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America In The War
OUR NAVY IN THE WAR
by
LAWRENCE PERRY
Illustrated
New York
Charles Scribner's Sons
1919
Copyright, 1918, by
Charles Scribner's Sons
Published October, 1918
[Illustration: _From a photograph by C.R. Eagle._
ATLANTIC FLEET STEAMING IN LINE OF BEARING.]
THIS BOOK
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO THE
HON. JOSEPHUS DANIELS
A NEWSPAPER MAN WHO BROUGHT TO HIS TASK AS SECRETARY OF THE NAVY THOSE
GREAT QUALITIES OF MIND AND CHARACTER WHICH FITTED HIM TO MEET WITH SUCH
SIGNAL SUCCESS THE IMMENSE PROBLEMS WHICH THE WAR IMPOSED UPON HIS
OFFICE. TO HIS FAR-SEEING VISION, HIS BREADTH OF VIEW, HIS FREEDOM FROM
ALL BIAS, HIS JUDGMENT OF MEN AND OF AFFAIRS, AND TO THE STERN COURAGE
OF HIS CONVICTIONS ARE DUE TO-DAY THE MAINTENANCE OF THOSE HIGH
TRADITIONS OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY OF WHICH AMERICANS HAVE EVER BEEN
PROUD.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
CHAPTER I
First Experience of Our Navy with the German U-Boat--Arrival of Captain
Hans Rose and the U-53 at Newport--Experiences of the German Sailors in
an American Port--Destruction of Merchantman by U-53 off Nantucket--Our
Destroyers to the Rescue--Scenes in Newport--German Rejoicing--The Navy
Prepares for War
CHAPTER II
Our Navy Arms American Merchant Vessels--Death of our First Bluejacket
on Service in the War Zone--Vice-Admiral Sims--We Take Over Patrol of
Waters of Western Hemisphere--The Naval Advisory Board of
Inventions--Work of this Body--Our Battleships the Largest in the
World--Widespread Operations
CHAPTER III
First Hostile Contact Between the Navy and the Germans--Armed Guards on
Merchant Vessels--"Campana" First to Sail--Daniels Refuses Offer of
Money Awards to Men Who Sink Submarines--"Mongolia" Shows Germany How
the Yankee Sailorman Bites--Fight of the "Silvershell"--Heroism of
Gunners on Merchant Ships--Sinking of the "Antilles"--Experiences of
Voyagers
CHAPTER IV
Destroyers on Guard--Preparations of Flotilla to Cross the
Ocean--Meeting the "Adriatic"---Flotilla Arrives in Queenstown--
Reception by British Commander and Populace--"We are Ready
Now, Sir"--Arrival of the Famous Captain Evans on the American
Flag-Ship--Our Navy a Warm-Weather Navy--Loss of the "Vacuum"
CHAPTER V
British and American Destroyers Operating Hand in Hand--Arrival of Naval
Collier "Jupiter"--Successful Trip of Transports Bearing United States
Soldiers Convoyed by Naval Vessels--Attack on Transports Warded Off by
Destroyers--Secretary Baker Thanks Secretary Daniels--Visit to our
Destroyer Base--Attitude of Officers Toward Men--Genesis of the
Submarine--The Confederate Submarine "Hunley"
CHAPTER VI
On a German Submarine--Fight with a Destroyer--Periscope Hit--Record of
the Submarine in this War--Dawning Failure of the Undersea Boat--Figures
Issued by the British Admiralty--Proof of Decline--Our Navy's Part in
this Achievement
CHAPTER VII
How the Submarine is being Fought--Destroyers the Great Menace--But
Nets, Too, Have Played Their Part--Many Other Devices--German Officers
Tell of Experience on a Submarine Caught in a Net--Chasers Play Their
Part--The Depth-Bomb--Trawler Tricks--A Camouflaged Schooner Which
Turned Out To Be a Tartar--Airplanes--German Submarine Men in Playful
Mood
CHAPTER VIII
Perils and Triumphs of Submarine-Hunting--The Loss of our First
War-Ship, The Converted Gunboat "Alcedo"--Bravery of Crew--"Cassin"
Struck by Torpedo, But Remains in the Fight--Loss of the "Jacob
Jones"--Sinking of the "San Diego"--Destroyers "Nicholson" and "Fanning"
Capture a Submarine, Which Sinks--Crew of Germans Brought Into Port--The
Policy of Silence in Regard to Submarine-Sinkings
CHAPTER IX
Our Battleship Fleet--Great Workshop of War--Preparations for Foreign
Service--On a Battleship During a Submarine Attack--The Wireless That
Went Wrong--The Torpedo That Missed--Attack on Submarine Bases of
Doubtful Expediency--When the German Fleet Comes Out--Establishment of
Station in the Azores
CHAPTER X
Great Atlantic Ferry Company, Incorporated, But Unlimited--Feat of the
Navy in Repairing the Steamships Belonging to German Lines Which Were
Interned at Beginning of War in 1914--Welding and Patching--Triumph of
Our Navy With the "Vaterland"--Her Condition--Knots Added to Her
Speed--Damage to Motive Power and How It Was Remedied--Famous German
Liners Brought Under Our Flag
CHAPTER XI
Camouflage--American System of Low Visibility and the British Dazzle
System--Americans Worked Out Principles of Color in Light and Color in
Pigment--British Sought Merely to Confuse the Eye--British System
Applied to Some of Our Transports
CHAPTER XII
The Naval Flying Corps--What The Navy Department Has Accomplished And Is
Accomplishing in the Way of Air-Fighting--Experience of a Naval Ensign
Adrift in the English Channel--Seaplanes and Flying Boats--Schools of
Instruction--Instances of Heroism
CHAPTER XIII
Organization Of The Naval Reserve Classes--Taking Over of Yachts For
Naval Service--Work Among The Reserves Stationed at Various Naval
Centres--Walter Camp's Achievement
CHAPTER XIV
The United States Marine Corps--First Military Branch Of The National
Service To Be Sanctioned By Congress--Leaving For The War--Service Of
The Marines in Various Parts of the Globe--Details of Expansion of
Corps--Their Present Service All Over The World
CHAPTER XV
