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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 1920)
s TOE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, JANUARY 18, 1920 luuunmunmmuuuiiuiininuiaiiiiuiutiuHn DEA By Admiral William Sowden Sims nininiinmnmniiDinninm3 MYSTERY- SHIPS VERSUS U-BOATS The Victory At .m. J - . xr---m zpri- r" WH'i;-. . . fmAhm:-. i LlElTENANT-GOMMANDEli HAROLD AITEX, V. V.l It. N. - v ' ' " i"" ' A E GAMB T FOOJU TI1K Ht7Jf OXfc OF THE FAVORITE METHODS MY CHIEF purpose in writing I these articles is to describe the activities during the European war of the United States naval forces operating in Europe. Yet it is my intention also to make clear the sev eral ways in which the war aganst the submarine was won; and, in order to do this, it will be necessary occasionally to depart from the main subject; and to describe certain naval operations of our allies. The most important agency in frustrating the submarine was the convey system. An examination of the tonnage losses In 1917 and in 1918, however, dis closes that, thia did not entirely pre vent the loss of merchant ships. From April, 1917, to November, 1918. the monthly losses dropped from 875,000 to 101,168 tons. This decrease in sinkings enabled the al lies to preserve their communica tions and so win the war; however. It is evident that these losses, while not necessarily fatal to the allied cause, still offered a serous impedi ment to success. It was therefore necessary to supplement the convoy system in all possible -uays. Every submarine that Could be destroyed, whatever the method of destruction. represented just that much gain to the allied cause. Every submarine that was sent to the bottom, it was estimated, amounted in 1917 to .a saving of . about 40,000 tons per year of merchant shipping; that was the amount of shipping, in other words, which the average U-boat would sink, If left unhindered to' pursue its course. . Besides escorting merchant ships, therefore, the allied navies developed several methods of hunting individ ual submarines; and these methods not only sunk a considerable - num ber of U-boats, but played an impor tant part in breaking down the Ger man submarine morale. For the greater part of the war the utmost secrecy was observed regarding these expedients; it was not until the early part of 1918, indeed, that the public heard anything of the "special serv Ice. vessels" that came io be known as the "mystery" or "Q-ships" which represented one of the mos successful devices for hunting sub marines although these had been operating for nearly three years. It is true that the public knew that . there was something In the wind,, as It was announced that certain naval officers had received the Victora Cross, but as there was no citation explaining why these coveted rer wards were given, they were known as "mystery V. C.'s." . - Pu vi my visits- tQ-QueenA OF CONCEALING GUNS ON MYSTERY FELL AWAY FROM town. Admiral Bayly showed me a wireless message which he had re cently received from the command ing officer of a certain mystery ship operating from Queenstown, one of the most successful of these Vessels. It was brief but sufficiently elo quent. Am slowly sinking," it read. 'Good-bye, I did my best." Though the man who had sent that message was apparently facing death at the time when it was writ ten. Admiral Bayly told me that he had survived the ordeal, and that, in fact, he would dine at Admiralty house that very night. Another fact about this man lified him above the commonplace; he was tne first Q-boat commander to receive the Victoria Cross, and one of the very few who wore both the Vctoria Cross and the distinguished service order, and he subsequently won bars for each, not to mention the croix de guerre and the legion of honor. When Captain Gordon Campbell arrived, I found that he was a Britisher of quite the accepted type. His appearance sug gested nothing extraordinary. He was a short, rather thick-set, phleg matic Englishman, somewhat non committal in his bearing; until he knew a mafn well, his conversation consisted of a few monosyllables, and even on closer acquaintance his stolidity and reticence, . especially in the matter gt his own exploits, did not entirely disappear. Yet there was something about the captain which suggested the traits that had already made it possible for him to sink three submarines, and which afterward added other trophies to his record. It needed no elaborate story of his performances to inform me that Cap tain Campbell was about as cool and determined a man as was to be found in the British navy. His associates declared that his physical system absolutely lacked nerves; that, when it came to pursuing a. German sub- : marine, his patience and his persist ence knew-no bounds; and that the extent to which his mind concen trated upon the task in hand amounted to little less than genius. When the war began, Captain Camp bell, then about 30 years old, was merely one of several thousand junior officers in the British navy. He had not distinguished himself in any way above his associates, and probably none of his superiors had ever regarded