xt70rx937t9n_468 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/46m4.dao.xml unknown 13.63 Cubic Feet 34 boxes, 2 folders, 3 items In safe - drawer 3 archival material 46m4 English University of Kentucky The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Laura Clay papers Temperance. Women -- Political activity -- Kentucky. Women's rights -- Kentucky. Women's rights -- United States -- History. Women -- Suffrage -- Kentucky. Women -- Suffrage -- United States. Sea Power text Sea Power 2020 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/46m4/Box_16/Folder_20/Multipage20168.pdf 1919-1920 1920 1919-1920 section false xt70rx937t9n_468 xt70rx937t9n VOLUME SIX _‘ APRIL 1919 NUMBERFOUR.

Exploits of the “Little Navy”

Henry C. Ames

Rooting Valor in American Soil

Senator Warren G. Harding

“Mysterieurs”

Fait Garros

Across the Atlantic by Air

Lieut. Carl H. Butman, A. S., U. S.‘ A,

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CONTENTS for APRIL, 1919

COVER: THE CONVOY, from a painting by Warren Sheppard.

MYSTERIEURS
ROOTING VALOR IN AMERICAN SOIL
EXPLOITS OF THE “LITTLE NAVY”

INDUSTRY’S PLEA FOR PEACE, AND WHY

WHEN AMERICAN BUSINESS GOES GLOBE-TROTTING

AROUND THE WORLD WITH THE AMERICAN DOLLAR—II AUSTRALIA
THE WRECK STREWN WATERS 0F BRITAIN

EDITORIALS

THE COMING SHIP-OF—THE—LINE
FRENCH SAILORS’ ORPHANS

THE CIVILIAN MERCHANT MARINE
ACROSS THE ATLANTIC BY AIR
THE WORLD MERCHANT MARINE
THE RIDDLE OF THE DEEP
“LEST WE FORGET”

PAGE

Fail Garros . . . . . . . . 221

Senator Warren G. Harding . . . . 225

. . Henry C. Ames . . . . . . . 229

. . Herbert Smith Plunkett . . . . . 237

James H. Collins . . . . . . . 238

Homer Joseph Dodge . . . . . . 242

Wendell M. Whiting . . . . . . 247

250

. 252

254

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Lieutenant Carl 1!. Batman, A.S.A. . 250

. . . . . . . . . Arthur Sweetser . . . . . . . 265
.........C.Il.Claudy........267
274

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usmNG COMPANY, IBNC. William
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Title and contents co yngt ted 1919.
b Sea Power Publishing Co., Inc

 

501 West Thirty-sixth St., New York

Issued monthly by SIA POWER Pun-
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ntered as second-class matter, Sep-

EDITED BY CHARLES H. HALL

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218

SEA POWER.

April, I 9 l 9

 

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© International Film 507%?

 

The transport is escorted by destroyers while seaplanes soar and swoop like gulls and a dirigible jogs along methodically
overhead

220

 

 SEA POWER

Volume VI APRIL, 1919 Number 4

 

“Mysterieurs”

By FAIT GARROS

“Now pray you consider what toils we endure,
Night-walking wet sea-lanes, a guard and a lure”;

HOSE WHO SAILED in

England’s famous “Q” or
Mystery Ships are sometimes
called “Mysterieurs.” Cap-
tain Gordon Campbell, R.N.,
is the most famous of them
all. He and others of his
heroic ilk were always vastly
accommodating in their con-
fidences to us of the visiting
naval forces. But it is not
within our province as naval officers to
trade upon these tales with the public
press. The writer cannot claim author—
ship of the tale herewith. It is submitted
because one of the gallant gentlemen was
so amusingly communicative that it
seemed a shame not to preserve the body
of his talk. With his permission then,
and with acknowledgement for the debt,
some shorthand notes upon his personal
adventures are freely transcribed:

 

