Show il 1 1 0 f ilie I 1 u deac A ie kit and X t it 11 11 human ingenuity genut y has 17 c been faced faxed the limit in demeio developing pinga these ese in inspru ments of n ad A dieg means to overe we OR many months after the outbreak of the war abroad chef submarine mine was a close second to the torpedo in achieving the destruction st of all kinds hinds of shipping thereafter the mine tell fell somewhat behind not because it lacked power to do harm but tor for two 4 other reasons first the wholesome dread inspired by the prescribed mined areas and next because of the various expedients adopted by the belligerents to neutralize these weapons even so the th mine emine Is playing a big part in marine warfare and wd we shall have to count with it and against it now that owe have joined forc forces edwith with we the entente allies i jt it Is a matter of rec record ord that thi the germans got the jump on the british by their prompt and even daring employment of the submarine mine within a very short time after the declaration of war mine planters were operating on the english and scottish C coasts and were busily engaged in sowing these weapons at chevery the very entrance of enemy ports and rivers for this purpose purpose it was rather easy then to have recourse to north sea fishing craft that had all the outward complexion of innocence indeed for weeks these boats went about their work well nigh unsuspected it if was only when hen british battle craft were mysteriously damaged and sunk that the ahe british authorities awakened to their peril even then the belief pre prevailed that the damage was more or less a matter of sheer chance chance chace n in the hasure of ofa a friendly defense mine that had got adrift then the next explanation i was that a particularly daring da anez U boat commander had managed to got get within striking distance and finally it d dawned awn e d upon the british coast patrol that enemy mines were being freely free ly planted plan right under their very noses every fishing boat was then an object of sus eus clelon and prompt investigation proved pro vedIn in a agrest great many cases that ther ewas ample warrant for this attitude neutral trawlers trailers lers became more and more infrequent in certain of the waters contiguous to the north and east coasts of scotland and england iland and for a time the mine menace was held pretty well in hand band the j ye Teu tons however were not checkmated check mated anait and it was only a question of time before they developed EL a in method ethod with which to offset the vigilance of the british coastal patrol then the german submarine mine layers got to work how many oi of these the hallers hal kal sers experts have built and sent to their fields of service in the waters of the north sea especially Is not known it Is safe to say too many of them have bearr built but li and a nd dispatched upon their missions and the general character of them all Is probably much akin to that of the IT 0 5 which was captured and taken into a british port bort by chance a british destroyer dl discovered covered the C U C 5 on the surface and in distress at some point along the east coast when summoned by megaphone to surrender the crew of the submarine mustered on deck and held up their hands in token of submission but curiously before W a relief boat could be sent to them efiem they jumped overboard the cause of their action was soon explained another member of the submarines complement suddenly appeared upon deck and threw himself into the water and almost immediately tely afterward there were a number of violent explosions within imbi n the TJ C 5 the last man had exploded bombs alch which blew holes boles in tile the craft but for prompt action on the part pari ot of n british who protected by a gas mask went da dauntlessly down into the injured U boal boa the mine planter I 1 would have filled and gone to the bottom in water too deep fa dorher aher ie recovery covery As it was she represented a desperate task for her would be and it was necessary to secure 6 a couple coup of mines within the boat that had bad been set free by the explosions before it was safo 0 to io tow tl the e submarine into harbor and to dork dock per bet upon examination this new ne worder order of 0 f submarine was found to be charged or laden aden with a dozen powerful contact mines housed in six vei vertical wells passing pa i asing directly from deck to bottom of the craft each well held two mines one an on top of the other were kept in their places by locking devices which could ile be released from within tha he submarine the controlling station for this operation wa was s found to be in the conning tower so that thail the commander of the boat with only her periscopes above water could see just filst where to ko kow wIlls aili weapons tr in this way the germans have bave been able upon occasions to approach app certain sections of the nv waters aters about tho the british isles and to plant there I 1 mines that hove accomplished the destructive work cut out for them how many ships have been sent to the bottom by mines sown by boats of this sort Is of course a matter of conjecture on but there can beno be no doubt that submarine mine planters are actively employed add