Norwich bulletin., 1919-01-24
AMERICAN FREIGHTERS
 HAD STRONG ARMAMENT

American freighters in the Atlantic trade seemed better armed than the other allied merchantmen, writes Daniel l.. Brown of this city in the third of his series of experiences as junior officer on the Steamer Nanse- mond. He writes as follows:
 Look out for the white feather" was the advice of the wise ones to the new men who went on watch for submarines
 The white feather. the wake of the periscope, is much more conspicuous than the stove pipe itself, except when there were whitecaps running caps with q gentle sea, that was the weather Fritz prayed for. With the ocean fiecked with whitecaps, one more caused by a tin fish's stovepipe was a mighty hard thing to spot.
 If we could only see him first we felt sure We could make it hot for him. We were well armed fore and aft, and carried a cracllerjack gun crew of American sailors-"Gobs" as they always called themselves.
 Nearly every American steamer in the European trade carried guns fore and aft, manned by Navy gun crews. They seemed to be better armed than the Allied merchantmen we ran in with. This. with their picked gun crews. may have had something to do with the small percentage of loss American ships suffered from sub at i tacEs.
 | All merchant ships were under di- Erecr naval control as to thcr safety i from attack, represented on board by l the officer who had charge of the arm ] ed guard. The ship. was patfolled at night by armed guards. who had in 1 at cic O who struck a match or flashed light of any kind on deck after dark. | 4 notice of this conspicuously post | ed on board, seemed to be an effective reminder for the absent minded. didn't hear of anyone who forgot 1t during the trip. Not a ray of light
 showed from the ship at night. Tf@ ports were all painted and were il- i spected at dusk, to see they were closed and frequently through the night also by the watches. Should a
 glimmer of light escape, it was prompt reported to you by one of the
 other ships in the convoy:
 An absolutely dark ship was i'm perative One of the finest English ships in the South American trade
 was sunk purely through the careless
 ness of a passenger who smoked d
 cigar on deck against orders which lec to the ships discovery, according tc 1 the Hun captain who sank her. In what seemed a VeEy few days Wt were nearing the Strait of Gibralter 1 I was awakened one morning very early by the whistle. We had sudden ly run into a fog. a good indication that we weren't far from land. In tht often disturbed waters Of the westerr
 end of the Strait we got busy witt the sounding machine at half-hour in' tervals and found from comparing re suits with the chart that we Nshoult pick up Cape Spartel. the northWes' corner of Africa, at tBe west end 0 the Strait. in a few hours.
 Sure enough, about seven o'clock i was dead ahead, a rounded mountain Ithe northern end of the rugged Afri
 can coastline. As we got nearer wt
 could see the land was rough ant mountainous and so treeless, bare anC
 brown as to give promise of the grea
 Sahara Desert, whose edge lay not ia beyond these mountains.
 We passed close to Tangier, tn,
 principal city of Morocco, with it!
 white walled and red roofed house
 and oriental mosques and minarets
 There they close the city gates sooI
 after sunset for the night. The day wa
 clear and we could see the SpanisI
 coast very plainly. The Strait is onl,
 six miles wide at it's narrowest point
 and about eight at Gibraltar, on tn
 eastern end
 f Everybody who could get there wa
 on deck straining for a first view o . the Rock" and well they might :. ] what sailor doesn't hear of Gibralta
 almost as soon as he hears of tn ocean, and look forward to the da,
 when he will see it? For centurie the limit beyond which the ancien
 sailor dared not venture, beseige6
 taken and retaken a score of times and today the worlds strongest for tress, there is certainly no spot on tn globe more worth seeing than Glib raltar.