Scope Of The Navy's Work In Various Particulars--Food--Fuel--Naval
Consulting Board--Projectile Factory--Expenditures--Increase Of
Personnel
CHAPTER XVI
The beginning of the end--Reports in London that submarines were
withdrawing to their bases to head a battle movement on the part of the
German Fleet--How the plan was foiled--The surrender of the German Fleet
to the combined British and American Squadrons--Departure of the
American Squadron--What might have happened had the German vessels come
out to fight
CHAPTER XVII
Lessons of the War--The Submarine Not Really a Submarine--French Term
for Undersea Fighter--The Success of the Convoy Against
Submersibles--U-Boats Not Successful Against Surface Fighters--Their
Shortcomings--What the Submarine Needs to be a Vital Factor in Sea
Power--Their Showing Against Convoyed Craft--Record of Our Navy in
Convoying and Protecting Convoys
Secretary Daniels's Report
ILLUSTRATIONS
Atlantic Fleet steaming in line of bearing
Portraits of Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, Rear-Admiral Leigh
C. Palmer, Vice-Admiral William S. Sims, Admiral Henry T. Mayo,
Rear-Admiral Albert Gleaves, Admiral William S. Benson
Position of ships in a convoy
A U.S. submarine at full speed on the surface of the water
A submarine-chaser
A torpedo-destroyer
Repairing a damaged cylinder of a German ship for federal service
Scene at an aviation station somewhere in America, showing fifteen
seaplanes on beach departing and arriving
Captain's inspection at Naval Training Station, Newport, R.I.
American Marines who took part in the Marne offensive on parade in
Paris, July 4, 1918
OUR NAVY IN THE WAR
FOREWORD
Gently rolling and heaving on the surge of a summer sea lay a mighty
fleet of war-vessels. There were the capital ships of the Atlantic
Fleet, grim dreadnoughts with their superimposed turrets, their
bristling broadsides, their basket-masts--veritable islands of steel.
There were colliers, hospital-ships, destroyers, patrol-vessels--in all,
a tremendous demonstration of our sea power. Launches were dashing
hither and thither across the restless blue waters, signal-flags were
flashing from mast and stay and the wind, catching the sepia reek from
many a funnel, whipped it across a league of sea.
On the deck of the largest battleship were gathered the officers of the
fleet not only, but nearly every officer on active duty in home waters.
All eyes were turned shoreward and presently as a sharp succession of
shots rang out a sleek, narrow craft with gracefully turned bow came out
from the horizon and advanced swiftly toward the flag-ship. It was the
President's yacht, the _Mayflower_, with the President of the United
States on board. As the yacht swung to a launch was dropped overside,
the gangway lowered and Woodrow Wilson stepped down to the little craft,
bobbing on the waves. There was no salute, no pomp, no official
circumstance, nor anything in the way of ceremony. The President did not
want that.
What he did want was to meet the officers of our navy and give them a
heart-to-heart talk. He did just that. At the time it was early summer
in 1917. In the preceding April a declaration that Germany had been
waging war upon the United States had been made in Congress; war
resolutions had been passed and signed by the President. This on April
6. On April 7 the Navy Department had put into effect plans that had
already been formulated. Much had been done when the President boarded
the flag-ship of the Atlantic Fleet that early summer afternoon. Some of
our destroyers were already at work in foreign waters, but the bulk of
our fighting force was at home, preparing for conflict. And it was this
time that the President chose to meet those upon whom the nation relied
to check the submarine and to protect our shores against the evil
devices of the enemy.
"He went," wrote a narrator of this historic function, "directly to the
business in hand. And the business in hand was telling the officers of
the navy of the United States that the submarine had to be beaten and
that they had to do it. He talked--well, it must still remain a secret,
but if you have ever heard a football coach talk to his team between the
halves; if you ever heard a captain tell his men what he expected of
them as they stripped for action; if you ever knew what the fighting
spirit of Woodrow Wilson really is when it is on fire--then you can
visualize the whole scene. He wanted not merely as good a record from
our navy as other navies had, he wanted a better record. He wanted
action, not merely from the gold-braided admirals, but from the ensigns,
too; and he wanted every mind turned to the solution of the submarine
question, and regardless of rank and distinction he wanted all to work
and fight for the common object--victory.
"Somebody suggested to the President later that the speech be published.
He declined. Most of it wasn't said to be published. It was a direct
talk from the Commander-in-chief of the navy to his men. It was
inspiration itself. The officers cheered and went away across the seas.
And there they have been in action ever since, giving an account of
themselves that has already won the admiration of their allies and the
involuntary respect of their foes."
It was under such auspices as these that the United States Navy went
forth to war. No one ever doubted the spirit of our fighters of the sea.
