Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 286, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1918 — FORCES SUBS TO STAY UNDER SEA [ARTICLE]

FORCES SUBS TO STAY UNDER SEA

Aerial Forces’ Part in Keeping Ocean Lanes Open Is Described. NAVAL AIRPLANES ON JOB U-Boats Ara Practically Helpless as Long as They Are Forced to Stay Under Water Whaleback Carries 33 Moguls. American Naval Base, France. Hydroairplanes constantly watch and guard this great American port and the American shipping approaching or entering it to prevent attack by submarines. One of the planes lay on the water ready to start seaward as the Associated Press correspondent visited the harbor. It looked very light and filmy for this desperate work and its gray body gave it the appearance of a giant moth settled on the water. Overhead, one thousand feet up, swung a huge lung shaped balloon, from the basket of, which a naval ofticer and a sailor peered through marine glasses. “They are on the lookout for a submarine,” said the escort “Their chief

purpose is to report the whereabouts of a submarine, and the destroyers then do the rest In forcing it under water. Even if submarines are off this j>ort, they are practically helpless, if we can keep them ufider water. It is only when they come to the surface that they can launch their torpedoes with full effect. Torpedoes fired when the craft is under water may lack direction to make them dangerous. So that, after all, the problem for the destroyers is to keep the submarines under water ,as well as to destroy them.” Big Whaleback Carries 33 Moguls. On shore scores of hydroairplanes were ranged in two Vast hangars und there were sheds for balloons. A big whaleback from the great lakes was off to port and to starboard was a massive freighter. “That is a strange ship,” said the escort “You will note she has no upper deck or cabins. The whole deck rolls back, like the roof of an openair theater, and the deck becomes an enormous open hatch. It is like a huge open bowl, with no obstruction in lifting out the freight” -* The freight in this case was as curious as the rolling deck,, for it consisted of thirty-three enormous Mogul locomotives, all set up and ready to move, and with their tenders coupled. With* the deck rolled back, locomotives and tenders were picked up by giant cranes and swung around to the nearby quay. “The United States ship Carola,” a craft that never went to sea and never wlil, a “vessel” with stone walls, underground dungeons, twenty miles of tunnel and a vast bulk of masonry anchored to mother earth, is one of the sights at this -port. Anciept Chateau a United States Ship. It is a massive castle standing at the water’s edge that bears this strange I name. It is an ancient chateau, built ,600 years ago, in the thirteenth century, and one of the marvels of Gothic architectural construction. It is used now as the United States naval barracks, and being put to naval uses, it was given a naval christening as the U. S. S. Carola. It Is no nickname, but is the accepted title known to all. officers and men. ' Being christened as a United States ship even the battlements have become decks. When down In the old dungeon, a sailor guided me upward by saying: “This way, sir, to the main deck.” And we climbed up the “hatchway” of crumbling stone to the main “deck,” of Gothic masonry twelve feet thick. The way this castle came to be named as a United States warship was this: The United States Carola Is in reality a small steam yacht, used during the Spanish war. It was rather out of date and was tied up to the castle wall. Here It became very useful in making .out requisitions for supplies needed in the castle. To'make a requisition for a castle would seem quite irregular. And so everything was requisitioned for the United States ship Carola, and tn that way the castle got Its, equipment without disturbing any formalities.