TIIE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, MARCH 21, 1920
5
The
victory At Sea
By Admiral William Sowden Sims
TRAGEDIES TOLD BY THE LISTENING TUBE
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A SLDCIIASER AFIRE AT CORFU.
Gasoline firm were very ilnnfcrrnus and acvcral lulichmrm titrt destroyed by them. A "Park from
the circles or from the exhaust of a motor might set fire to the (tnsollne when It wai being trans
ferred to the tanks.
O.N the mornins or beptemher b
three eubc-haser units, under the
command of Knsisn Ashley D.
Adams, U. S. X. R. F., were listening
at a point about 150 miles, west of
Land's Knd. At about 11:30 two of
these units detected what was un
questionably the sound of a subma
rine. Moreover, the usual "fixes" dis
closed that the enemy was close at
hand: eo close that two of the units
ran up and dropped their charges.
The first attack produced no result
on the submarine; the depth charge
from one of the howitzers, however,
unfortunately landed near one of the
chasers, and, though it injured no
one, it put that particular unit out
of commission. However, for two
hours Ensign Adams' division kept
closely on the heels of the quarry.
now stopping to obtain a "fix," now
running full speed to catch up with
the fleeine prey. At 1 o'clock the
plotting room reported that the sub
merged boat was just about a hun
dred yards ahead. The three chasers
laid barrages according to pattern,
and the three "T" guns shot their
charges; the region of the "fix" w
so generously sowed with these
bombs that it seemed an impossibility
that the German could have escaped
HOW St'BMARIKES WERE LOCATED.
As soon as the listening- device had located the
oand of a submarine this arrow on the pilot
house seK in order to indicate to the other
ships In the vicinity the direction of the enemy.
A SUBCHASER'S STIMi.
The depth bombs on the stern were the submarines worst enemies, and when osed In eonnrclloa
the listening; devices they were of Inestimable vuliir.
.Ith
What the Tubes Heard.
As soon as the tumult quieted
down, the chasers put out their tubes
and listened. For 20 minutes not i
sound issued from the scene of al
this activity. Then a propeller was
heard faintly turning or attempting
to turn. The noise this time was not
the kind which indicated an effort
to steal away furtively; it conveyed
rather the impression of difficulty
and strain. There was a slight grat
ing and .squeaking such as might
have been made by damaged machin
ery. This noise lasted for a few sec
onds and then ceased. Presently it
started up again and then once more
it stopped. The submarine was mak
ing a little progress, but fitfully; she
would go a few yards, and then
pause. A 6light wake now appeared
upon the surface, j.uch as a sub
merged U-boat usually left when the
water was calm; the listeners at the
tube were pleased to note that the
location of this disturbance coincided
precisely wtih their "fix," and thus,
in a way, confirmed their calculations.
One of the subchasers promptly ran
ahead and began to drop depth charges
on this wake. There was not the
slightest doubt that the surface boat
was now directly on top of the sub
marine. After one of the depth
charges was dropped a black cylin
drical object, about thirty inches ,
long, was hurled 60 feet into the air;
just what this unexpected visitant
was, no one seems to know, but that
it came from the hunted submarine
was clear.
Could the U-IIoat Day Head f
Under such distressing conditions,
the U-boat had only a single chance
of saving itself; when the water was
sufficiently shallow not deeper than
300 fect it could safely sink to the
bottom and "play dead," hoping that
the chasers, with their accursed list
ening devices, would tire of the vigil
and return to port. A submarine, if
in very good condition, could remain
silently on the bottom for two or
three days. The listeners on the
chaser tubes presently heard sounds
which suggested that their enemy
was perhaps resorting to this ma
neuver. But there were other noises
which indicated that possibly this
sinking to the bottom was not volun
tary. The listeners clearly heard a
scraping and a straining, as though
the boat was making terrific attempts
to rise. There was a lumbering noise,
such as might be made by a heavy
object trying to drag its hulk along
the muddy bottom; this was followed
by silence, 'showing that the wounded
vessel could advance only a few
yards.
A terrible tragedy was clearly be
ginning down there In the slime of
the ocean floor; a boat, with 25 or 30
human beings on board, was hope
lessly caught, with nothing in sight
except the most lingering death. The
listeners on tbe chasers could fallow
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THE HARBOR AT COHFF.
Used by the American sub-haner flotilla. At the left Is the olive throve iu which
permitted to exercise.
the Americans were
THE E'CI.E ROOM OF A SUBCHASER.
