTEM
The First Conception Of the Convoy
The Wonderful Development of
the New Idea in the Transatlantic
Transportation.

AS a matter OF fact these men were
entirely wrong, and knew 1t. Their
practical experience in handling ships
Of all sizes, shapes and speeds under
great variety of conditions is, there
fore, much more extensive than naval
officers can possibly enjoy. l learned
this more than thirty years ago. when
stationed on the Pennsylvania school
ship, teaching the boys navigation.
This was one of the most valuable ex-
periences OF my life, for It brought
me in every day contact with mer-
chant seamen, and 1t was then that
I made the discovery which proved SO
valuable to me now.
It is true that they had much to
learn about st canning and manoeuyring
in formation, but was sure they could
pick 1t mp quickly and carry it out
successfully under the direction of ma
val officers
The naval officer not only has
group OF vessels that are practically
Uniform In speed and ability to turn
around quickly, but also he is provided
with various instruments which en-
ables him to keep the revolutions of his
engines constant, to measure distances
and the like. Moreover. as a junior
officer, he is schooled in manoeuvring
these very ships for some years before
ne is trusted with the command OF
one of them, and he, therefore, not
only knows their peculairities. but also
hose of their captains-the latter very
useful information, by the way.
Though it was necessary for the
merchantmen on the other hand, to
bring their much clumsier ships into
formation with perhaps thirty entirely
strange vessels OF different sizes.
shapes, speeds, nationalities, and ma
1oeuvring qualities. yet / was conf
lent that they were competent to ham
lie them successfully under these diff
ficult conditions. Indeed. afterward
ono of my most experienced destroyer
commanders reported that while he
was escorting a convoy or twenty
eight ships they kept their stations
quite as well as battleships while they
were executing two manoeuvers to
lvoid submarine.
Such influence as possessed at this
time. therefore, threw with the group
Of British officers which was advocat-
ing the convoy.
Yet there was still one really serious
impeachment to adopting this convoy
system and that was the lack of de-
stroyers. The British, for reasons
which have been sufficiently explain
I'd. did not have the necessary destroy
srs for this work. This was what
made so very important the participa-
lion of the United States in the naval
war. We had the additional vessels
hat would make possible the immedi-
ate adoption of the convoy system.
do not wish to say that the convoy
would not have been established had
we not sent the destroyers for that
purpose. yet do not see how it could
nave been established in any complete
and systematic way at such an early
date. And we furnished other ships
than destroyers. for besides providing
what l have called the modern con-
voy- protecting the compact mass OF
vessels from submarines it was
necessary also to furnish escorts after
the old Napo.eonic plan. 1t was the
business OF the destroyers, to conduct
the merchantmen only through the
submarine zone. They did not take
them the whole distance across the
ocean--for there was little danger of
submarine attack until the ships
reached the infested waters. This
would have been impossible in any
case with the limited number of de-
stroyers. But, from the time the con-
xoys left the home port say New York
or Hampton Roads, there was the pos
sibility of the same kind of attack as
that TO which conveys were subjected
in Nelsonian days-that is from raid
ers or cruisers We always feared that
German cruisers or raiders OF the
aIoewe type might escape into the
ocean and attack these merchant
ships. and we therefore had to escort
theIa across the ocean with battleships