today ay one thing about them that tha makes them of special interest even concern to us Is that there Is nothing to prevent their operating in a pl similar aillar manner upon our atlantic coast what Is to prevent a submarine somewhat after the order of the deutschland Deutsch de ats debland land from being equipped for work nork of this nature instead of carrying some som a hundreds of tons of bamme re lal freight she could just as easily divide that v eight among mines mine plant i 1 f iv 4 4 41 7 n X 1 ki za ing apparatus and an increased supply of fuai and at that time food which would make it for her to per that no form her service for longer periods and over wider zones of action the whole subject of submarine mines offensive and defensive and the protection against enemy submarines Is one with which our naval and military authorities are deeply engaged itis it Is safe to say that we are going to see some remarkable developments and largely because our allies allie alliefare sare are going to give us the llene benefit fit of their own experience so that native ingenuity can start to improve upon the fruits of the labors of others indeed our defenses must of necessity be of the best types possible because of the extent of our seaboard and the comparatively limited number of vessels that the navy has for patrol work the recent presidential order prescribing defense zones at the approaches of certain ports and waterways had to do with the ardys part primarily in this matter of safeguards the mine fields controlled by the military authorities those of the coast artillery corps are as a rule protected by observation mines or electric contact mines that are made active or inactive by the operation of a switch ow itch that li Is to say the vitalizing current comes from station static n us ashore libre and neither of these types of mines will explode unless the electric current reaches them by way of a submerged cable in the case of the contact mine with the current turned on the mine will explode when bumped and tilted over to a proscribed angle the observation mine on the other hand does not have to be touched by the enemy craft but Is subject to the will of an observer on shore observation mines are planted in groups and are laid out in definite nite checkerboard areas and each group Is set off separately and simultaneously the observer by means mean of range marks or bearings knows just when the approaching foe reaches any one of these squares and accordingly the one within which the enemy lies at the moment determines the group of mines to be detonated the contact mine as may easily be understood does its work where an observer might fall after dark and tor for that reason the electric current Is turned on with set of sun and the whole area so sown becomes instantly a menace to friend or foe it Is quite likely that observation mines were employed by the turks at the dardanelles Darda nelles and therefore by approaching from under water it was possible for the british submarine B ll 11 to dive beneath five rows of mines probably shoving their cables aside and tilting the weapons is and then pushing on so that she could rise to the surface and torpedo the turkish battleship messu daych which was stationed to guard that very mine field had those mines been of the contact sort the displacement of their cables would probably have caused their deton detonation atlon and likewise the destruction of the B ll 11 other british submarines succeeded in passing submerged subiner ged through those turkish defenses the enemy observers being unable to see eee the underwater boats it was the exploits of the submarines at the parda nelles that Plis disclosed closed to the british the weak spot in their own 0 W n mine defenses defens ei and led a short while afterward to the development of other protective agencies in dealing with the german underwater boats unquestionably the roost most spectacular part of submarine mining Is that thai in which the weapons area are resorted to lo in iii open waters in those offshore areas where a defense of bluit sort la is nt not ordinarily employed the italians were cheplo the pioneers in this order of warfare and they developed the art in peace to such a point that other nations realia realized d that the mine was no I 1 longer on of limited in its potential useful usefulness ness elther elthe r to io the defence of a port or tor for blockading the ships in nn an enemy harbor tile the italians showed that the submarine mines could bo used offensively so to it if planted secretly and placed where by strategy the u inaus pecking foe could be lured over h and into them the japanese Jo during their war with russia made pond good use oi of what the italians had taught thern them and when the present conflict began germany was fully prepared to carry the practice still further german mine layers were ready and numerous on august 1 three years ago and as we noy know the kathers kaisers kai kat sers navy lost no time simein in mining the th marine emarine approaches to the fatherland not only that but these craft ln in various bulges planted mines over wide areas in the north sealand sea and in the waters of the british isles the hague convention of 1907 among other things provided that