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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 1920)
5 rUIWniiHiwrmrimff'ffr" I By Admiral William Sowden Sims j ' - - I THE -TRANSATLANTIC TRIP IN WARTIME THE SOTDAT OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, JANUARY 4, 1920. Sea HE CONVOYING! ships In the stormy fall and winter waters, amid the fog- and rain o the eastern At lantic, was a monotonous and dreary occupation. Only one or two inci dents enlivened this particular voy age. As the Parker, commander Hal ey Powell, was scouting ahead at about 2 o'clock In the afternoon, her lookout suddenly sighted a submarine, 'bearing: down upon the convoy. Imme diately the news was wirelessed to every vessel. As soon as the message was received the whole convoy, at a signal from the flagship, turned four nninta ta th left. ' For nearly two hours the destroyers searched this area for the submerged submarine, but that crafty boat kept Itself safely under the water, and the convoy now again took up Its original course. About two days' sailing brought the ships to the point at which the pro tecting destroyers could safely leave them to return unescorted to Amer ica; darkness had now set in and. un der its cover the merchantmen slipped away from the warships and started westward. Meantime the destroyer scort had received a message from the Cumberland, the British cruiser which was acting as ocean escort to convoy "US 14." "Convoy Is six hours late," she reported, much like the an nouncer at a railroad station who In forms the waiting crowds that the Incoming train is that much overdue. According to the schedule these ships should reach the appointed rendez vous at 6 o'clock the next morning; this message evidently moved the time of arrival up' to noon. The de stroyers, slowing down so- that they would not arrive ahead of time, start ed for the designated spot. Sometimes thick weather made It Impossible to fix the position by astro nomical observations and 'the convoy might not be at its appointed ren dezvous, tf or tms reason tne destroy ers now deployed on a north and south line about 20 miles long for several . hours. Somewhat before the appointed time one of the destroyers sighted a faint cloud of smoke on the western borizon and soon afterward 32 mer chantmen, sailing in columns of fours, began to assume a definite outline. At a signal from this destroyer the ether destroyers of the escort came In at full speed and ranged them selves on either side of the convoy m. maneuver that always excited the admiration of the merchant skippera This mighty collection of vessels, oc cupying about 10 or 12 square .miles on the. ocean, maintaining its forma tion so skillfully, was really a beautl. ful and inspiring sight. When the destroyers had 'gained their desig nated positions on either side, the splendid cavalcade sailed boldly into the area which formed the favorite hunting grounds for the submarine. In the Danger Zone. As soon as this danger zone was reached the whole aggregation, de stroyers and merchant ships, began to zigzag. The commodore on the flagship hoisted the signal "Zigzag A," and Instantaneously the whole 32 ships began to turn 25 degrees to the right. These ships, -usually so cum bersome, made this simultaneous turn with all the deftness and even with all the grace of a school of fish into which one has suddently cast a stone. All the way across the Atlantic they had been practicing such an evolu tion; most of them had already sailed through the danger zone more than once, so that the maneuver was by . his timA an olA stnrv. TPne 1 O- nr 1 5 minutes they proceeded along this course, when immediately, like one vessel, the convoy turned 20 degrees to the lef,t and started In a new direc tion. . An'd so on for hours, now a few minutes to the right, now a few min utes to ' the left and . now again straight ahead, while all the time the destroyers were cutting through the water, every eye of the 'skilled look .outs fixed upon the surface for the first glimpse of a periscope. The zig zagging was carried out according to comprehensive plans which enabled the convoy to zigzag for hours at a time without signals, the courses and the time on each course being desig nated in the particular plan ordered, all ships' clocks being set exactly alike by time signal. Probably I have made it clear why these zigzag ging evolutions constituted such a positive measure. All the time the convoy was sailing In the danger zone it was assumed that a submarine was present, looking for a chance to tor pedo. Even though the officers might know Jhat there was no submarine withWl 300 miles, this was never taken for granted; the discipline 'of the whole convoy