Signing Up

It wasn’t the excitement that took us
into the game. There was plenty of it,
you know, a good deal that might even
have been called super-excitement. And
it wasn’t just the chance of getting a
sure crack at Fritz.
No, there was some—
thing deeper and
more coldly bitter
that brought the
few of us pell mell
into Q-ship work
the first time we
heard it mentioned.
We had been out
on patrol. Some of
us were of the
“Davy Jones Brig-
ade”—subs, that is.
Others had been in
destroyers and light
cruisers. But every
one of the first
mystery ship outfit
had either seen a
helpless merchant
ship fired upon, 01‘
had been close
enough to the real

facts of the dastardly business to fairly
itch to get at the dirty beggars who
had played the game so low. Sort of
reflection on us, it was. As if we, too,
because we were also subbing, might
some day take a few pot shots at our
enemy’s helpless friends when we got
the chance.

It was reprisal. And, in war, reprisal
is legitimate revenge. So our cause held
not only all the righteousness of law, but
the goad of a very proper vindictiveness
as well. And there was the added feel—
ing that by giving Fritz a lesson we
might, in the run of time, save some of
our own people’s lives.

Secrecy was the great thing in the
plan. Even at headquarters only a hand-
ful knew anything about our prepara-
tions. If the slightest inkling of what
was in the wind got to the enemy’s camp
he would immediately change his tactics
—as later he did after he had got into
trouble once or twice.

We, in the Service, knew we had spies
among our servants at home. They were
in the workmen’s camps, and even in
places we dared not mention above a
whisper. Our own personal safety—

 

A lazy tramp, dawdling along the trade lanes with a cargo of good clean sea
water in her tanks to make her look full of the things Fritz was greedy for
and—a battery of quick-firing naval guns hidden behind her false sides

22]

though it mattered little in the great cause
as well as the success of the plan, lay
in keeping the entire matter a complete
secret.

Q—ships were a form of bait. The idea
was to send out an unassuming looking
craft of the merchant class and let her
be torpedoed. It was essential that she
actually be struck. A selected portion
of her crew would abandon ship. Special
bulkheads and wooden plugging in her
hold would keep her afloat long enough
and high enough to permit the few re-
maining to retain a satisfactory gun plat—
form.

Guns were hidden behind hinged bul-
warks. At the proper moment, pre-
ferably just when the Hun commenced
his usual treacherous attack upon those
in the boats, fire would be opened. The
range would he pointblank, and there
seemed little chance of failure.

It was nothing unusual for the gov-
ernment to take over a small merchant
ship, say of 2,000 tons, nor was it of
special moment that she should squat
meekly alongside a navy yard (lock and
submit to a few “cargo walls” being put
up on deck forward and aft. 'l‘hat guns
were slipped inside
of these cargo walls
was a night act of
darkest mystery.
No expense nor
care was overlooked
to prevent the sc—
cret leaking out
even to the Navy
itself.

The skipper
picked his own
crowd. Each had
been given the
chance to volunteer
for “exceptionally
hazardous duty,the
nature of which
would not be di-
vulged unless the
candidate were en-
tirely willing to
put up with any
form and limit of

 

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The wireless calls for help from unfortunate merchant
ships fairly dinned in our ears but for an interminable
time Fritz seemed to avoid us until we feared he sus-

pected our errand

danger and discomfort.” , Needless to
say there were plenty of offers, even
though the solicitation was kept almost
as quiet as the enterprise itself.

We were ordered to detached duty
from our various regular stations and
proceeded, still in the dark. I remember
wondering if I was billed to go to Ger—
many as a spy. But when I recalled
that I had failed my language course at
the University I regarded this possibility
as eliminated. There had been talk of
dropping men into enemy territory from
aeroplanes at night and thus forming
a small but determined body of troops
immediately ahead of a simultaneous
land attack. But again I felt that my
discrepancies in military science might
preclude even that joyful possibility.