Through all the years, from the time when John Paul Jones bearded enemy
ships in their own waters, when _Old Ironsides_ belched forth her
well-directed broadsides in many a victorious encounter; when Decatur
showed the pirates of Tripoli that they had a new power with which to
deal; when Farragut damned the torpedoes in Mobile Bay, and Dewey did
likewise in Manila Bay; when Sampson and Schley triumphed at Santiago,
and Hobson accepted the seemingly fatal chance under the guns of Morro
Castle--through all the years, I say, and through all that they have
brought in the way of armed strife, the nation never for one moment has
ever doubted the United States Navy.
And neither did Woodrow Wilson doubt. He knew his men. But he wanted to
look them all in the eye and tell them that he knew their mettle, knew
what they could do, and held no thought of their failure. Every fighting
man fights the better for an incident of this sort.
Week by week since that time there has come to us from out the grim
North Sea, from the Mediterranean and the broad Atlantic abundant
testimony, many a story of individual and collective heroism, of ships
that have waged gallant fights, of Americans who have lived gallantly,
who have died gloriously--and above all there has come to us the
gratifying record of reduced submarine losses, as to which there is
abundant testimony--notably from the great maritime and naval power of
the world--Great Britain--that our navy has played a vital part in the
diminution of the undersea terror.
Less than a year after President Wilson boarded the flag-ship of the
Atlantic Fleet our navy had more than 150 naval vessels--battleships,
cruisers, submarines and tenders, gunboats, coast-guard cutters,
converted yachts, tugs, and numerous vessels of other types for special
purposes--in European waters. Serving on these vessels were nearly
40,000 men, more than half the strength of our navy before we entered
the war--and this number did not include the personnel of troop-ships,
supply-vessels, armed guards for merchantmen, signal-men, wireless
operators and the like, who go into the war zone on recurrent trips.
Submarines have been fought and sunk or captured--how many, a wise naval
policy bids absolute silence. Our antisubmarine activities now cover in
war areas alone over 1,000,000 square miles of sea. In a six-months
period one detachment of destroyers steamed over 1,000,000 of miles in
the war zone, attacked 81 submarines, escorted 717 single vessels,
participated in 86 convoys, and spent one hundred and fifty days at sea.
There have been mistakes, of course; there have been delays which have
tried the patience not only of the country, but of the Navy Department.
But they were inevitable under the high pressure of affairs as they
suddenly set in when we went to war. But in looking back over the year
and a half of conflict, considering the hundreds of thousands of
soldiers that our navy has conducted in safety across the infested
Atlantic, and the feats which our fighters have performed in action, in
stormy seas, in rescue work and in the long, weary grind of daily
routine, no American has cause for aught but pride in the work our navy
has done.
There has been more than a sixfold increase in naval man power and about
a fourfold increase in the number of ships in service. When present
plans have been carried out--and all projects are proceeding
swiftly--the United States will probably rank second to Britain among
naval Powers of the world. Training facilities have increased on a
stupendous scale; we have now various specialized schools for seamen and
officers; our industrial yards have grown beyond dreams and the
production of ordnance and munitions proceeds on a vast scale, while in
other directions things have been accomplished by the Navy Department
which will not be known until the war is over and the records are open
for all to read.
But in the meantime history has been making and facts have been marked
which give every American pride. Praise from the source of all things
maritime is praise indeed, and what greater commendation--better than
anything that might be spoken or written--could be desired than the
action of Admiral Sir David Beatty, commander-in-chief of the Grand
Fleet, who, receiving a report not so many months ago that the German
High Seas Fleet was out, awarded the post of honor in the consolidated
fleet of British and American war-vessels which went forth to meet the
Germans to a division of American battleships. This chivalrous
compliment on the part of the British commander was no doubt designed as
a signal act of courtesy, but more, it was born of the confidence of a
man who has seen our navy, who had had the most complete opportunities
for studying it and, as a consequence, knew what it could do.
There is nothing of chauvinism in the statement that, so far as the
submarine is concerned, our navy has played a most helpful part in
diminishing its ravages, that our fighting ships have aided very
materially in the marked reduction in sinkings of merchantmen as
compared to the number destroyed in the corresponding period before we
entered the war, and in the no less notable increase in the number of
submarines captured or sunk. These facts have not only been made clear
by official Navy Department statements, but have been attested to by
many British and French Admiralty and Government authorities and naval
commanders.
"You doubtless know," wrote Admiral Sims to the Secretary of the Navy
some time ago, "that all of the Allies here with whom I am associated
are very much impressed by the efforts now being made by the United
States Navy Department to oppose the submarine and protect merchant
shipping. I am very glad to report that our forces are more than coming
up to expectations."
Admiral Sims was modest. Let us quote the message sent by Admiral Sir
Lewis Bayly, commander-in-chief of the British naval forces on the Irish
coast, on the anniversary of the arrival of our first destroyer flotilla
at Queenstown:
"On the anniversary of the arrival of the first United States men-of-war
at Queenstown I wish to express my deep gratitude to the United States
officers and ratings for the skill, energy, and unfailing good nature
which they all have consistently shown and which qualities have so
materially assisted in the war by enabling ships of the Allied Powers to
cross the ocean in comparative freedom. To command you is an honor, to
work with you is a pleasure, to know you is to know the best traits of
the Anglo-Saxon race."
And to Secretary Daniels, Sir Eric Geddes, first lord of the British
Admiralty, wrote in part:
"As you know, we all of us here have great admiration for your officers
and men and for the splendid help they are giving in European waters.