system rested upon the theory that the submarine was there, waiting only the favorable moment to start the work of destruclon. But a submarine, as already said, could not strike without the most thorough preparation, it must get within 300 or 400 yards or the torpedo would stand little chance of hitting the mark In a vital spot. The command er almost never shot blindly Into the convoy, on the chance of hitting some ship; he carefully selected his victim; bis calculation had to include its speed, the speed of his own boat and that of his torpedo; and above all, he had to be sure of the direction in which bis intended quarry was steam' lng; and in this calculation the direc tion of the merchantman formed per haps the most important element. But ilj the ships were constanly changing heir direction, it is apparent that the submarine could make no calculations which would have, much practical value. A Wireless Story. In the afternoon the Aubrietla, the British mystery ship .which, .was . sail- 3S LIEUTEHAJIT-COMMAXDER (NOW CAPTAIN) A. W. JOHNSON. Commander of the Canyngham, one of the destroyers In the first American flotilla to -reach European waters. wmm& IK:," - &-t ' MPS? lng 30 mile ahead of the convoy, re- ported that she had sighted a subma rine. Two or three destroyers, dashed for the Indicated area, searched for it thoroughly, found no traces of the hidden boat and returned to the con voy. The " next . morning six British destroyers and one cruiser . arrived from Devonport. Up to this time the convoy had been following the great "trunk line" which led into the" Chan nel, but It had now, reached the point where the convoys split up, part go ing to English ports and part' to French. . These British destroyers had come to take over the 20 ships which were bound for their own country, while the American destroyers were assigned to escort the rest- to Brest. The following . conversation typical of those that were constantly filling the air in that area now took place between the American' flagship and the. British: Conyngham.to Achates: This. is the Conyngham, Commander Johnson.. 1 wouldllke to keep the convoy to gether until this evening. .. I will work under your orders until I leave with convoy for Brest. Asbates to Conyngham: Please make your . own . arrangements . lor taking French convoy with you tonight. , Achates to Conyngham: Please make do you propose leaving .with 'French convoy tonight? ' Conyngham to Achates: About 5 P. M. in order to arrive, in Brest tonight. Devonport. commander in chief to Conyngham: Proceed in execution ad miralty orders, Achates having re lieved you. Submarine activity in Lat. 48-41, Long. 4-61. The Aubrietla had already ' given warning of the danger referred to In the last words of this final message. It had been flashing the news in this way: 1:15 P. M. Aubrietla to Conyngham Submarine sighted 40-30 N 6-8. Sight- ed submarine on surface. Speed is not enough. Course southwest . by. south magnetic. - - 1:30 P. M. Conyngham to Achates: Aubretla to all men of war and Land's End. Chasing submarine on -the' sur-Xace-49-30-N-68-.W. course louthwegt "if" HI, niiirntirtir"injiTiriiiiTirWiifih'iii iirisihiitMsiMTiiMuiauiJtuijnW iiujjjjji , .. l , 'nxiiL AIT AMERICAN DESTROYER OFF THB COAST OF IRELAND. This kind of weather was almost continuous la the winter months. by south. "Waiting to get into range. He is going faster than I can. - 2 P. M. Aubrietla to all men of war: Submarine submerged 49-20 N 06-12 W. Still searching. The5 fact' that nothing mora was seen of that submarine may possibly detract from the thrill of be experience,-but . in describing the opera tions of this convoy I am not at- emptlng: to tell a story of wild ad- venure,. but merely to set forth what happened 99 out of .100 times. What made destroyer work so exasperating was that, in the majority Tof - cases. the' option of fighting or not fighting lay with the submarine. Had the sub marine decided to , approach and at tack the convoy, the chances would have -been -more than- even- that It would have been destroyed.' In ac cordance with its usual practice, how ever. It chose' to ' submerge, and 'that decision- ended the affair for the mo ment. .This was , the .way. in which merchant . ships - were . protected. . At the time. this submarine was sighted it was headed directly, for. this splen did aggregation of cargo vessels; had not the Aubrietla discovered it and had not one of the American destroy ers' started In .pursuit, the U-boat would have made, an attack and pos sibly would have, sent one -or -more ships "to tho bottom. , The chief busi ness of the escorting ships, all through the war, - was . this unspectacular one of chasing the submarines away; and for. every underwater vessel actually destroyed there were hundreds of ex periences such as the one-which I have Just described. The rest of this trip was unevent ful. ' Two American destroyers es corted H. M. S. Cumberland the ocean escort ; which ' had accompanler the convoy from" Sydney ' to Devonport; the rest of the American escort took Its quota of merchantmen into Brest and . from - that point sailed back to Queenstown,' whence, after three or four days in port. It went out ' with another convoy.