him as in any sense an unusual man. Had " the naval war tk,es cyurse af moet naval aiars, HOW THE GUNS WERE SHIPS WAS TO CONSTRICT A DECKHOUSE THE GUN, AT WHICH THE CREW WAS AV Campbell would probably liave served I well, but perhaps mot brilliantly. This conflict, however, demanded a new type of .warfare and at the same time demanded a new type of naval fighter. To go hunting for the sub marine required not only courage of a high order, but analytical intelli gence, patience, and a talent for prep aration and detail. Captain Camp bell seemed to have been created for this particular task. That evening at- Queenstown he finally gave way to much urging, and entertained us for hours with his adventures; though he told the stories of his battles with submarines so quietly, so simply and, indeed, so imperson ally, that at first they impressed his hearers as not particularly unusual. Yet, after the recital was finished we realized that the mystery ship -performances represented some of the most admirable achievements in the whole history of naval warfare. We have laid great emphasis upon the brutalizing aspects of the European war; it is well, therefore, that we do not forget that It had Its more ex alted phases. Human nature may at times have manifested itself In its most cowardly traits, though it- also reached a level of courage which, I am confident. It has seldom attained in any other conflict. It was re served for this 'devastating struggle to teach us how brave modern men could really be. And when the rec ord is complete, it seems unlikely that it will furnish any finer illus tration of the heroic than that pre sented by Captain Campbell and his compatriots of the mystery ships. What the a-Boat Was. This type of vessel was a regular ship of his maesty'a navy, yet there was little about it that suggested warfare. To the outward eye it was merely one of those several thousand freighters or tramps which in normal times sailed sluggishly from port to port, carrying the larger part of the world's commerce. It looked like a particularly 'dirty and uninviting specimen of' the breed. Just who in vented this grimy enemy of the sub marine is. like the origin of many other devices developed by the war, unknown. It was, howevec the nat ural outcome of a close study of Ger man naval methods. The man who first had the idea well understood the peculiar mentality of the U-boat com manders. The Germans had a fairly easy time in the early days of submarine war fare on merchant shipping. They sank as many ships as possible.-with gunfire and bombs. The prevailing J method, was to prejik surface, and bt . 1 RRUniHT 1 T(t ACTION. WITH ITS SIDES HINGED AWAITING AN OPPORTUNITY Kjn shelling the defenseless enemy. In case the merchant ship was faster than the submarine it would take to its heels; if. as was usually the case, however, it was slower, the passen gers and crews lowered the boats and lft the vessel to its fate. In such instances the procedure of the sub marine was invariably the same. It ceased shelling, approached the life boats filled with survivors, and or dered them to take a party of Ger mans to the ship.' This party then searched the vessel for all kinds of valuables, and, after depositing time bombs in the hold, rowed back to the submarine. This procedure was popu lar with the Germans, because it was the least expensive form of destroy ing merchant ships. It was not neces sary to use torpedoes or even a large number of shells; an inexpensive bomb, properly placed, did the whole Job. Even when the arming of merchant ships interfered with this simple pro gramme, and compelled the Germans to use long-range gunfire or tor pedoes, the submarine commanders still persisted in rising to the sur face near the sinking ship. Torpedoes were so expensive that the admiralty at Berlin Insisted on having every one accounted for. The word of the commander that he had destroyed merchant ship was not accepted at its face value; in order to have the ex ploit officially placed to his credit. and so qualify the commander and crew for tile rewards that came to the successful, it was necessary to prove that the ship had actually gone to the bottom. A prisoner or two furnished unimpeachable evidence, and, in default of such trophies, the ship's papers would be accepted. In order to obtain such proofs of sue cess, the submarine had to rise to the surface and approach its victim. The search for food, especially alcoholic liquor, was another motive that led to such a maneuver; and sometimes mere curiosity, the desire vto come to close quarters and inspect the conse quences of his handiwork, also Im pelled the Hun commander to take what was, as events soon demon strated, a particularly hazardous risk This simple fact that the subma rine, even when the danger had been realized, insisted on rising to the sur face and approaching the vessel which it had torpedoed offered the allies an opportunity which they were not slow in seizing. There is hardly any thing In warfare which is mbre vulnerable than a submarine on ttie surface within a few hundred yards of a four-inch gun. A single well iuui -iin-ii u a. ojiiaio