Evening star., 1919-12-28
The Victory ait Sea & ~ A31a4:e' ssss::

Va eAos ouDhit1hAhc POSSlOiy uctIdCJ
from the thrill Of the experience, but
In describing the operations Of this con-
voy I am not attempting to tell story
of wild adventure. but merely to set
forth what happened ninety-nine out Of
hundred times What made destroyer
work so exasperating was that, in the
majority of cases, the option Of fighting
or not fighting lay with the submarine.
Had the submarine decided to approach
and attack the convoy the chances
would have been more than even that
1t would have been destroyed. In &C.
cordance with its usual practice, how.
ever, 1t chose to submerge. and that de-
cision ended the affair for the moment.
This was the way in which mer-
chant ships were protected. At the
time this submarine was sighted 1t
was headed directly for this splendid
aggregation of cargo vessels; had
not the Aubrietia discovered it and
had not one Of the American destroy-
ers started in pursuit, the U-boat
would have made an attack and pos.
sibly would have sent one or more
ships to the bottom. The chief busi-
ness of the escorting ships, all
through the war. was this unspec.
tacular one of chasing the subma.
rines away; and for every UNDER.
were hundreds of experiences such
as the one which I have just de-.
scribed.
The rest of this trip was unevent.
full. Two American destreyers es.
corted H. NJ. S. Cumberland-the
ocean escort which had accompanied
the convoy from Sydney-to Devon.
port; the rest Of the American escort
took Its quota of merchantmen into
Brest, and from that point sailed
back to Queenstown. whence. after
three or four days in port. it went
out with another convoy. This was
the routine which was repeated until
the end Of the war.
The QUIT and the HS-14 form an
Illustration Of conveys which made
their trips successfully. Yet these
same destroyers had another expert.
ence which pictures other phases Of
the convoy system.
On the morning of October 10, Com.
mander Johnson's division was es.
corting a great convoy of British
ships on its way to the east coast
Of England. Suddenly out Of the air
came one Of those calls which vera
daily occurrences in the submarine
zone. The ]. L. Luckenback signaled
that she was ninety miles ahead Of
the convoy and was being shelled by
submarine. In a few minutes the
Nicholson, one of the destroyers of
the escort. started to the rescue. For
the next few hours our ships began
to pick out Of the air the messages
which detailed the progress Of this
adventure-messages which tell the
story so graphically and which are
so typical Of the events which were
constantly taking place in those wa
ters. that reproduce them verbatim:
$3.50 am. SOS. j. l.. Luckenback
being gunned by submarine. Posi-.
tion 4S.0S NJ. 9.31 w.
9:25 Conyngham to Nicholson: Pro.
coed to assistance Of SOS ship.
$3.50 Luckenback to U. 8. A.: Am
maneuvering around.
$3.50. Luckenback to U. s. A.: How
far are you away?
$40. Luckenback to U. s. A.: Code
books thrown overheard. How soon will
you arrive?
Nicholson to Luckenback: In two
hours.
9:41. Luckenback to U. S. A.: Look
for boats. They are shelling US.
Nicholson to Luckenback: Do not sur.
render.
Luckenbach to Nicholson: Never.
1901. Nicholson to Luckenbacks
Course south magnetic.
1886 pm. Nicholson to Conyngham,
Submarine submerged 47.47 NJ, 1000 w.
at 1920.
1923. Conyngham to Nicholson: What
became Of steamer?
3:41. Nicholson to admiral Cat Queens.
town. and Conyngham: Luckenback
now Joining convoy. Should be able to
make port unassisted.
have already said that great part
Of the destroyer's duty was to rescue
merchantmen that were being attacked
by submarines: this Luckenback Incl.
dent vividly illustrates this point. Had
the submarine used its torpedo upon
this vessel 1t probably could have disc
posed of 1t summarlly. but 1t was the
part Of wisdom for the submarine TO-
economize in these weapons. because
(Consinued on Sixth Page)