Somehow it didn’t occur to me that a
coup de la mer might be in hand. After
two years of North Sea and Channel
patrol in subs and drifters, any new sort
of sea service that could be termed “ex—
ceptionally hazardous” seemed out of the
question.

We gathered for the first time at night
in a small upstairs room quite away from
the usual haunts of naval men. We had
got quiet orders to report in mufti.
There was only one lamp in the room and
under it stood a rough—looking charac—
ter who turned out to be the skipper.
As I rather prided myself on my ap-
pearance in plain clothes, my mortifica-
tion may be. imagined when I learned
that at very first sight of me the others
cast an unanimous vote to change my
sex. I was to be the woman in the
case.

Not knowing exactly what was the case
I had some doubts as to my ability to
fill the bill. Also I had long been fa-
miliar with the singularity of Teutonic
chivalry and very quickly I began to
suspect that, after all, this duty, what—
ever it was, might live up to its grim

SEA POWER

official designation.
“You are signed
up,” said the'leader
—he had impressed
us with the fact that
. no longer was he a
lieutenant command—
er in the Navy—
“for a period of mer-
chant service. Not
only will you wear
the clothing, eat the
food, and live the
life of a trading
crew, but you will
make every effort to
so comport your—
~ selves in both speech
#19" and bearing that
‘ a... S. «s those with whom you
come into contact
will never suspect
you belong to the
naval service.”

This didn’t sound
like much, in the opening thrill of a great
adventure. But, I give you my word,
when it came to comporting oneself like
the hero of one of Mr. Jacob’s briny ro—
mances, goose—flesh was a mild resent-
ment for the physical body to make!

Take the first morning I went aboard.
The old tub was lying in mid—harbor,
where she had been towed during the
night so as not to awaken suspicion by
having her come openly out of the high
class chaperonage of the navy yard. A
short stout man stopped me near the
wharf. He, like myself, was garbed in
the rough dress of a deck hand, with sea
boots to prove his job still held.

“Mornin’, mate,” he said affably, and
took my arm. “Got a berth?”

With quite unnecessary emphasis I as-
sured him I had. And it was only with
the greatest self control that I kept up
my end of the conversation without seem-
ing to be offish. We had been warned
that there would be nearly as much dan—
ger to the success of the plan in mak—
ing our status appear too much of a

     

> as“. _ . . a." ~
© H’vsh‘ru Nett'srapi'r Union

April, l9 l 9

secret as in divulging the whole scheme.

This friend of the moment made me
my first offer. All of us had many be—
fore we were through with the game. I
mean offers to ship in any one of a
dozen bottoms. It was a revelation to
hear these fellows talk. We in uniform
had always thought we knew pretty well
what was going on outside. But the
wages, for example, that this kindly soul
laid before me—one-half cash down, too
——were tremendous. He put before me
the chance to clean up a hundred pounds
clear profit on a voyage to South Amer-
ica, furnish me with a wife upon arrival,
and within six weeks find me passage to
any port in the Western Hemisphere!
All if I would stand a lookout watch on
the cruise down.

Fortunately I escaped. I hired a small
boat to take me to my ship and put off
rather hurriedly. At the gangway I
thought I would add to the transfer a
bit of realism, so I short—changed my
ferryman. Without comment he swung
hard at my jaw. I-ducked and lost my
balance. Before he had time to follow
up his attack I produced the extra bob
and hastened aboard with the feeling
that I had already made great progress
in my new role. .

We lined up below for inspection.
The skipper explained again how after
being torpedoed we were to, simulate all
the details of a sinking merchant ship.
In fact, the way he harped upon that
torpedoing act made a great impression
on some of the lads. I heard two of them
arguing later as to whether it were bet—
ter to curl oneself up in the air after
being blown up or to follow the cat plan
and by a sharp twist endeavor to land
feet first. The dispute faded when some-
one produced a Graphic magazine with a
two—page cut in it proving that most life
size explosions can be counted on thor-
oughly to dismember those in the vicin—
ity so that leg and arm motions while
volplaning down must be empirical if
made at all.

