Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1917 — SUBMARINE CHASERS [ARTICLE]

SUBMARINE CHASERS

Without saying much about it, the British, after almost a month of the German submarine campaign, have managed to keep ves? seis going through the danger zone at the loss of* only about 8 jjet cent, of those which attempt to run the so-called blockade. How they are doing this they appear to consider largely a matter -of their

own business, which perhaps it is. And no doubt the admiralty long ago found that the less, said about the number of German submarines captured or sunk the better for all concerned — especially for Great Britain’s chances of capturing or sinking more by the same method. But it seems fairly well established that an American designed craft which has to be called a “submarine chaser*’ has taken an important, if not the most important part in defeating ' Germany’s blockade plans. It is stated by a writer on naval topics in the New York Sun that Great Britain has 550 of these craft, designed by American engineers and built Ify a Bayonne, New Jersey, firm of motor boat constructors, most of the work being done in Canada. The idea, however, is entirely American, and most of the material Which went into the boats came from the United States. They were sent to England four at a time, on freighters and liners.

The boats are long and low, eighty feet from stem to stern, with a beam of twelve and onehalf feet, a speed of nineteen knots, a draft of only four and one-half feet and a displacement of thirty tons. The British engineers who accepted the first lot of boats after giving each a trial, found that in seaworthiness they excell any craft of the type ever built. They carry a crew of ten men. and provisions and, fuel for ten days, and each vessel mounts a single threeinch, rapid-fire gun forward, a gun that hurls twelve-pound shells at the rate of twenty a minute. One shot will take care of any submarine, and from the fact that after testing the first order of fifty, the. British government ; immediately ordered 500 more, it is believed that the admiralty is making use of the chasers.

The British had read a'nd heard so much about the great speed of American racing motor boats that they naturally expected the chasers would be faster than any naval craft afloat. But seaworthiness was the first consideration, and since the fast American racing boats are little more than tin shells, fit only for racing, in protected waters, it was thought best to reject this design, especially ■since lighter guns would have to be used. The great advantage of the chasers is that they are practically immune from submarine attack.. It is commonly supposed that a submarine discharges its torpedo on the surface, but owing to the high speed at which the torpedo is projected at its object, and the motion on the surface of the water, there is danger that the torpedo may start to skip, in which jCa£e it almost invariably leaves its course, and may even reverse itself.- In order to avoid this, torpedoes are discharged from six to eighteen feet below the surface, which, however, is neat enough to the surface to strike the hull of almost any vessel. But the submarine chasers draw only four and one-half feet of water, hence a | torpedo usually passes beneath them.—Ex.