Further, we find Admiral Sims invaluable in counsel and in
co-operation."
American naval aid has been of the greatest help to the British Fleet,
wrote Archibald Hurd, the naval expert, in the _Daily Telegraph_,
London.
"When the war is over," he said, "the nation will form some conception
of the extent of the debt which we owe the American Navy for the manner
in which it has co-operated, not only in connection with the convoy
system, but in fighting the submarines. If the naval position is
improving to-day, as it is, it is due to the fact that the British and
American fleets are working in closest accord, supported by an immense
body of skilled workers on both sides of the Atlantic, who are turning
out destroyers and other crafts for dealing with the submarines as well
as mines and bombs. The Germans can have a battle whenever they want it.
The strength of the Grand Fleet has been well maintained. Some of the
finest battleships of the United States Navy are now associated with it.
They are not only splendid fighting-ships, but they are well officered
and manned."
Here is what Lord Reading, the British Ambassador to the United States
said in the course of an address at the Yale 1918 Commencement:
"Let me say to you on behalf of the British people what a debt of
gratitude we owe to your navy for its co-operation with us. There is no
finer spectacle to be seen at present than that complete and cordial
co-operation which is existing between your fleet and ours. They work as
one. I always think to myself and hope that the co-operation of our
fleets, of our navies, is the harbinger of what is to come in the future
when the war is over, of that which will still continue then.
Magnificent is their work, and I glory always in the thought that an
American admiral has taken charge of the British Fleet and the British
policy, and that when the plans are formed for an attack that American
admiral is given the place of honor in our fleet, because we feel that
it is his due at this moment."
And finally, there is the testimony of Admiral Sir Rosslyn Wemyss, first
sea lord of the British, concerning our effective aid, testimony, by the
way, which enlightens us to some extent upon British and American
methods of co-operation.
"On the broad lines of strategic policy," he said, "complete unanimity
exists. Admiral Benson and Admiral Mayo have both visited us and studied
our naval plans. No officers could have exhibited keener appreciation of
the naval situation. I find it difficult to express the gratitude of the
British service to these officers and to Admiral Sims for the support
they have given us. I am not exaggerating, or camouflaging, to borrow a
word of the moment. Our relations could not be more cordial. The
day-to-day procedure is of the simplest. Every morning I hold conference
with the principal officers of the naval staff, and Admiral Sims is
present as the representative of the United States Fleet, joining freely
in the discussion of the various subjects which arise. I need not add
that I keenly appreciate his help. At sea the same spirit of cordial
co-operation exists--extremely cordial. I should like to say we have,
fortunately, a common language and common traditions, which have done
much to assist us in working together.
"The American officers and men are first-rate. It is impossible to pay
too high a tribute to the manner in which they settled down to this job
of submarine hunting, and to the intelligence, resource, and courage
which they have exhibited. They came on the scene at the opportune
moment. Our men had been in the mill for many weary months. Possibly the
American people, so far removed from the main theatre of the war, can
hardly appreciate what it meant when these American officers and men
crossed the Atlantic. They have been splendid, simply splendid. I have
seen a number of the destroyers and conversed with a large number of
officers. I also have had many reports and am not speaking of the aid
the United States has rendered without full knowledge.
"Not only are the vessels well constructed and the officers and men
thoroughly competent, but the organization is admirable. It was no
slight matter for so many ships to come 3,000 miles across the Atlantic
to fight in European waters. The decision raised several complicated
problems in connection with supplies, but those problems have been
surmounted with success. There has never been anything like it before in
the history of naval warfare, and the development of the steam-engine
has rendered such co-operation more difficult than ever before, because
the modern man-of-war is dependent on a constant stream of supplies of
fuel, stores, food, and other things, and is need of frequent repairs."
In addition to doing signally effective work in hunting down the
submarine, and in protecting ocean commerce, our war-ships have relieved
England and France of the necessity of looking out for raiders and
submarines in South Atlantic waters: we have sent to the Grand Fleet,
among other craft, a squadron of dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts
whose aggregate gun-power will tell whenever the German sea-fighters
decide to risk battle in the North Sea; war-ships are convoying
transports laden with thousands of men--more than a million and a half
fighting men will be on French and English soil before these words are
read--escorting ocean liners and convoying merchant vessels, while in
divers other ways the navy of this country is playing its dominant part
in the fight against German ruthlessness.
When the Emergency Fleet Corporation announced its programme of building
ships the Navy Department at once began its preparations for providing
armed guards for these vessels as soon as they were commissioned for
transatlantic service. Thousands of men were placed in training for this
purpose and detailed instructions were prepared and issued to the
Shipping Board and to all ship-building companies to enable them to
prepare their vessels while building with gun-emplacements, armed-guard
quarters, and the like, so that when the vessels were completed there
would be as little delay as possible in furnishing them. In all details
relating to the protection of these merchant vessels the navy has played
a most vital part and not least of the laurels accruing to this
department of the government war service for work in the present
struggle have been those won by naval gun crews on cargo-laden ships.
The administrative work in connecting many vessels of this class is a
not inconsiderable of itself. The romance of the armed merchantmen
affords material for many a vivid page, and when in its proper place in
this volume it is set forth somewhat in detail the reader will grasp--if
he has not already done so through perusal of the daily press--the fact
that all the glory of naval service in this war has not resided within
the turrets of the dreadnought nor on the deck of destroyer or
patrol-vessel.
