New Britain Herald Newspaper, July 30, 1915, Page 13

" Converted Merchantmen Lure German : }_ Vessels to Destruction—Wooden Ships With Wooden Turrets, Wooden Sailors and Wooden Officers Are Playing An Important Part In Great Britain’s Naval Strategy ‘Wooden ships with wooden turrets and wooden ‘guns, wooden sailors and wooden officers—just like the toy ships of Toyland-—are being used by the British navy as decoys to draw out the Germany navy from hiding. These wooden ships com- - pose England’s phantom navy as it ‘was-oalled until a few months ago when it was found the ships are real. i Ten former passenger liners un- der ‘command of Captain J. H. Had- dock, former master of the Olympic, . ‘compose ‘the “phantom fleet.” The vessels are painted gray to resem- ble warships, and turrets of wood .‘and guns of the same material have been placed on the decks to make the appearance more realistic. One of the vessels is the American lger Marfon, which plied between Philedelphia and = Liverpool under the British flag. Others are the form Cunarder Campania, the' Cevic and two boats formerly in the Ber- muda service, the Oratava and the These vessels make their base at Queen’s Island, Belfast., Their duty .18 to approach near the German base - and:dray forth the German. battle- ¢ ‘ships.: ‘They are manned with but a ’_small crew and in casé one was sunk the ‘loss of life, if any, would: i-be.slight, the victory would be nil > ‘and the loss nothing as what would E “‘ {“while the vessels of its adversary ¢ were thus engaged in bombarding ! the dgony.” | ; £ “WATCHFUL 4 . WAITING” ~ | When Gérmany ‘décidsd on & “watchful waiting” pol 'y on the sea ag the best means''of fighting an overwhelming = number of vessels, ' the English were in a“quandary. ““be accomplishied by the British navy They knew their navy was: Hisfiy] times larger than that of their Teu- ton foe and that in.a singlé engage- ment they! might send: the whole i German navy to the bottém of the sea. The Germans, too, réalizéd this | and decided to take no chances, It ¢ was deeided - to keep the German warships: ‘i hiding, ‘in and about Helgoland, the great naval base, and sally forth only ag raiders’ when they were able to single out a Brit- ish warship sailing by itself. From the first the Germans saw they must depend mostly on their submarines to have an equal chance witli & navy much larger than theirs. In fact, many years ago some great German commander ‘realizing that it would take billions of dollars and many' years’ time to increase the German navy to the 'size’ and i strength of that of Great Britain, . and°realizing that a dczen subma- e e— "¢ rines might be built for the cost of 'i one firgt-class battleship, decided on # the less expemsive and more effec- % ve'undersea machine of war. At the time the first rumblings of war were heard through Europe the %Gemm battleships were ordered io ¥ their ‘bases and their commanders § instriicted to remain there and take i’ 1o chances with a superior foe. However, they were given permis- sion to engage any English battle- ship provided their number of ships 4 Were as great or greater than that © of Great Britain. % & This -rule gave the English an 10 idea. If they could expose one ves- sel to danger in the neighborhood of . Helgoland or other German ports " they might stand a chance of engag- r ¢ gln‘"t_he Germans in a naval battle. *| How to draw forth their opponents ’i from hiding. then became the gues- tion. Manifestly, the ship used as 2 &pay wotild stand a great chance ~ % of belng sent to the bottom riddled { with shells and England, no mat- £ ter how big her navy, cannot afford ? to lose a ship costing several mil- . lion * dollars “and : sacrifice several hufidred. mans but its éxisténce could not be ;eflned and thus the name phantom Ia English ports were many pas- senger ships that could not.venture forth for fear of submarines and that from the time of their building were dedicated to the use of Great Britain in case of necessity. These ships‘were. commandered and Cap- tain J. H. Haddock, one of the most ekilful and daring of merchant ship pilots, a man who' had sailed on ‘practically every sea, was placed on, in.charge. - e first disguise decided on was & coat of gray paint, the color worn by warships in time of ‘war. The econd was the wooden turrets and #Pweoden guns. . "All vestiges-of the everything with the appearance of passenger liner were removed and battleship equipment was substitut- ed in wood. The Union Jack and the flag of Great Britain were promi- nently displayed and the former lin- ers were converted battleships. To make the ‘decoy more realistic, wooden men were placed about the decks, in the turrets and on the bridge. This was to give the idea that the battléship was steaming peacefully along, in blissful ignorance that nearby were German crulsers and battleships waiting to destroy it. DECEIVED THE BLUECHER. 