Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1919-01-26
Mine LAYING
FLEET CAPTAIN
TELLS OF TRAP
Continued From Page IL


amount that devastated Halifax
THE operation as a whole was done
in conjunction with British mine
LAYING squadron of four vessels, which
worked from a base at Grangemouth,
Edinburgh, under command of Rear
Admiral Clinton Baker of the Royal
navy. The American and Britisch
mine squadrons often went out at the
same time, under the protection of the
same heavy squadron. but except on
two occasions, they always worked
separately, in different parts of the
barrage area.
Altogether the American squadron
made Is excursions, the British squad
ron eleven, ana the barrage was fin
ished at the end of October On tho
first excursion the squadron planted
a mine field A miles long, containing
3,400 mines, IN hours and &c minutes.
Everything went without a hitch The
new mine installation worked per-
fectly. On this first operation one
ship emptied herself of 675 mines
without a hingle break, one mine ev-
cry IL IL seconds through more than
two hours, the longest series ever
planted anywhere. The squadron was
always ready to make excursions as
fast as the mines could be furnished
and never failed in any operation.
mot only that, the casualties were
very few One man fell overheard at
sea from the Saranac and there were
four other deaths among the 1000 men
which might have occurred under any
conditions. There was no other loss
of life nor other injury, and despite
the close navigation near mine fields,
no ship ever came to grief, thanks
largely to Captain Butler and Navi-
gator Cunningham, of the flagship San
Francisco
TN addition to the value of the bar
rage itself, in keeping the enemy sub
marines in or from their bases, the
mine squadron was expected to serve
as bait to draw out the German
fleet This ever present possibility and
the fact that the working ground lay
in the principal thoroughfare of enemy
submarines, with attendant incidents
of periscope sightings, submarine re-
ports, depth charges, smoke screens,
floating mines, and dead German sail
ors floating by, lent excitement to
the work, which was often hard, but
never dull
The manufacture of these special
mines, developed by navy experts from
an invention of an American, began in
the United States in December 1917.
The many parts, small and large, 60
into the makeup of a single rhine,
were being constructed by the thous-
ands by numerous contractors, who
delivered them at Norfolk There the
mine spheres were charged with 800
pounds of T. N. T. and with other
parts, were loaded into mine carrier
steamers, managed by the naval over,
seas transport service 1t required
"a Of these vessels, running constant
1y, to keep the ten mine planters sup
piled with mines. The carriers were
slow and good prey for submarines,
One of them, the Lagemoor, was sunk
last April, with a loss of Al men and
5000 mine anchors and other parts
All the other mine cargoes were safely
delivered.
The flagship San Francisco was
commanded by Captain H. " Butler,
and her consort, the cruiser Baltimore,
by Captain A. w Marshall Four of
the merchant vessels used in the fleet
were former Morgan liners, carrying
freight between New York and Gal
weston, now named the Roanoke, Cap
tain C. D. Stearns; Canonicus, Captain
r. L. Johnson; Housatonic, Captain J.
w. Greenslade, and Canapdaigua, Com
mander w. H. Reynolds. Two were
the Old Dominion passenger liners Jer-
fersonE and Hamilton running be
tween New York and Norfolk now
named Quinnebaug, Commander D.
Pratt Mannix, and Saranac, Captain
Sinclair Cannon The remaining two
were the fast Boston and New York
passenger boats, Massachusetts and
Bunker Hill, of the Eastern Steam
ships corporation, renamed Shawmut,
Captain w. r. Cluverius, and Aroos-
took, Captain J. Harvey Tomb. Each
ship carries about so officers anil 400
men and is armed only lightly for de-