The navy organized and has operated the large transport service required
to take our soldiers overseas. At this writing not a single transport
has been lost on the way to France, and but three have been sunk
returning. Transports bound for France have been attacked by submarines
time and again, and, in fact, our first transport convoy was
unsuccessfully assailed, as has been the case with other convoys
throughout the past twelve months. In the case of the _Tuscania_, sunk
by a torpedo while eastbound with American soldiers, that vessel was
under British convoy, a fact which implies no discredit upon the British
Navy, since it is beyond the powers of human ingenuity so to protect the
ocean lanes as to warrant assurance that a vessel, however well
convoyed, shall be totally immune from the lurking submarine. Again, it
should be remembered, that the British have taken about sixty per cent
of our expeditionary forces across the ocean.
In the line of expanding ship-building facilities the Navy Department
has in the past year carried on vigorously a stupendous policy of
increased shipyard capacity, which upon completion will see this country
able to have in course of construction on the ways at one time sixteen
war-vessels of which seven will be battleships.
In January, 1917, three months before we went to war, the Navy
Department's facilities for ship-building were: Boston, one auxiliary
vessel; New York, one battleship; Philadelphia, one auxiliary; Norfolk,
one destroyer; Charleston, one gunboat; Mare Island, one battleship and
one destroyer. At the present time the Brooklyn Navy Yard has a way for
the building of dreadnoughts, and one for the building of battleships.
At Philadelphia two ways are being built for large battleships and
battle-cruisers. Norfolk, in addition to her one way for destroyers,
will soon have a way for battleships. Charleston will have five ways for
destroyers. The navy-yard at Puget Sound will soon have a way for one
battleship.
The building plans include not only the construction of ways, but also
machine, electrical, structural, forge, and pattern shops in addition to
foundries, storehouses, railroad-tracks, and power-plants. This increase
in building capacity will enable the government through enhanced repair
facilities to handle all repair and building work for the fleet as well
as such for the new merchant marine. Three naval docks which will be
capable of handling the largest ships in the world are approaching
completion while private companies are building similar docks under
encouragement of the government in the shape of annual guarantees of
dockage.
An idea of what has been accomplished with respect to ship-building is
gained through the statement of Secretary Daniels, June 2, that his
department had established a new world's record for rapid ship
construction by the launching of the torpedo-boat destroyer _Ward_, at
the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, seventeen and a half days after
the keel was laid. The previous record was established shortly before
that date at Camden, New Jersey, where the freighter _Tuckahoe_ was
launched twenty-seven days and three hours after the laying of the keel.
In 1898, twenty years ago, the first sixteen destroyers were authorized
for the United States Navy. These were less than half the size of our
present destroyers, and yet their average time from the laying of the
keels to launching was almost exactly two years. During the ten years
prior to our entrance into the present war Congress authorized an
average of five or six destroyers a year. The records show that in the
construction of these the average time on the ways was almost exactly
eleven months, the total time of construction being about two years.
[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL LEIGH C. PALMER.]
[Illustration: VICE-ADMIRAL WILLIAM S. SIMS.]
[Illustration: JOSEPHUS DANIELS, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.]
[Illustration: ADMIRAL HENRY T. MAYO.]
[Illustration: ADMIRAL WILLIAM S. BENSON.]
[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL ALBERT GLEAVES.]
The average time on the ways of the numerous destroyers launched in
1917-18, is but little over five months, this being somewhat less than
half the average time under peace conditions. As many as 400 men were
employed in work on the _Ward_, and in preparing to establish the record
as much structural work as possible was prepared in advance, ready for
erection and assembling before the keel was laid. While this achievement
will no doubt remain unmatched for some time, it will none the less
stand significant as marking a condition that is general in naval
construction throughout the country, this applying to battleships and
other craft as well as to destroyers.
In short, under the constructive leadership of Josephus Daniels, the
navy is doing its enormous bit in a convincing manner. It took the
personnel of the navy--that is, the commissioned personnel--a long time
to discover the real character and personality of Mr. Daniels. It is not
too much to say that many of them were hostile to his administration.
But the war proved him for what he was. With administrative capacity of
his own, sound judgment, and a clear brain, he was big enough to know
that there were many things that had better be left to the highly
trained technicians under his command.
And so in large measure he delegated many actual tasks of administration
to the most competent officers in the navy, officers selected for
special tasks without fear or favor. Mr. Daniels will receive, as he is
now receiving, credit for their work; but he in turn is earnest in his
desire so to speak and act, that this credit will be duly and properly
shared by those entitled thereto. He has disregarded seniority and other
departmental, not to say political factors, in choosing the right men to
head the various bureaus of the Navy Department and the various units of
the fleet.
He has favored the young officer, and to-day it is not too much to say
that youth holds the power in the navy; but, on the other hand, he has
been quick to recognize and to employ in high places the qualities that
reside in officers who with years of experience, combine enduring zest
and broad points of view,
In all, Secretary Daniels exemplifies the spirit of the American
Navy--and the spirit of our navy is altogether consonant with our
national tradition--to get into the fight and keep fighting. He has been
the sponsor for a naval increase which sees our active roster increased
from 56,000 men in April, 1917, to more than 400,000 at the present
time, and our fighting ships increased, as already pointed out,
fourfold.
And while our vessels and our fighting men are playing their part on the
high seas the counsel of our trained technical experts is eagerly sought
and constantly employed by the admiralties of the Allied nations. When
the naval history of this war is given to the world in freest detail we
shall know just how much our officers have had to do with the strategy
of operations adopted by all the Entente navies. It is not violating
either ethics or confidence, however, to say that our influence in this
respect has been very potent and that the names of Admiral William S.