it t Is la forbidden to efty anchored auto automatic matte contact t minea which do not become harmless as soon as they have broken loose from their moorings and lt it was also 1 prescribed w k sa s1 ed mines be used which would bo be dangerous more than an hour after they had been dropped into uie the sea isea the mines in question are self contained ed contact mines that are arc not controlled from any shore or observing station and are well nigh instantly men acing when cast overboard just before the war the germans with their usual technical cunnings developed a naval offense and def defense prise mine which could be used either in a fixed position or be planted hastily in water traversed by enemy shipping this mine is Is the type which has nonesuch done such destruct destructive tive work and is 14 designed to be fired by an electric battery placed ce id inside of the mine this battery abeln being g inactive until the mine has been submerged and then struck bya by n passing craft A development ol of the contact mine which the germans have hae at times aigles employed employ pd successfully Is one Bur mounted by a dummy or decoy decoct periscope the object of this nise Is to invite ramming on the part of a patr patrolling vessel or even a merchantman ch when the deceived navigator relieves believes that the chance Is good for or sending a U boat to the bot bottom tou ot of coursell co course ursela a vessel attempting to ram that dummy Peri periscope 0 Is sure to strike the contact mine and cause aitto it to explode ahe the result being disastrous to the ramming craft this lure has not worked so well latterly because the observer Is able ina in a few moments t to eita establish blish the fact that the periscope Is stationary and the work of getting the underlying fineout mine out of the way Is left to the fairly safe process of sweeping trawlers trailers lers linked together by a loop of wire rope doing the work in order to deal with both the submarine torpedo boat and the submarine mine I 1 planter the british admiralty has had recourse to defense defence nets of a novel character these have been very well described by rear admiral william S sims according to this authority we did not find out for a long time what those nets are like and I 1 think it Is necessary that it should be understood in order to realize the great danger submarines run in the presence of light surface craft the net Is a very light one made of little wire rope probably not as big as s h n lead pencil prod probably not more than a quarter of an inch in diameter the meshes of the nit net are 12 to 15 feet square on top of of this net ore are floats I 1 and on the bottom are little weights lits tho the moment this net unbeknownst 10 to lo tile the submarine commander of course Is inthe in the water in front of him the floats keep the net op on the surface and the weights keep the bott bottom om down and if he runs into it his bow goes goe sAnto into one of the meshes and the net falls back around him and it may foul his propeller or may not a the net is or yards long on and as the submarine proceeds the flo floats attil will trail on the surface so that even if he dives deeper he leaves leases these on the and an d his trail Is plain and there Is no difficulty then in capturing him ho he knows when he be runs into a nev net that his capture Is certain if he goes down feet the floats of the net are still anthe on the surface these n nets ets aroused d in two ways either pi passively at chosen points in guarded waters or they are dropped overboard by patrolling vessels that discover a submerged submarine in motion it Is a fact that thai even though a sub submarine marine be running T totally submerged 20 or 30 feet dorm it still hlll i i causes causes a disturbance at the surface sui fuce p not ot YA wake in the usual sense of the term but a type of wave which tse Is easily nAly distinguished from tho lar surface waveland waves wave sand and this phenomenon Is rowdily discernible from the bridge of a ship or from roni a hydroplane to return to the submarine mine we have bave jo j 0 fill far considered only ill that it so called offe offensive n type which can be anchored in fairly smooth waters such ns as prevail extensively in the korth sea heu but now let us take up that und which can 1 be e dropped oTei overboard board aid in much deeper water tills this sort Is x capable of being planted from a speedy shin seemingly bent upon eS escaping irom her pursuer 4 and her strategy consist sIn lay inciting biting chase while dropping allese stumble right in the path of her oncoming en enemies emles generally the ship hitting weapons orthis of sort floes does s so 0 how bow on and that part of a vessel Is the least vital section A c raft craft may have ler how bow blown off and yet vet be bd able to make a haver haen and besides the da damage llinge may be susceptible of repair our ini mines nes on tale other hand have a delayed action and after bai being ng mt hit by me ln of a craft roll stern inward wardin in contact with hi h r bottom for some distance before they explode tn in this way the blow when the mine does lyrist burst strikes some vital area and the damage la Is ivell nigh certain to bo be fatal fa tal ne ne york sun w |