These ships were driven by three 2-O-horsepower motors. An auxiliary motor sjeneratrd electricity anil
events almost as clearly as though
the inside of the U-boat could be
see, for every ' motion the vessel
made, every effort that the crew put
forth to rescue itself from this living
hell, was registered on the delicate
wires which reached the ears of the
men on the surface.
Suddenly sharp metallic sounds
came up on the wires. They were
clearly made by hammers beating on
the eteel body of the U-boat.
'They are trying to make repairs,"
the listeners reported.
If our subchasers had had any more
depth charges, they would have
promptly put these wretches out of
their misery, but they had expended
all their ammunition. Darkness was
now closing in; our men saw that
their vigil was to be a long one; they
sent two chasers to Tenzance to get
a new supply of bombs, and also sent
a radio call for a destroyer. The spot
where the submarine had bottomed
was marked by a buoy; lanterns were
hung out on this buoy., and two units
of chasers, six boats' in all, prepared
to stand guard. At any moment, of
course, the struggling U-boat might
come to the surface, and it was nec
essai y to have forces near by to fight
or to accept surrender. All night long
the chasers stood by; now and then
the listeners reported scraping and
straining noises from below, but these
grew faiter and fainter, seeming al
most to register the despair which
must be seizing the hearts of the im
prisoned Germans.
At 3 o'clock in the morning a Brit
ish destroyer arrived and presently
the chasers returned from Penzance
with more ammunition. Meanwhile the
weather had thickened, a fog had
fallen, the lights on the buoy itself
had been pulled under by the tide.
The watching subchasers were tossed
about by the weather, and lost the
precise bearing of the 6unken subma
rine. When daylight returned and the
weather calmed down the chasers
again put over their tubes and at
tempted to "fix" the U-boat.
They listened for hours, without
hearing a sound; but about 5 o'clock
in the afternoon a sharp, piercing
noise came ringing over the wires.
It was a sound that made the listen
ers' blood run cold.
Only one thing in the world could
make a sound like that. It was the
crack of a revolver. The first report
had hardly stilled when another ehot
was heard; and then there were more
in rapid succession. The listeners on
two different chasers heard these pis
tol cracks and counted them; the re
ports which these two men independ
ently made agreed in every detail.
In all, 25 shots came from the bottom
of the sea. As there were from 23 to
30 men in a submarine crew, the
meaning was all too evident. The
larg'er part of officers and men, find
ing themselves shut tightly in their
coffin of steel, had resorted to that
escape, which was not uncommonly
availed of by German submarine
'crews in this hideous war. Nearly all
of them had committed suicide.
Meanwhile our subchaser detach
ment at Corfu was daily performing
excellent service. In these southern
waters Captain C. P. Xelson com
manded'two squadrons, comprising 36
vessels. The American navy possessed
few officers more energetic, more
efficient, more lovable or more per
sonally engaging than Captain Nelson.
The mere fact that he was known
among his brother officers as "Juggy
Nelson" gives some notion of the af
fection which his personality inspired.
This nickname did not indicate, as
might at first be suspected, that Cap
tain Xelson possessed qualities which
flew in the face of the prohibitory
regulations of our navy; it 'was- in
tended, I think, as a description of
the physical man. For Captain Nel
sons round figure, jocund counte
jance and, always buoyant spirits
were priceless assets to onr naval
forces at Corfu.
Living conditions there were not of
operated t he pumps.
the best; disease was rampant among
the Serbians, Greek and Albanians,
who made up the civil population;
there were few opportunities for en
tertainment or relaxation. It was,
therefore, a happy chance that the
tommander was a man whose very
presence radiated an atmosphere of
geniality and enthusiasm. His conver
sational powers for many years had
made him a man of mark; his story
telling abilities had long delighted
naval officers and statesmen at Wash
ington; no other selection for com
mander could have been made that
would have met with more whole
hearted approval from the college
boys and other high-type civilians
who so largely made up our forces in
these flotillas.
At Corfu, indeed. Captain Nelson
quickly became a popular favorite;
his mind was always actively form
ing plans for the discomfiture of the
German and Austrian submarines, and
all our allies were ns much impressed
with Ills energy as were our own nun.
For Captain Xelson was more than
a humorist and entcrtulncr; he was
pre-eminently a sailor of the salticflt
type, and lie had a ral . barbaric J07
in a fiKht. Even in his official com
munications to his officers and men
he invariably referred to the enemy as
tho "Hun"; the "sloKan" on which he
insisted as the guiding principle (,f
his flotilla was "get tho Hun before
he has a chance to K't us." He had
the supreme gift of flilnir his subor
dinates with the same spirit that pn-
ssessed himself; and the vigilance, the
constant activity and the rniuavu of
the subchasers' crews admirably sup
plemented the sailorliko qualities of
the man who commanded them.
