The Pensacola journal., 1920-03-07

II was only after much experience
that the subchaser tactics began to
work with clock-like regularity. Al
first the new world under the water
proved confusing to the listeners at
the tubes. This watery domain was
something entirely new in human ex-
perience. When DIR. Alexander Bell in
vented his first telephone, an attempt
was made to establish complete cir
cult By using the earth itself: the re-
suit was that a conglomerate of noises
4-moanings, shriekings, howlings, and
humming sounds-came over the wire.
which seemed TO have become the
play ground of a million devils. These
were the noises. hitherto unknown,
which are constantly being given out
by Mother Earth herself. And now it
&yas discoV cred that the under ocean,
hicn we usually think of as silent
Mace. is in reality extremely vocal
The listeners at the c. and k-tubes
heard many sounds in addition TO the
ones which they were seeking.
What the Sounds Meant. t.--a---
on the k-tubes a submarine run
ming at fun speed was audible from
Fifteen to twenty miles. but louder
noises could be heard much farther
away. The day might be bright, the
ship anywhere within the circle of the
horizon. but suddenly the listener at
the tube would hear terrific explo-
sion. and he would know that tor
Dedo perhaps forty or fifty miles dis
tant had blown up a merchantmen or
that some merchantmen had struck a
mine. Again he would catch the un-
mistalzable ''chug! chug! chug!" which
no learned to identify as indicating the
industrious and slow progress of
convoy of twenty or thirty ships. Then
il rapid humming noise would come
along the wire: that was the whirling
propeller of a destroyer. faint moan
caused some bewilderment at first; but
IL was ultimately learned that this
came from a wreck, lying at the bot
TOM. and tossed from side TO side by
the current; il sounded like the sigh OF
a ghost and the frequency with which
r was heard told how densely the floor
~ the ocean was covered with these
victims Of the submarines.
The iarger animal life of the sea al
80 registered itself upon the tubes. Our
listeners. after n little training, could
identify "A whale as soon as the pecu-
liar noise it made in swimming reached
The receivers. AT first school OF
porpoises increased their perplexltes.
their progress so4 resembled the noise
~ q submarine that it used to lead our
men astray. But practice in this
came vas everything; after few trips
~ listener easily distinguished be-
tween tho porpoise and the submarine
,1roneh the distinction was so fine that
he had difficulty in telling just how
he made it, In fact our men became
w, expert that, out of the miscellane-
n,,e naises which overwhelmed their
their ears whenever the tubes were
deopped into the water, they We're able
almost invariably to select that OF the
U-boat.
Our Boats In New Waters.
In many ingenious ways the chas-
ers supplemented the work of other
anti-submarine craft, Destroyers and
other patrol boats kept track of the
foe pretty well so long as he remained
on the surface; the business of the
chaser. we must remember, was to find
him after he had submerged. The
commander-in-chief on shore some
times sent a radio that n German had
appeared at an indicated spot, and dis
appeared beneath the waves, the
chasers would then start for this To-
cation and begin hunting with their
listeners Aircraft which sighted SUBJ
marines would send similar messages:
convoys that had been attacked indi-
vidual ships that had been torpedoed.
destroyers which had spotted their
pTey. only to lose track of it as soon
aAi submerged. would call upon the
chasers TO take up the hattie where
they had abandoned it
As ionS as the chasers operated in
the waters which l have indicated.
those between Start Point and Lizard
Head, they got" no submarine. the ex
planation was simple. for, as soon as
The chasers and British hunting yes
seis became active here, the Germans
abandoned this fields of operations.
Ibis was the reason that the operative
area Of the Plymouth detachment was