-; This was the rou tine which was repeated until the end of the war. The OU 17, and H3 14 form an II- lustratioa-ocoaYoj'3-.wiich,. made. A SINKING HOSPITAL SHIP Tne Red Cross being elenrly visible. The ship contained hundreds of wounded men besides scores of nurses. In the early part of 1917 the Germans officially notified the allies that they would sink hospital ships ew Bight, If. encountered within certain specified areas. The Germans' remson for this policy wan that It would force tho allies to protect hospital ships with destroyer escorts and In this wsy make such destroyers un available for warfare on the German submarines. ' I Yl- .-rt-"nW.....r. ...v H- . We. iiliillliL!ri their trips successfully. Tet these same destroyers had another expe rience which pictures other phases of the convoy system. The Luekenback'a Fate. On the morning of October 19 Com. mander Johnson's division was es corting a;, great convoy of British ships on its way to the east coast of England.' Suddenly ' out - of the tlr came one of - those ' calls which were dally occurrences in - the - submarine sone. The J. L. Luckenback signaled that she was 90 miles ahead of the' convoy and was being shelled by -a submarine. In a few minutes the Nicholson, one ' of the ' destroyers of the escort.' started to the rescue." For the next few hours-our ships began to pick out of the air the messages which detailed -the progress of this adventure messages which tell the story so graphically and which are so typical of the events which were con stantly taking' place In those waters, that I reproduce them verbatim: 8:60 A. M. S.O.S. J. L. Luckenback being gunned by- submarine. Position 48.0 .N. . 9.31 W. 9:25 Conyngham to Nicholson :' Pro ceed to assistance of S.O.S. ship. ' 9:30 Luckenback to U. S. A.: Am maneuvering around.' '1:30 Luckenback to U. S. A.: How tar are' you away?" 9:40 Luckenback-to U.' S. A.: Cod books ' thrown overboard.' How soon will you arrive T - Nicholson - to - Luckenback: In - two hours.' - 9:41 Luckenback to U. S. A.: Look for boats. -They are shelling us. Nicholson- to Luckenback: Do not surrender ' Luckenback ttf' Nicholson: Never. 10:01' Nicholson - to -Luckenback: Course south magnetic -12:86 -P.' M. Nicholson to Conyng ham f- Submarine surbmerged 47.47 N. 10.00 W. . at 11:20. ; 1:23 Conyngham to Nicholson: What became of steamer? 3:41- Nicholson, to Admiral (at (Queenstown) and Conyngham: Luck enback now joining convoy.' Should be able to make port unassisted. - I-have, already-said- .that a-great A CONVOY As soon as the massed ships entered . from side to side in accordance with was a great protection against submarines, which hsd to know the dlree- , tlon a ship was steering la order accurately to aim a torpedo. If the ships were constantly changing their course such calculations ' became very 'difficult , 1 - . - part of the destroyer's duty was ta rescue merchantmen that were being attacked by submarines;' this Luck--enback incident vividly illustrates this point. Had the submarine 'used its torpedo upon this vessel It prob ably could have disposed of It sum marily; but it was the part of wisdom for the submarine to economize ' .in these weapons, because they were sO expensive and bo comparatively scarce. and to use Its guns whenever the op portunity offered. - The Luckenback was ramed, but the fact that the sub marine's guns easily outranged hers made her armament useless. Thus all the German ' had to do in this case was to keep away at a safe distance and bombard the merchantman!. The U-boat. had been doing this for mora than thre hours when the; destroyer reached the scene of operations; evi dently the . marksmanship was .poor, for, out of a great many shots fired by the submarine, only about a dozen hit the vessel. . The Luckenback was on fire, a shell having set aflame her cargo of cotton; certain parts of the machinery had been damaged, but. in the mala, the vessel was intact. The submarine was always heroic enough when It came to shelling defenseless merchantmen,' but the appearance of a destroyer anywhere in her neighbor hood made her resort to the one se cure, road to safety diving for pro tection. The Nicholson immediately trained her guns on the