Several groups were told off. Those

We saw troop transports plough along, escorted by watchful destroyers and
hovering aircraft. carrying Yankee soldiers to the battle ground of France

 

 

 April, 1919

in the engine room as well as the deck
gang contributed to the “panic party”
which would leave the ship in great haste
immediately after she was struck. One
or two would remain below to keep steam
if possible. Crews for each gun and
the fire-control group were vital to the
plan. And at least one or two lookouts
would keep their positions for reporting
movements of the submarine over the
ship’s telephone we installed.

Of course the skipper would be on the
bridge. He found out later that he had
to lie on his belly there in order to keep
out of sight. At the proper moment,
when the sub came up to open hatches
and send a boarding party, the cargo
walls would be. dropped by electric re-
leases and the battery open fire.

The plan sounded simple enough at
first. In fact, some of us rather re—
sented the station bills that were issued
because they provided for considerable
drill. Why it should be necessary to
practice a perfectly obvious maneuver
was not within our rather mediocre com—
prehensions. Later, when the time came
to act, our stage fright there before the
audience of that one silly looking little
periscope made us wonder how we did
so well even after long drilling.

Before we went any further, the skip-
per said, we should have to revise our
costume a bit. It wasn’t sufficient just
to look seagoing and rough. There must
be a definite line between the skipper
and his mate, between the mate and me,
and between me and the remainder of the
crew. The Hun is a thickhead in many
ways, but this was a. game after his own
heart and he would be quick to notice any
defects in accoutrements.

We blew ashore in twos and threes for
the purchase of further disguise. I
shifted the woman’s part off on a little
coxswain, who seized on the opportunity
with a true sailorman’s avidity to try
something new. For the sake of cau-
tion I went with him to a small shop
which had a good display of cheap mil—
linery and women’s suits in the win-
dows.

Somewhat to my mortification the cox—
swain demanded hosiery first of all.
“Pink uns,” he said, as if it were the
most natural thing in the world. Per—
haps it was for him, for he unblushingly
bought two pairs that had green stripes
near the tops and other advantages which
I failed to appreciate at the time.

The coxswain’s self-assurance carried
him a mite too far in the end. He
gained a parting shot from the saleslady
to the effect that “fighting men weren’t
askin’ the country to buy such things for
their wimmen folk these days. But
slackers—”. As the coxswain showed
signs of waning self-control I quickly
slammed the door and led him away. A
block further on he purchased a likely

SEA POWER

frock for his “wife
in Holyhead.”

The skipper, mate,
and I treated our-
selves respectively to
a brown derby, a
visored cap, and a
Scotch bonnet.
These, we had ob—
served, were strictly
in accordance with
our relative rank in
merchant ship or—
ganization. Our suits
already exhibited
proper degrees of
wear, with the ex—
ception of my own,
which was to be
oiled up a bit and
patched to give it a
touch of the engine-
room atmosphere.

On our return
there was something
of a commotion for—
ward due to rivalry
that had been set up
in the way of per-
sonal eccentricity of
garb. But the skip—
per only smiled and
told us to “wait un-
til we had a drill or
two.”

In the next few
nights we found out
right enough what
he meant. The panic
party came first in roughness. Any sea—
man is quick to notice how speedily a
boat is lowered. Our aim was to lower
both boats in the most unseamanlike
manner possible. This necessitated let—
ting the forward fall go with a run. A
fair enough ruse in a calm, this was, but
not one to be attempted when any sort
of sea was running. On the other hand,
we could not pick our weather for the
jamboree when it came. The skipper’s
idea was that we should become su—
premely skillful in being unskillful,
which is exceedingly difficult.