CoprlKht, l!-, l' Hi" Wiirld'n Work.
Th copyright of thrao art iclr s In Jrent
Britain is Btrlrtly rrirrvfd by I'cursnn'l
MaKU.lrie. London; without tllt'lr prrnit
ston no quotatlun may ba made. PuhMntiril
by special arrangement with the MrClur
Newspaper Syndicate. Another story nrxl
Sunday.
GERMAN MUSIC CROWDS OUT
AMERICAN CREATIVE WORKS
Present Policy of "Wagner Programmes" for Concert Public Declared
to Show Great Retrogression From Stand Under War Conditions.
BV EMILIE FRANCES BAUER.
EW YORK, March 20. (Special.)
Every season promise to be
he "biggest yet" and as the
end is neared there is a long list of
unfulfilled promises, of vain regrets
on' the part ot artists and public alike,
impresarious and others. There are
changes which set agog those who
not be offered in a really artistic
manner and not railroaded on with
the most offensive speed ever of
fered a musical public
Neither Mr. Stransky nor Mr. Dam
rosch will sustain an argument to
prove that their concert public re
quire programme after programme of
operatic excerpts. If they do. why
not play in orchestral form long ex-
talk music, and there is the ever ex- cerpts of Puccini, Verdi, Debussy
pectant quasi-music lover whose chief
pleasure is found in dipping here and
there into the novelties In order to
form snap-shot judgments which
shall sound very erudite to those who
are a little lower down the ladder of
quasi-cognoscenti.
In a certain sense most of the 'im
portant promises have been fulfilled
and the season was sufficiently over
crowded to gratify the most hysteri
cal seeker, who like Satan, is ever
prowling around in search of what
he may devour. But. however crowd
ed the season of 1919-20 may have
been, it is nothing in comparison to
what we may expect during 1920-21,
and the one great duty of the Ameri
can public is to see that it be not the
American creative works that are
"crowded out" for the purpose of
making room for the inevitable
"Wagner programmes," his1 was so
glaring already this year that one
need not be very keen intellectually
to read the writing on the wall, here
is a great retrogression in many of
the programmes today from what
they were before war conditions
barred German music, but if German
m.usic we must have, why' abouja it
operas? hy not play more Brahm
and Beethoven and less operatic mu
sic which at its very best is inartistic
in concert form? If, indeed, it be so
urgent to get back into the German
harness, why not go in straightfor
ward, honest fashion back to Richard
Strauss whose Death and Apotheo
sis," "Til Eulenspiegel," "Thus Spake
zarathustra" and a long list of others,
are infinitely more dignified as mu
sical works than the Wagnerian ex
cerpts upon which the New York au
diences have been fed ad nauseam.
This does not mean that Strauss is
better, more artistic or more welcome
as a musician than Wagner, neither
of whom is necessary at the present
time, but from the standpoint of true
art, his works would be less offen
sive on a symphony programme than
operatic excerpts from anything. It
would be interesting to know how
many of the American works which
were promised this season have been
"postponed" on account of the Ger
man repertory with which it was nec
essary in the minds of the conduc
tors to gorge the public.
Unrest which extends into every
known field naturally cannot Igave
music to flow its usual serene and
happy course, and whether it has to
do with national troubles or with
labor, who knows, and indeed, who
cares? Directly -upon news of th
very great success enjoyed by Fred
erick Fradkin as soloist with the
Boston Symphony orchestra in Its
home town recently, comes the later
information that on account of re
fusal to arise when called upon by
Pierre Monteux, conductor of that
great organization, to share with the
conductor the applause being show
ered upon the orchestra, the concert
master severed connection with said
orchestra. To one not in sympathy
with the "artistic temperament" so
ably defended by the New York
American when its pet Toscanini was
a victim of his own idiosyncracies.
the story given must seem week
knede and untenable. It is truly a
pity that the withdrawing concert-
master should be an American, but
rather the violinist than the splendid
conductor who has won his way
against odds of every sort, all of
wnicn nave their foundation in poli
tics. Monteux has been eager in his
research for American compositions
and has been an inspiration to many
of the composers of his country. To
him may be credited the astuteness of
giving a concert performance of one
of the cleverest, most national and
most musical creations of this coun
try the Henry F. Gilbert "Dance of
the Congo Place," which was brought
forwarded as a ballet by Giulio Gatti
Casazza last season. It is certain that
Gilbert's share in this work was ad
mirable and that if it suffered from
anything it was from the incongruous
union of dance form supposed to "in
terpret" the atmosphere of New Or
leans. Monteux's contribution to the or
chestral gems of the day when he
brought forward the tone poem, "The
Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan," is
beyond estimate. Following that per
formance almost every great orches
tra in this souetry " lound tb tre
mendous Importance of Charles T.