U-boat, which on the second shot disappeared under the water. The destroyer despatched men to the disabled vessel, the fir was extinguished, necessary repairs to the machinery were made and in a few hours the Luckenback had be. come a member of the convoy. Attack on the Convoy. Hardly had she Joined the merchant ships, and hardly had the Nicholson taken up her station on the -flank when, an event still more exciting took place. It was now late In the afternoon: the sea bad Quieted down; the whole atmosphere . was ; one of peace, and there was not the slightest sign or suggestion of a hostile ship. The. Orama. the - British - warship which had accompanied the convoy from its home port as ocean escort, had taken up her position as leading ship In the second column. Without the slighest warning a terriflo explo sion now took place on her starboard bow. . There was no mystery as to what had happened; Indeed, imme diately after the explosion, the wake of the torpedo appeared on the sur face; there was no periscope in sight, yet it was clear, from the. position of the wake, that the submarine had crept up to the side of the convoy and delivered Its missile at close ' range. There was no confusion in the convoy.- or-Its escorting- destroyers, - but i - ' .34.W ' "t 1117 llf'-. ZIGZAGGING. the submarine lone, they begsn to turn pre-arranged plans. This in Itself there were scenes of great activity. immediately arter the explosion a periscope appeared a few Inches out of the water, stayed there only a sec ond or two and then disappeared. Brief as was this exposure, the keen eyes of the lookout and several sail ors of the Conyngham, the' nearest de stroyer, had detected It; it disclosed the.ftoct that the enemy was In the midst of the convoy itself, looking for other ships tautorpedo. The Conyng ham rang for full speed and dashed or the location of the submarine. Her officers and men now saw more than the periscope; they saw the vessel Itself. The water was very clear; as the Conyngham circled around the Orama her officers and men sighted a. green, shining, cigar-shaped thing under the water not far from the starboard side. As she Sped by , the destroyer dropped a depth charge al most directly on top of the object. After the waters had quieted down pieces of debris were .seen: floating upon the surface boards, spasand gimr . iui94uaneuuB wreckage, o V 1 dently scraps of the damaged deck of the submarine. All attempts to save the Orama. proved fruitless; the destroyers stood. by for five hours, taking, off survivors and making all possible efforts to salvage the ship, but at about 10 o'clock that evening she disappeared under the water. In res cuing the survivors the seamanship displayed by the Conyngham was par ticularly praiseworthy. The little .ves set was sklllftlly placed alonslde the Orama and some 300 men were taken off without accident or casualty while the ship was sinking. One of the things that made the work of the destroyer such a thank less task was that only-in the rarest cases was it possible to prove that she had destroyed - the submarine. Only the actual capture of-the enemy ship or some of Its crew furnished irrefutable proof - that It had really gone to the bottom.- The appearance of oil on the surface after a depth charge attack was not necessarly sig nificant, for the ' submarine early learned, the trick of pumping over board a little oil after such an expe rience; In this way It hoped to per suade its pursuer that It had been sunk: and thus Induce it to abandon the chase. Even the "appearance of wreckage, such as arose on the sur face after this Conyngham attack, did not absolutely prove that the subma rine had been destroyed. Tet, as this submarine was never heard of again, there Is little doubt that Commander Johnson's depth charge performed Its allotted task. The judgment of the British government, which awarded him the C. M. G. for his achievement, may be- accepted,- as- final. - The ad miralty citation for this decoration reads as follows: "At 6:60 P. M.. H. M. S. Orama was torpedoed In convoy. Conyngham went full, speed, circled bow of Ora ma, saw submarine between lines of convoy, passed right over it so that it was plainly visible and dropped depth charge. Prompt and correct action of Commander Johnson saved more ships from being torpedoed and probably destroyed the-submarine." "S Inciter" Merchantmen. One of the greatest difficulties of convoy commanders, especially during the first months the system was in operation, was the "slacker" mer chantmen; these were Vessels which, for various reasons, fell behind the cenvoy, a tempting bait for the sub marine. At this time certain of the merchant captains manifested an in curable obstinacy; they