The Monroe journal., 1919-05-20
THE PARAkANE..
Allied ships Equipped With These
CrIIi>ed Al VIII Through Mine
SoNn Seas - How ID Worked.
Literary Digest.


No: And Yet parayanes won the
waT"-at least did their bit, and a
big bit il was. Possibly they are vie
Tins OF a scientific name: il tanks
had been christened 'paramachies. d
possibly We might not have cared 10
read about them. The parayane. how
ever. is also known in the Navy as
the otter" which is not so bad. 4
pair OF them tOwed from a vessels
bow. one on each isde. will not only
defect moOred mines. but cut their
moorings and bring them to the sur
face. where they are quickly made in
nocuous. William Washburn Nutting.
who writes on the paravane-''The
thing that foiled the German mine, +"
in International Marine Engineering
Z New York. April. says that nearly
four thousand vessels were equipped
with the gear by the British alone.
and that OF this vast number there
is no record of the destruction of a
single ship by a moored mine. Several
hundred American vessels were equip
/ ped before the signing of The armis-
/ tice. and the program was TO have in
cluded practically every ship of the
Navy and merchant marine at an ex-
penditure of ten million dollars. Saws
Mr.. Nutting:
THAT some new device had been
perfected which permitted Alliedships
to traverse mine-fields. theoretically
deadly. with impunity has long been
| guessed. but the jealous care with
which the secret was guarded kept
the details of the gear from the Ger
mans TO the last. -. This. We be-
lieve. is the first time that an authen-
tic description of the device has been
published, except in the loaded con-
fden,ial books of the Navy.
"Paravanes and the gear for hand
ling them was perfected during the
| first two years of the war at the dock
yard al Portsmouth, England, and in
some quarters they are still known as
the Burney gears, after the Comman-
der Burney, of the British Navy, the
I inventor.
"A pair of the offers. which act on
The same principles as kites. is lowed
\ from the forefoot OF the vessel. These
stand out well, forming with lSeir
tough steel towing-ropes. a hage
wedge. The length of these towing
ropes varies somewhat with ihe
length of the vessel, but is. roughly,
in the neighborhood of $50 feet.
/ These wires encounter the moorng
wire of the mine and defect the miae,
and frequently its mooring as we'll,
clear of the vessel. the mine wire
sliding out along the towing-rope and
into the cutter-head of the paravau :.
where il il severed by serrated steel
knives. When the mine rises to sur
face it is exploded or sunk by gun fire
or reported to patrol vessel.
THE body of the otter, which is
. of steel. is much the same shape as
IA torpedo. altho somewhat shorter. L.
is water-tight and has a positive
bouyancy of about ninety pounds,
which is sufficient to support half the
weight of its towing wire and still
bring it to the surface in case the
ship stops. A large steel plane. cam
bered like the wings of an aeroplane.
is attached as shown in the illustra-
tons. When the otter Is in action,
this plane assumes vertical position,
pulling the paravane out away froll
the ship and eXerting sufficient ten
sion on the towing-rope to defect the
mine. II will be noticed that there a"e
two bulbs on the ends of the plane.
One of them is loaded steel shell,
which gives the otter the proper lis.
to cause il to assume quickly its nor
NAL position. even when starting from
rest. The other is a wooden duplicate
of the first. placed there not so much
I for buoyancy as TO make the structure
symmetrical and to eQualize the
steering effect. which would be
thrown out of line if the shell alone
were used.
In order to be sure of picking up
/ the mine. which is ordinarily moor ed
couple of fathoms beneath tire sur
face, the parayane must lac made 10
run at a constant depth. This is ac-
complished by means of horizontal
rudder in the tail, operated by a hyd-
rostatic valve placed in the joint be-
tween the tail the body of the otter.
THE otters were used-and. in
fact. are still uesd. in all waters less
than a hundred fathoms deep where
mines are likely to be moored
MANY ludicrous statements about
4 the paravane have appeared recently,
which go only to prove how remark
able was the secret with which
| the device was guarded throughout
the war. A popular misconception is
/ that the otter is self-propelled, the
current being conveyed through a
WIRE Another is that the mine wire
is sheared off by means of some me-
chanical device. The jaws in general
use are stationary and contain a pair
of tool steel knives with saw teeth,
set at a very small angle, so that a
comparatively slight pull will sever
the wire cable. Any rope that will
enter the jaws is cut instantly. Even
5-S-inch wire. which is much heavier
/ than could be used on any existing
type of mine. has been cut with no
apparent difficulty.
las we have said. the Admiralty
equipped in the neighborhood of four
thousand vessels of all ypes with the
otter gear, and there is no question
but that this vast program paid for
| itself over and over again in the YES
sells which were saved from damage
or destruction. Soon after the United
States Joined forces with Allies. an
arrangement was made with the Ad-
i a