The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-11-02


1T betrays exact location almost as
clearly when it discharges a torpedo.
Just as soon as the torpedo leaves the
submarine. q wake. clearly marking Its
progress, appears on thesurface Of the
water. Though most newspaper read
ers have heard OF this tell tale wake,
II have found few who really under
stand what conspicuous disturbance
It really Is. The torpedo is really q
little. submarine itself; It is propel-
led by compressed air, the exhaust Of
which stirs up the water and produces
a foamy, soapy wake. just like that
produced by the propeller of an ocean
liner. This trail is four or five feet
wide; 1t is clear and is as distinct and
white as q chalk line drawn upon q
blackboard. provided the sun in shining
In the right direction and the water is
clear. Indeed 1t is sometimes so dis
tinct that an easily manoeuvered ship
and even sometimes merchantmen,
can avoid the torpedo. provided it sees
it coming. by merely putting over the
helm and turning out Of its course.
But the chief value of the wake of the
torpedo to the submarine hunter Is
that 1t shows the direction in which
the submarine was located when the
torpedo started on its course. 1t stands
out on the surface OF the water like a
long, ghostly finger pointing to the
spot where the foe let loose its shaft.
Hunting Down the Prey
As soon as the destroyer sees it, the
commander rings for full speed; one of
the greatest advantages OF this type
OF vessel is that it can attain full
speed in an incredibly short time.
The destroyer then dashes down the
wake until it reaches the end. which
indicates the point where the SUBJ
marine lay when it discharged its mis-
sile. At this point the surface vessel
drops depth charge and then begins
cutting circle, say to the right. Pains
are taken to make this circle so wide
that it will include the submarine. pro-
vided it went in that direction. The
destroyer then makes another circle to
the left. Every ten or fifteen seconds
while describing these circles 1t drops
a depth charge. Indeed not infre-
quently 1t drops twenty or thirty in a
few minutes. II there is another des-
troyer in the neighborhood, 1t also
follows up the wake and when 1t
reaches the indicated point 1t circles in
the opposite direction from the first.
Sometimes more than two may start
for the suspected location and under
certain conditions the water, within
a radius OF half mile or more. may
be seething with exploding depth
charges.
1t is plain from this description
that the proceeding becomes an ex-
tremely dangerous game. The oppor-
tunity which the submarine has Of es-
Gaping is represented by the time
which elapses from the moment when
which it was discharged. This inter-
val gives the sub-surface boat a GER
tain time to get away: but, its under
water speed is moderate and 50 by
the time the destroyer reaches the
critical spot, the submarine has adj
vanced but short distance away from
it. How far has she gone? In what
direction did she go? These are the
two questions which the destroyer
commander must answer and the
success with which he answers them
accurately measures his success at
sinking or damaging the enemy, or
giving him good scare. If he al
ways decided these two points accu-
rately he would get his submarine
every time the chances of error are
very great. however, and that is the
reason that the submarine in most
cases gets away. All that the surface
compander knows is that there is a
U-boat somewhere in his neighbor-
hood. but he does not know it's precise
whereabouts. and so he is fighting
more or less in the dark. In the great
majority of cases the submarine does
get away, but now and then the depth