n cji- aimed shot will fieiAututiy. tcntl it . TO THE DECK. A PULL ON A LEVER RELEASED THE SIDES. WHICH TO FIRE. the bottom. Indeed, a U-boat caught n such a predicament has only one chance of escaping; that is repre sented by the number of seconds which it takes to get under the water. But, before that time has expired, rapidly firing guns can put a dozen shots in its hull; with modern well trained gun crews, therefore, a sub marine which exposes itself in this way stands practically no chance of getting away. Clearly, the obvious thing for the allies to do was to send merchant ships, armed with hidden guns, along the great highways of commerce. The crews of these snips should be naval officers and men dis guised as merchant masters and sail ors. They should duplicate in all de tails the manners and the "technique" of a freighter's crew, and, when shelled or torpedoed by a submarine. they should behave precisely like the passengers and crews of merchant men in such a crisis; a part the only part visible to the submarine should leave the vessel in boats, while the remainder should lie con cealed until the submarine ,rose to the surface and approached the ves sel. When the enemy had come with in two or three hundred yards, the bulwarks should fall down, disclos ing the armament, the white battle ensign should go up, and the guns should open fire on the practically helpless enemy. When the Buiwarka Dropped. Such was the mystery ship idea in its simplest form. In the early days it worked according to this pro gramme. The trustful submarine commander who approached a mys tery ship in the manner which I have described promptly found his resting place on the bottom of the sea. have frequently wondered what must I have been the emotions "of this first j submarine crew. when, standing on the deck of their boat, steaming con fidently toward their victim, they suddenly saw its bulwarks drop, and beheld the ship, which, to all out ward appearances, was a helpless, foundering hulk, become a mass of belching fire and smoke and shot. The picture of that first submarine standing, upright in the water, reel ing like a drunken man, while the apparently innocent merchant ship kept pouring volley after volley into its sides, is one that will not quickly fade from the memory of British naval men. It is evident that the allies could not play a game like this indefinitely. They could do so just as long as the Germans insisted on delivering them- . selves II1LU LllCir IIU1IU9. 1 JIU UUMI" tolpiets suscsss of the isls si.'su'4:-sl at first upon the fact that the very I existence of mystery ships was un - known to the German navy. All the Germans knew, in these early days was that certain U-boats had sailed from Germany and had not re turned. But it was Inevitable that the time should come when a mystery ship attack would fall; the German submarine would return and report that this new terror of the seas was at large. And that is precisely what happened. A certain submatine re ceived a battering which it seemed hardly likely that any U-boat could survive; yet, almost by a miracle, it crept back to its German base and reported the manner of its undoing. Clearly the mystery ships in future were not to have as plain sailing as in the past; the game, if It was to continue, would become more a battle of wits; henceforth every liner and merchantman, in German eyes, was a possible enemy in disguise, and It was to be expected that' the U-boat commanders would resort to almeans of protecting their craft against them. The Onlr Alternatives. That the Germans knew all about these vessels became apparent when one of their naval publications fell into our hands, giving complete de scrlptions and containing directions to U-boat commanders how to meet this new menace. The German news- papers and illustrated magazines also . . . . . . began to devote much space to this kind of anti-submarine fighting, de- nouncing it in true Germanic fashion as "barbarous" and contrary to the rules of civilized warfare. The great significance of this knowledge Is at J " . ... . once apparent. The mere fact that a number of Q-ships were at sea, even if they did not succeed in sinking many submarines, forced the Ger- merely a matter of good care that mans to make a radical change in had caused the change. I removed the their submarine tactics. As they grafted glands. I found them in a ,,, j , v. , . . . perfect state, as they had not been could no longer bring to, board, and ompletely assimilated by the renewed loot merchant ships, and sink them or(ranism. inexpensively and without danger by "The ram immediately aged and the use of bombs, they were obliged became even more decrepit than be not only to use their precious torpe- fore. I once more introduced the does, but also to torpedo without glands from a young goat, which warning. This was the only alterna- ag.f'" Prdu:f,d youth and vigor. ., . . . . ' . "There will not be the slightest tive except to abandon the submarine aanger to human beings because of campaign altogether. the monkey tissues which I use in t Berlin accordingly instructed the treating humans. A monkey's blood