Benson, chief of operations, Vice-Admiral William S. Sims, Admiral Henry
T. Mayo, and Rear-Admiral Albert Gleaves are already names that are to
be reckoned with abroad as at home.
As for incidents reflecting gloriously upon the morale of our officers
and men, the navy has already its growing share. There is the destroyer
_Cassin_ struck by a torpedo and seriously crippled, but refusing to
return to port as long as there appeared to be a chance of engaging the
submarine that had attacked her. There is Lieutenant Clarence C. Thomas,
commander of the gun crew on the oil-ship _Vacuum_. When the ship was
sunk he cheered his freezing men tossing on an icy sea in an open boat
far from land, until he at length perished, his last words those of
encouragement. There is Lieutenant S.F. Kalk, who swam from raft to raft
encouraging and directing the survivors of the destroyer _Jacob Jones_
after a torpedo had sent that vessel to the bottom. There are those two
gunners on the transport _Antilles_ who stood serving their gun until
the ship sank and carried them down. There is the freighter
_Silver-Shell_ whose gun crew fought and sank the submarine that
attacked the ship, and the gun crews of the _Moreni_, the _Campana_, and
the _J.L. Luckenback_--indomitable heroes all. There is Osmond Kelly
Ingram, who saved the _Cassin_ and lost his life. There is the glorious
page contributed to our naval annals, by the officers and crew of the
_San Diego_. History indeed is in the making--history that Americans are
proud to read.
In all that has been written in this foreword the design has been merely
to sketch, to outline some of the larger achievements of the United
States Navy in this war. In chapters to come our navy's course from
peace into war will be followed as closely as the restrictions of a wise
censorship will permit.
CHAPTER I
First Experience of Our Navy with the German U-Boat--Arrival of Captain
Hans Rose and the U-53 at Newport--Experiences of the German Sailors in
an American Port--Destruction of Merchantman by U-53 off Nantucket--Our
Destroyers to the Rescue--Scenes in Newport--German Rejoicing--The Navy
Prepares for War
How many of us who love the sea and have followed it to greater or less
extent in the way of business or pleasure have in the past echoed those
famous lines of Rudyard Kipling:
"'Good-bye Romance!' the skipper said.
He vanished with the coal we burn."
And how often since the setting in of the grim years beginning with
August of 1914 have we had occasion to appreciate the fact that of all
the romance of the past ages the like to that which has been spread upon
the pages of history in the past four years was never written nor
imagined. Week after week there has come to us from out the veil of the
maritime spaces incidents dramatic, mysterious, romantic, tragic,
hideous.
Great transatlantic greyhounds whose names evoke so many memories of
holiday jaunts across the great ocean slip out of port and are seen no
more of men. Vessels arrive at the ports of the seven seas with tales of
wanton murder, of hairbreadth escapes. Boat crews drift for days at the
mercy of the seas and are finally rescued or perish man by man. The
square-rigged ship once more rears its towering masts and yards above
the funnels of merchant shipping; schooners brave the deep seas which
never before dared leave the coastwise zones; and the sands of the West
Indies have been robbed of abandoned hulks to the end that the
diminishing craft of the seas be replaced. And with all there are
stories of gallantry, of sea rescues, of moving incidents wherein there
is nothing but good to tell of the human animal. Would that it were all
so. But it is not. The ruthlessness of the German rears itself like a
sordid shadow against the background of Anglo-Saxon and Latin gallantry
and heroism--a diminishing shadow, thank God, and thank, also, the navy
of Great Britain and of the United States.
For more than two years and a half of sea tragedy the men of our navy
played the part of lookers-on. Closely following the sequence of events
with the interest of men of science, there was a variety of opinion as
to the desirability of our playing a part in the epic struggle on the
salt water. There were officers who considered that we were well out of
it; there were more who felt that our part in the struggle which the
Allied nations were waging should be borne without delay. But whatever
existed in the way of opinion there was no lack of unanimity in the
minute study which our commissioned officers gave to the problems in
naval warfare and related interests which were constantly arising in
European waters.
It was not, however, until October of 1916 that the American Navy came
into very close relationship with the submarine activities of the German
Admiralty. The morning of October 7 of that year was one of those days
for which Newport is famous--a tangy breeze sweeping over the gorse-clad
cliffs and dunes that mark the environment of Bateman's Point the old
yellow light-ship which keeps watch and ward over the Brenton reefs
rising and falling on a cobalt sea. From out of the seaward mists there
came shortly before ten o'clock a low-lying craft which was instantly
picked out by the men of the light-ship as a submarine, an American
submarine. There is a station for them in Newport Harbor, and
submersible boats of our navy are to be found there at all times.
But as the men watched they picked up on the staff at the stern of the
incoming craft the Royal German ensign. A German submarine! Be assured
that enough interest in German craft of the sort had been aroused in the
two years and eight months of war to insure the visitor that welcome
which is born of intense interest. The submarine, the U-53, held over
toward Beaver Tail and then swung into the narrow harbor entrance,
finally coming to anchor off Goat Island. The commander, Captain Hans
Rose, went ashore in a skiff and paid an official visit first to
Rear-Admiral Austin M. Knight, commander of the Newport Naval District,
and then to Rear-Admiral Albert Gleaves, chief of our destroyer
flotilla.