2 B The German cruiser Bluecher was lured out and destroyed in this man- mer.. Ofly ofe of the decoys Wwas used. It gteamed peacetully before the spot where the Bluecher was supposed to be in hiding. The real commander stood on the deck peer- ing about through his field glasses, while beside him stood a dummy first officer of wood and below wers wooden sailors, manning wooden guns. Only the commander, a dozen sailors and an engine-room crew were aboard. A German aeroplane came into view, It flew above the “phantom ship,” but apparently was unnoticed. The aeroplane flew quickly back to its naval base and the aviator re- ported a British battleship alone on the s2a with no sister ships in view, The Bluecher and other German ships, lylng in a harbor with steam always up and with the crew ready to sall at a moment’s notice, steam- ed out after the “battleshlp,” her funnels belching black smoke as her drafts were forced to give her great- er speed in runaing down her quar- < THE SLYMPIC -sisTER OF THE TITANIE _ ry. But the decoy happened to be one of the fastest, liners ever used in Atlantic trade. Her speed almost 24 knots an hour, while the battle- ship had a speed of an average of 21 knots with a possible speed of 22 or 23 knots under forced draft. The Bluecher and her sister war vessels opened fire with their long range guns, but the shells fell sev- eral hundred yards short of the “Phantom.” The liner directed her wooden guns toward the onrushing German vessels, but didn’t fire, as wooden guns are only useful for de- €oy purposes. FATAL PURSTUIT. “Disabled. Trouble with her tur- rets,” said tho commander of the Bluecher ag he begged tho engineer through the spoaking tube to put on more speed. The German vessels were now many miles from their base, In their intentness in tho chase they had neglected to look be- hind them, The phantom ship put on more spced and slowly pulled away from her , adversaries, her great speed standing in good stead. The Biuecher and her sisters after several hours of hopeless pursult saw the supposed battleship disap- pear beyond the horizon and then turned about to make iheir return, Before them they saw the real British fleet, many t'mes greater in number than the few vesseis that had gone forth from the naval base in pursuit of the phantom, The British battleships had cut off their way to safety and the German of- ficers realized that they had been decoyed and now faced a battle with overwhelming odds. Right bravely they fought against these odds, as readers will remember, but finally the Bluecher was sunk. The other German vessels limped back into port after being chased many miles and only saved from de- struction by large German rein- forcements. . After this battle the newspapers received reports of phantom ships on the sea, flying the British flag, alone and apparently easy prey for the Germ The Britich admiralty was asked about it, but denfed any knowledge of phantom ships. If there were such ships they were German vessels safling under false colors for protection, it was said. “THE FLYING DUTCHMAN.” Several weeks later in a different part of that great area now desig- nated by Germany as a war zone about the British isles, a large fleet of English crulsers was sighted, steaming along more like “Flying Dutchmen” than real ships prepared for fight, The Germans through their telescopes saw saflors about on the decks, some lying and others standing rigidly at attention, The sailors neither turned to right or left. No command was Spoken by the officers and no orders obeyed by the sallors, Only one man moved rets, but peculial L a dull black. did ne the great plece of ¢ warships. The showing there was plies and no large men aboard. The Germans then set off in liar fleet. prepared for battle. sought safety and for the it dawned upon them that such a thing as a phant that the “battleships” G sued were Y lure them into the © .:'?