affected to re gard the U-boats with contempt and insisted rather on taking chances In stead of playing the game. In such oases a deslroyer would often have to leave .the main division, go baok several miles and attempt to prod the straggler Into joining the convoy, much as a shepherd dog attempts to force the laggard sheep to keep within. the flock. In some cases, when the merchantman proved particularly ob durate, the destroyer would slyly drop a depth charge, near enough to give the backward vessel a considerable shaking up without doing her any injury; usually such a shock caused the merchantman to start full speed ahead to rejoin her convoy, .firmly be lieving that a submarine was giving chase. In certain instances the mer chantman fell behind the convoy be cause the machinery had broke down or because she bad suffered other ac cidents. The submarines would fol low for days in the track of convoys,, looking for a straggler of this kind. Just as a shark will follow a vessel in the hope that something will be thrown overboard; and for this rea. son one destroyer at least was often detached from the escorting division as a rear guard. In this connection we must keep in mind that at no time until the armistice was signed was any escort force strong enough to in sure entire safety, which added to the very heavy responsibility upon escort commanders. What the Chrlatabel Saw. One late summer afternoon the American converted yacht Christabel was performing this duty for the British merchantman Ranae, a vessel which had fallen eight miles behind her convoy, bound from La Palllce, France, to Brest. It was a beautiful evening; the weather was clear, the sea smooth and there was not a breath of wind. Under such conditions a submarine could conceal its pres ence only with great difficulty; and at about 6:30 the lookout on the Christabel detected a wake, some 600 yards on the port quarter. The Chris tabel started at full speed; the wake suddenly ceased, but a few splotches of oil were seen and she was steered in the direction of this disturbance. A depth charge was dropped at the spot where the submarine ought to have been, but it evidently did not produce the slightest result. The Christabel rejoined the Danae and the two went along peacefully for nearly four hours, when suddenly a periscope appeared about 200 yards away, on the starboard side. Evidently this per sistent German had been following the ships all that time, looking for a favorable opportunity to discharge his torpedo. That moment had now ar- . rived; the submarine was at a dis tance where a carefully aimed Bhot meant certain destruction; the ap pearance of the periscope meant the submarine was making observations In anticipation of delivering this shot. The Christabel started full speed for the wake of the periscope; this peri scope Itself disappeared under the water' like a guilty thing and a dis turbance on the surface showed that the submarine was making frantia efforts to submerge. The destroyer dropped its depth charge, set to ex plode at 70 feet, its radio meantime sending signals broadcast for assist ance. Immediately after the mush room of water arose from this fharge a secondary explosion was heard; this was a horrible and muffled sound coming from the deep, more powerful and more terrible than any that could have been caused by the destroyer's "ash can." An enormous volcano of water and all kinds of debris arose from the sea, half way between the Christabel and the spot where it had dropped its charge. This secondary explosion shook the Christabel so vio lently that the officers thought at first that the ship had been seriously damaged, and a couple of men were knocked sprawling on the deck. As soon as the water subsided great masses of heavy black oil began ris ing to the surface and completely splintered wood and other wreckage appeared. In a few minutes the sea. for a space many hundred yards in diameter, was covered with dead fish ah,out ten lmes as many, the offi cers reported, as could have been killed by the usual depth charge. The Christabel and -the ship she was guarding started to rejoin the main convoy, entirely satisfied with the af ternoon's work. Indeed, they had good reason to be; a day or two after-, ward a battered submarine, the UC-60, crept painfully into the harbor ot Santander. Spain; it was the boat which had had such an exciting con test with the Christabel. She was in jured beyond the possibility of repair; besides, the Spanish government In terned her for "the duration of the war"; so that, for all practical pur poses, the vessel was as good as sunk. ' (Copyriht, 1919, by the Worlds Work. Published by arrangement. Another article will appear next Sunday..)