Subsequent testimony of that German commander was that the American
naval officers appeared somewhat embarrassed at the visit, suggesting
men who were confronted by a situation which they were not certain how
to handle. The statement of the German officer had a humorous sound and
may have been humorously intended. In any event. Admiral Knight and
Admiral Gleaves were very polite, and in due course paid the Germans the
courtesy of a return visit, And while the submarine lay in the harbor
the crew came ashore and were treated to beer by the American sailors,
while crowds of curious were admitted aboard the submersible and shown
about with the most open courtesy.
Captain Rose said he had come to deliver a letter to Count von
Bernstorff, the German Ambassador, but such a mission seemed so trivial
that rumor as to the real intentions of the craft was rife throughout
the entire country. There were suspicions that she had put in for fuel,
or ammunition, or supplies. But nothing to justify these thoughts
occurred. The U-53 hung around through the daylight hours, and at
sunset, with a farewell salute, put to sea.
Did our naval officers think this was the last of her? Possibly, but
probably not. They knew enough of the Germans to realize, or to suspect,
that their minds held little thought those days of social amenities and
that such calls as were made upon neutrals contained motives which,
while hidden, were none the less definite.
The night brought forth nothing, however, and the Navy Department was
beginning to feel that perhaps after all the U-53 was well on her way to
Germany, when early the following morning there came to the
radio-station at Newport an indignant message from Captain Smith of the
Hawaiian-American liner _Kansan_. He asked to know why he had been
stopped and questioned by a German submarine which had halted him in the
vicinity of the Nantucket light-ship at 5.30 o'clock that morning. He
added that after he had convinced the submarine commander as to the
nationality of his ship, he was permitted to proceed.
This looked like business, and Newport became certain of this when
shortly after noon came a radio containing advices as to the sinking of
the steamship _West Point_ off Nantucket. Then at intervals up to
midnight came other messages telling of the sinking of other vessels
until the victims of the undersea craft numbered four British, a Dutch,
and a Scandinavian vessel, one of them, the Halifax liner _Stephana_, a
passenger-vessel, with Americans on board. Reports of vessels torpedoed,
of open boats containing survivors afloat on the sea, followed one
another swiftly until not only Newport but the entire country was
aroused.
Admiral Knight and Admiral Gleaves, who had been keeping the Navy
Department at Washington in touch with every phase of the situation,
beginning with the arrival of the U-53 the preceding day, lost no time
in sending destroyers forth to the rescue, while already there was the
cheering word that the destroyer _Batch_ was on the scene and engaged in
rescue work.
The departure of the destroyers was a spectacle that brought thousands
of men, women, and children of Newport to the points of vantage along
the shore or to small craft of all sorts in which they kept as close to
the destroyers, preparing for their seaward flight, as they could. It
was Sunday, a day when crowds were at leisure, but it was also a day
when many of the officers and crew of the flotilla were on shore-leave.
They were summoned from all points, however, and within a short time
after the first call for help had been received the _Jarvis_, with
Lieutenant L. P. Davis in command, was speeding to sea at the rate
ordered by Admiral Gleaves, thirty-one knots an hour.
Inside half an hour the other destroyers shot out to sea at the same
speed as the _Jarvis_ while the spectators cheered them, and such as
were in small boats followed until the speeding craft had disappeared.
There was the _Drayton_--Lieutenant Bagley, who later was to know the
venom of the German submarine--the _Ericson_, Lieutenant-Commander W. S.
Miller; the _O'Brien_, Lieutenant-Commander C. E. Courtney; the
_Benham_, Lieutenant-Commander J. B. Gay; the _Cassin_,
Lieutenant-Commander Vernon; the _McCall_, Lieutenant Stewart; the
_Porter_, Lieutenant-Commander W. K. Wortman; the _Fanning_, Lieutenant
Austin; the _Paulding_, Lieutenant Douglas Howard; the _Winslow_,
Lieutenant-Commander Nichols; the _Alwyn_, Lieutenant-Commander John C.
Fremont; the _Cushing_, Lieutenant Kettinger; the _Cummings_,
Lieutenant-Commander G. F. Neal; the _Conyngham_, Lieutenant-Commander
A. W. Johnson, and the-mother ship, _Melville_, Commander H. B. Price.
Soon after the destroyers had passed into the Atlantic there came a
wireless message saying that twenty of the crew of the British steamship
_Strathdean_ had been taken on board the Nantucket light-ship. Admiral
Gleaves directed the movement of his destroyers from the radio-room on
the flag-ship. He figured that the run was about a hundred miles. There
was a heavy sea running and a strong southwest wind. There was a mist on
the ocean. It was explained by the naval authorities that the destroyers
were sent out purely on a mission of rescue, and nothing was said as to
any instructions regarding the enforcement of international law. None
the less it was assumed, and may now be assumed, that something was said
to the destroyer commanders with regard to the three-mile limit. But as
to that we know no more to-day than at the time.
Suffice to say that the destroyers arrived in time not only to wander
about the ocean seeking survivors in the light of a beautiful hunter's
moon, but in time to witness the torpedoing of at least two merchantmen;
the submarine commander, it is said, advising our war-ship commanders to
move to certain locations so as not to be hit by his shells and
torpedoes.
Eventually the destroyer flotilla returned with their loads of survivors
and with complete details of the operations of the U-53 and, according
to belief, of another submarine not designated. It appeared that the
Germans were scrupulous in observing our neutrality, that their
operations were conducted without the three-mile limit, and that
opportunities were given crews and passengers to leave the doomed ships.