submarine, commanderg not to ap- very closely resembles that of hu proach on the surface any merchant mans. Hence' the tissues of the ape or passenger vessel closely enough "ra Perfectly adapted for grafting in to get within range of its guns, but "ere is no danger of thereby bru to keep at a distance and shell It. talizing human beings. So far my ex Had the commanders always ob- periments in this direction are con served these instructions the success fined largely to rejuvenating worn of the mystery ship in sinking sub- out organisms. . I am convinced the marines would have ended then and idea is practicable I do not guaran- . . . tee I have found the solution for there, though the influence of their senile decay. My works are of an presence upon tactics would have re- experimental nature and I am con-' , maiatid iu lutcv. l'Ua allies! aayies tiauinij mxr iiivestisiUions." now made elaborate preparations, all for the purpose of persuading Frits to approach In the face of a tremen dous risk concerning which he had been accurately informed. Every sub marine commander, after torpedoing his victim, now clearly understood that it might be a decoy dispatched for the particular purpose of entrap ping him; and he knew that an at tempt to approach within a short dis tance of the foundering vessel might spell his own immediate destruction. The expert in German mentality must explain why, under these circum stances, he should have persisted In walking into the Jaws of death. The skill with which the mystery ship and their crews were disguised per haps explains this in part. Any one who might have happened In the open sea upon Captain Campbell and his slow moving freighter could not have believed that they were part and parcel of the royal navy. Our own destroyers were sometimes de ceived by them. The Cushing one day hailed Captain Campbell in the Tar gust, having mistaken him for a de fenseless tramp. The conversation between the two ships was brief but to the point: Cushing: What ship? Pargust: Gordon Campbell! Tlease keep out of my sight. (Copyright. 1919. by the World's Work. The copyright of these articles In Great Britain is strictly reserved by Pearson's Magazine, London; with out their permission no quotation may be made. Published by arrangement. Another article next Sunday.) Restoration of Youth Is a . Simple Operation French Doctor Sayn Glandn fan Be Inserted nilk I.lltlr Trouble and Only Local Asrathctic la Aecea arj. PARIS. Restoration of youth to aged bodies is no longer an uncer tainty, but is as sure as tho rules of chemistry. Dr. L. II. Voronoff said re cently. Dr. Voronoff recently startled Paris with his announcement of success in the rejuvenation of animals and hu mans by the grafting of interstitial glands. Dr. Voronoff is the director of the physiological laboratory of the College of France. He has a high reputation as a surgeon as well as an investigator. In addition to the success the doc tor alleges in his operations for the restoration of youth, he explained that the operations are extremely simple. A local anaesthetic is all that Is necessary, said Dr. oronorr. Jt is merely a task of opening the skin, inserting the new tissue, sewing up the slight wound and nature does the rest." "Seven months ago." continued Dr. Voronoff, "I operated on a widely- known Parisian man of affairs, who t the age of 66 was in a decrepit state. The experiment was a com- ple)6 success, although hls hair re mains white and his face is wrinkled, he walks erect, his mind is as active and his apeptite is as good as that of la young man. "Three months ago I performed a similar grafting operation on another aged man. Everything in his case indicates the result will be the same, but it is too early as yet to give a statement as to his renewed vitality. "The secret of my method is based on the following general knowledge: In various parts of the body nature has provided glands which secrets fluids having vital functions in hu man organism. For instance, if I re move the thyroid gland from a hu man's neck he will become an idiot within six months. Also .when the interstitial glands, which manufac ture fluid which is absorbed by the blood, and thus give to the whole body its vitality, become worn out or are removed, the whole body falls into decay. I have proved by numerous ex periments that it is possible with sa.fetV to replace the forn-out inter- those of young animals of the same breed, thus restoring youth to the aged body. Foreign tissues, which have thus been introduced into a worn-out system, are nourished by the blood circulation of the body which is the new home for the tis sues. In turn the tissues manufac- I ture a vital fluid, which, circulating through the body, restores its youth- ul vigr- , "Some of my most productive ex- periments were carried out on an aged ram The ram at 14 yeara cor. responded In age of a human at 78, insofar as the exhaustion of organ- isms is concerned. Taking the aged, decrepit ram In May, 1918. I put into is body Interstitial glands taken from a young ram. Within two montha ne had regained his youthful yior and activities. "Then, in order to prove it was not