At first there were plenty of accidents
in these panic drills. They had to be
carried on at night lest we be spied upon
and there was a natural awkwardness in
doing everything backwards that had to
be got out of all our systems. That lit—
tle matter of letting the forward fall
go with a run twice nearly cost the life
of the bowman. And the “lady” per-
sisted in handling herself with the most
unladylike alacrity, until we felt she
would shame even a Hun with her im—
modesty.

It was during the development of the
panic party technique that someone con-
ceived the idea of having a second panic
party. It was assumed that when we
hoisted our white ensign and opened up

 

Fritz was a still hunter.

up to a kindly old tub, shoo her slinking inmates into

their boats. stock himself up with luxuries, and then
“let her down" with an economical bomb or two

© International Film Scr'm'cc

He knew when he could aidle

on the submarine our defiance would ap—
pear to have reached its limit. But if,
perchance, the range were too great for
effective fire, or through some miscal—
culation the Hun were to get at us with
his own guns, we might have to capitu—
late after all.

Still, it was a desperate game. There
could be no quarter on either side, for it
was the doctrine of “no quarter” against
which our artistic little demonstration
was to be aimed. So the skipper planned
to have the next officer in command
give a second party of consternation
across the now shell-torn deck and lead
a fitting and apparently final stampede
overboard by a small catamaran swung
aft. With the skipper and a gunner or
two aboard there still would be consid—
erable kick left in the 01d wreck.

letting Out

After some months as civilian sailors
we got used to the difference between
a vagabond’s life and that in the hide—
bound navy. At the beginning we

seemed pursued by people who solicited
our interest in all sorts of queer things.
There was a patent medicine known as
“Dragon’s Blmd” that was guaranteed
to cure everything under the sun from
warts to lunacy. We could have painted

 

    
   

© Underwood (‘7 ’l‘Jndcrwoad

 

SEA POWER.

We were rather a hard looking lot when we finally got our disguises per-
fected. without a trace of the spick and span neatness of the man-of-war's
man about any of us

the ship with it had we been inclined to
buy a bottle every time we had a chance.
There was an interminable series of
labor delegates, both official and unof—
ficial. There were strange individuals
who sought passages for the strangest
reasons imaginable—one, an ethnologist,
begged us to take him over in order that
he might complete his study of the Ameri—
can Indian! And there were people that
we strongly suspected of being enemy
sympathizers. But the great danger in
even demanding their credentials was
that we might arouse some public in-
terest in our own identity and ruin
everything.

After unspeakable tribulation of this
sort, much of which is far more amusing
now than it was then, we gave the ship
a final inspection for stowaways and put
to sea.

Our looks were nothing to be vain
about. The sides were purposely
streaked and stained and the upperworks
rusted in about every place we dared let
them rust. As the housing over the guns
must look natural we rigged a Charley
Noble (kitchen chimney) which made a
good shaft for a periscope. Certain other
construction work was put in about the
decks to make room for observers and
fire-control parties. In every instance
we camouflaged the wall or pipe, what-
ever it was, to make it appear as some
common part of the ship.

Not a few merchant ships carry live
chickens and pigs as a reserve food sup—
ply. One old South American freighter
that lay near us in the harbor had a cow
aboard. The next day after we discov-
ered this interesting piece of nautical
zoology a resourceful member of our

crew came to the skipper with the_sug-
gestion that he be permitted to purchase
a cowskin and head from the local
butchers and rig himself up in it. His
idea was that he might be tethered aft
during a submarine’s approach and at
the psychological moment, when the Hun
commander stuck his head out of the
conning tower, cut loose with a rifle
aimed through the dead cow’s mummified
larynx. Our skipper commended the
man highly on his genius but gave him
to understand that it would be far from
fair to put within the power of any single
man to seize such honor uncontended.

We quickly found that a commercial
vessel has some little points all her very
own. A submarine may be famous for
its “frowst” and a destroyer or drifter
may cause even sturdy souls to shudder
at the energy of a half-gale off the Liz-
ard. But a fighter at sea is like the
fighter ashore in the way of keeping in
condition. Navy yards are training
camps and hospitals and in their shops
are the finest marine surgeons in the
business.

