Show MENACE IS DWINDLING FAST listening Lisi ening devices depth bombs and destroyer fleet beating submarines CONVOY SYSTEM EFFICIENT wrecks of terrors strew bet bottom of english channel and north sea mine sweepers do good work london the menace ot of the german submarines and mines to the maritime commerce of the allies Is becoming less week by week the improvement pro Is due chiefly to the development of the listening devices and the depth bombs carried on the amov ling ing destroyers the h dro phone Is the most useful invention that has been discovered disco ered by the navy in its antisubmarine crusade and it Is being improved upon all the tim time e when a U boat Is spotted from aloft by one of the alert observers in the seaplanes sea planes which milich wing their night flight ct over er the north sea and the waters aters around the british isles he signals the position to the nearest destroyer destro cr directly lie he gets tills this information her commander steams at full speed in the tit di indicated until lie he can hear the submarine plugging along under water the destroyer follows the U boat tor for hours it if necessary until the commander thinks he hat has got the enemy in the right position toe for a bit and then lets go the bomb while the number of enemy undersea s ea craft that are sunk or captured each month is not given out for publication it Is known that it equals the construction ot of submarines in germany the greatest blow to german hopes of destroying the commerce ot of the allies on the ocean lies iles in the convoy sy system hysten sten which is rapidly approaching perfection when the plan of escorting transports and supply ships right across the atlantic in large fleets was first tried out there was considerable delay on account of difference in speed of the various ships of which it was composed at the present time convoys are all classified recording according to speed and a fast transport can make a round trip in 30 taa s while the slower class of supply ships drift across the ocean at ft steady six or seven knot galt gait the number of british and american destroyers has increased rapidly and Is still gro grolig ing lug so that there are plenty of these essential w Natch dogs of the sea to make the passage of convoys across the atlantic find and north sea secure the greatest percentage of losses by submarines since january I 1 lias has been in tile the mediterranean and tills is now being reduced by increasing the number of destroyers in those waters no submarine commander will risk attack on a convoy which is protected on all four sides by destroyers and frequently accompanied compa compan nied led by seaplanes sea planes naval experts fire are confident that ngien acthen there are sufficient destroyers to escort all convoys required to transport troops and munitions from froin america to england and france the submarine peril aill n be practically at an end this stage should be reached by august at the present time the U boats watch and wait for vessels mahich are alone the sinking of vessels in the irish sea has as been due to the fact that the water there Is muddy and not too deep and a submarine can lie on the bottom and come up at night quite recently in two instances when steamships were torpedoed in the irish sea destroyers st blew one U boat to pieces with a depth charge and damaged the other one so seriously before she could submerge that the commander surrendered with its ills crew pilots of seaplanes sea planes and airplanes who ilio fly over the waters around the british isles have reported num numbers bersi of submarines which were sunk months ago and are lying on the bottom of the channel and north sea in addition to destroyers and patrol boats which scour the surface in every direction there are all kinds of traps and obstacles placed under water aich make the passage of dover straits and exit from Heli goland bight a very complicated problem for a U boat commander to solve hundreds of mine sweepers manned by fishermen n and sailors from the til merchant making sen ser ice are at work day and night making the ocean lanes sate safe for steamships belonging to the allies and neutral nations their crews have become adopts adepts in the art of finding and exploding german mines hidden below the surface during the year ending in april more than 1000 mines which cust cost 1000 cadi cach to construct were or captured by the british mine sweepers the loss of mine sweepers was very small in comparison in one instance a mine sweeper found a german mine drifting in the north sea and towed toned it over well in toward the mouth of elbe under cover of fog after pumping it up tip the crew set the mine 20 feet below the surface and 19 12 hours later it was struck by a german steamship bound for Gother gothenberg iberg from bremen and the vessel and her cargo of iron ore went to the bottom the increasing hazard against submarines ever returning to port Is making it difficult for the german admiralty to get crews to man them |