There was nothing our destroyer commanders could do. Even the most
hot-headed commander must have felt the steel withes of neutral
obligation which held him inactive while the submarine plied its deadly
work. There was, of course, nothing else to do--except to carry on the
humanitarian work of rescuing victims of the U boat or boats, as the
case might have been.
Later, it was given to many of the craft which set forth that October
afternoon to engage in their service to humanity, to cross the seas and
to meet the submarine where it lurked in the Irish Sea, the North Sea,
the English Channel, and the Mediterranean. One of them, the _Cassin_
was later to be struck--but not sunk--by a torpedo off the coast of
England, while the _Fanning_, in company with the _Nicholson_, had full
opportunity of paying off the score which most naval officers felt had
been incurred when the U-53 and her alleged companion invaded American
waters and sullied them with the foul deeds that had so long stained the
clean seas of Europe.
German diplomats were enthusiastic over the exploits of their craft.
"The U-53 and other German submarines, if there are others," said a
member of the German Embassy at Washington, "is engaged in doing to the
commerce of the Allies just what the British tried to do to the
_Deutschland_ when she left America. (The submarine _Deutschland_,
engaged in commercial enterprise, had visited the United States some
time previously.) It is a plain case of what is sometimes known as
commerce-raiding. It is being done by submarines, that is all. Warfare,
such as that which has been conducted in the Mediterranean, has been
brought across the Atlantic. It should be easy to destroy more of the
overseas commerce of the Allies, which is principally with America, near
where it originates."
Here was a veiled threat--not so veiled either--which was no doubt
marked in Washington. President Wilson received the news of the sinkings
in silence, but plainly government authorities were worried over the
situation. New problems were erected and the future was filled with
possibilities of a multifarious nature.
Thus, within twenty-four hours it was demonstrated that the war was not
3,000 miles away from us, but close to our shores. The implied threat
that it would be a simple matter for submarines to cross the Atlantic
and deal with us as they were dealing with France and England and other
Entente nations--not to say harmless neutrals such as Holland and
Scandinavia--was not lost upon the citizens of this country. But, as
usual, German judgment in the matter of psychology was astray. The
threat had no effect in the way of _Schrecklichkeit_, but rather it
steeled us to a future which began to appear inevitable. And deep under
the surface affairs began to move in the Navy Department.
No doubt, too, the conviction began to grow upon the government that the
policy of dealing fairly by Germany was not appreciated, and that when
the exigencies of the war situation seemed to require it, our ships
would be sent to the bottom as cheerfully as those of other neutrals
such as Holland, Norway, and Sweden, as well as other countries who
unfortunately were not in the position to guard their neutrality with
some show of dignity that we were in.
Subsequent events proved how true this feeling was. For not six months
later the German policy of sea aggression had brought us to the point
where it was not possible for us to remain out of the conflict against
the pirate nation. It was in the following April that we went to war,
and our first act was to send forth a destroyer flotilla to engage the
U-boat in its hunting-ground, Among that flotilla, as said, were many of
the craft which had rescued survivors of the Nantucket affair. They were
ready and their officers were ready, nay, eager. They swept across a
stormy Atlantic like unleashed hounds, and when the British commander
received them at Queenstown, and asked the American commanders when they
would be ready to take their places with the British destroyers, the
answer came quickly:
"We are ready now."
And they were--allowing for the cleaning of a few hulls and the
effecting of minor repairs to one or two of the vessels. Other
destroyers remained here, of course, while a fringe of submarine-chasers
and swift, armed yachts converted into government patrol-vessels were
guarding our coast the day after the President signed the war
resolution. But more than a year and a half was to elapse before our
waters were again to know the submarine menace. Just why the Germans
waited may not be known. Probably they had all they could attend to in
foreign waters. In any event it was not until June, 1918, that a
coastwise schooner captain was both surprised and indignant when a shot
from a craft which he took to be an American submarine went across his
bows. It was not an American submarine; it was a German submersible and
that schooner was sent to the bottom, followed by other wind-jammers and
the Porto Rico liner _Carolina_.
Thus, what in the original instance was a test journey in the interests
of German submarine activity--the visit of the U-53 in October, 1916--as
well as a threat to this country bore its fruit in the development of
that test trip, and in the fulfilment of that threat. At this writing
the coastwise marauder, or marauders, are still off our shores, and
clouds of navy craft are seeking to destroy them. We are far better
equipped for such service than we were when Captain Hans Rose came here
in his submarine, and it is divulging no secret information to say that
this and further invasions of our home waters will be dealt with bravely
and rigorously without the necessity of subtracting from the number of
war-vessels that are engaged with Allied fighters in maintaining
commerce upon the waters of Europe.
But this is getting a bit further ahead than I intended to go at this
juncture. The primary point is that with the visit of Captain Hans Rose
in his undersea boat, with her depredations off our coast, the Navy
Department, saying nothing to outsiders, came to accept the idea of war
as something more than a possible contingency.
Debates in Congress were characterized by an increasing pointedness, and
stories of sea murders increased rather than diminished. And not
infrequently there were Americans on board those ships. At length came
the sinking of American merchantmen and the final decision by our
government to place armed guards on all merchant vessels carrying our
flag. It was then that the Navy Department was called upon to take the
first open steps against the German sea menace--steps rife with grim
possibilities, since it operated to bring our seamen gunners into actual
conflict with the German naval forces. There could be little doubt,
therefore, that war would follow in inevitable course.