The poor old cargo boat has none of
these in her long, hard life. Only in the
face of death are her seams recaulked or
the crannies of her vermined decks ex-
amined by a practiced eye. And even
then the odds are that eye will be too
watery to see on account of the strain the
nose under it is suffering.

We had been rebuilt so that we were
calculated not to sink even if torpedoed.
But even that did not console us for the
everlasting swish of bilge water in our
leaky bottoms. And there were dark days
when certain forms of death were prefer-
able to the lingering fate we faced at the

April, I 9 l 9

hands—or mandibles—of a certain tribe
of cannibals known and feared by every
housewife in the land.

The popular idea is that we made a
still hunt out of our cruise. But the skip-
per’s words about “comporting ourselves”
in the manner of the cargo trade held,
even to the manner of the course we
steered.

Fritz is not a daring warrior. He is a
still hunter himself. In the long months
of his campaign he had studied the ship-
ping he had met. He knew, we’d long
since found out, what was small fry and
what were Spanish galleons. He had a
fair idea when he’d meet armed resist-
ance and when he’d meet only moral re—
sentment. And, what was important
oftener than we guessed, he knew when
he could sidle up to a kindly old tub,
shoo her slinking inmates into their boats,
stock himself up with luxuries, and then
“let her down” with an economical bomb
or two.

“Our character has got to be definite,”
the skipper told us. “From dawn until
dark we’ll steer a course that a ship like
us would naturally steer. The port we
are making for will be as plain to the
man that sees us as if we had it painted
on our bow. Maybe we’ll zigzag. May—
be we shall be careless with our lights,”—
we were, in fact, many a time, and with
a purpose—“for the goal we’ve set is that
we shall be sneaked up on as a near-
sighted but honest old citizen and be
plugged.”

It turned out to be a slower job than we
had expected. Perhaps for a week we
would be outward bound for the Colonies.
We’d pump bottoms enough to make her
look light. Now and then we would
heave to for “repairs,” though that was a
bit too obvious a trick and might well
have created suspicion. Other weeks we
might be found on any one of the home-
ward routes with a cargo of good, clean
sea water in our tanks to make us look
full up of all the things Fritz likes to
smear the ocean’s floor with.

It would never do to be found out. In
fact, we went so long without a sight of
the enemy that we began to imagine that
we were. By day we would plug along
the same old ruts as all the other unfor-
tunates did whose calls for help fairly
dinned in our ears. By night we slowed
to a few knots or would sidestep north or
south into another lane and be some other
disreputable character plying her trade
“bravely in the face of calamity,” as the
London papers put it. True irony it
was when our daily prayer went up just
to have the sight of a greedy torpedo
making for our oak-braced sides.

We knew that the subs traveled nearly
north and south across trade lanes in
their outward and inward passages. This
made it possible that we might be sighted
by the same sub on two consecutive days.
As it was highly improbable that two
ships of identical appearance would be

 

 

 April, i 9 l 9

found at sea so close together, we had to
change our outward guise every time we
made a shift of route.

Little jobs like painting the sides at
night while rolling in a seaway were com—
paratively rather simple. But rigging
and unrigging fake smokepipes, masts,
stays, deckhouses, and anything else that
would give us a new rake or silhouette,
was one continual round of suicidal acro-
batics. It all had to be done in the dark.
Sometimes there was considerable weight
to be handled and our ingenuity was
taxed to secure realism without running
the risk of making a botch of things by
having the false gear tumble down at a
critical moment.

To stimulate competition, the skipper
offered prizes for ideas that could be
used in this form of marine camouflage.
He had to withdraw his offer, however,
when the ship’s company broke up into
various cliques, each contending for some
special infamy in the way of deforming
the poor old craft. One markedly per-
sistent crowd were for spreading a can-
vas structure over the whole upper wor