Griffes' works, none of which has
ever awakened a mere polite hear
ing, but with press and public
flashed the composer into sensational
success. It is interesting to note that
Monteux has asked Robert Schmitz
to play the Carpenter "Concertino" in
New York as he played it last week
in Boston. This will be doubly wel
come as it will bring a soloist to the
Boston Symphony concerts of which
this organization has been in sore
need, particularly in a day of limited
repertory.
This is the work that was sched
uled for performance by Percy
Grainger who was to have done It
January 29-30 with the Philharmonic
orchestra, Josef Stransky conducting.
Of course Grainger did not play those
concerts after all as he was ill with
an aggravated case of influenza, but
it is a fact that owing to some com
plication about copying parts, or the
score, or something of that sort, it
would not have had its performance
upon that occasion.
Among the orchestral scores which
should be available for concert per
formances, taking Monteux's initia
tive as example, may be mentioned
the ballets seen recently with the
Chicago Opera association. It would
do no harm indeed, to separate that
delectable story of "Boudour" from
its lovely score by Borowski, and
give it as many hearings as we have
orchestras in the country, for musi
cally it is beautiful, the work of a
poet and a true musician. The same
might in a sense be said of the Car
penter "Birthday of the Infanta,"
one performance of which is not
enough for a composition of such
merit, and It would not be any more
inartistic to separate it from its stag
ing than it is to lift scenes out of the
Wagner operas. A fair glance into
conditions as they are shows that
musical propaganda like charity
should begin at home. We had a
fighting chance, and then came the
armistice! ', '
HOME GARDENS BEST SOLUTION
OF FOOD PROBLEMS OF TODAY
Thrift Food Plots Important in 1920 Begin Now to Make Your Back
yard Pay, by Planting Garden.
w
ASHIXGTOX, March 20. One Hire frotn seed merchants, whose
way of reducing the cost of
living is open to every man
woman and child who can get the use
of an idle plot of ground. That way
lies through tho planting and cultiva
tion of a home garden a thrift gar
den. War gardens played their part
in the great mobilization of resources
in war time thrift gardens now have
their own big. job in helping house
holds to feed themselves.
The reasons for thrift gardens are
many and various. The same reasons
that existed last year and the year
before still are present. Thrift gar
dens will produce food where nothing
otherwise would be produced, they
will reduce family food bills, they will
return abundantly in proportion to
the time and effort devoted to them.
But added to these reasons is another
ome peculiar to this year.
Reports to the United States de
partment of agriculture indicate that
the plantings by commercial vegeta
ble gardeners will be materially re
duced this year, because the commer
cial gardeners see no way of obtain
ing enough labor to conduct their
usual operations. The commercial
gardeners claim that they have Paid
high wages in endeavors to keep up
production, but now have reached the
point where the returns will not
justify the continuance of this ex
pense. At least, that is the report
reaching tbe- Department of Aericul-
(rations ut this season arc reuarded
as a trooil Indication of what condi
tions will be a month or two from
now.
If the reduction of cominet clal gar
dening becomes a fact, tho obvious
result will be fewer vegetables land
higher prices. The toxical remedy
lies partly in home garden. This is
a remedy, moreover, that will work
no harm even If commercial acreage
should bo up to normal, as any nur
plus of fresh vegetables may be saved
by canning, drying and other mentis
of conservation and the surplus kept
so that it will be useful next fall and
winter.
Thousands of families learned the,
value of home gardens In war time.
United States department of agricul
ture specialists believe It essential
that these fa mil lew' interest be main
tained and that other thousands lie
added to the home food producers.
"Xow is the time to begin making
plans for your 1920 thrift garden,"
these Fpeclalists declare. "Fifst. locnte
a piece of suitable land; second, make
your plan: third, get your needs:
fourth, start work at the earliest pos
sible moment."
A request to the United States de
partment of ngrlculture. Washington.
D. C, will bring a booklet that will
tell you how to plan your garden, how
much seed to buy, how to get the land
In shape for cultivation, how to take
every other step in the process of
making your back yard or some other
vacant lot help teed you.