"CINDERELLAS OF THE FLEET"
SUBMARINE CHASERS BORE BRILLIANT PART IN ATTACK ON DURAZZO--SANK
ONE SUBMARINE, DAMAGED ANOTHER, AND "THOROUGHLY ENJOYED
THEMSELVES"--QUEER CODES FOOLED THE GERMANS--OVER FOUR HUNDRED
"CHASERS" BUILT--STAUNCH LITTLE WOODEN CRAFT DID WONDERFULLY GOOD
WORK IN EUROPE AND AMERICA.
Cinderella was not the guest first invited, but when she arrived she
became the belle of the ball. The little submarine chasers, originally
designed to protect entrance to harbors, to patrol coasts and keep
close to shore, won fame and admiration by their splendid service
in Europe and America. These "Cinderellas of the Fleet" became eyes
and ears of the anti-submarine forces, hunters rightly feared by
the U-boats, whose commanders had at first looked upon them with
ill-concealed contempt.
Sub-chasers were particularly valuable as "listeners," the submarine
detection devices with which they were equipped being vastly superior
to those previously in use. Organized in "hunting units"--three to
the unit, the commander in the center, with a "wing boat" on either
side--they were real "chasers" of submarines.
I am most grateful for the valuable service rendered by twelve
submarine chasers under Captain Nelson, U. S. N., and Lieutenant
Commander Bastedo, U. S. N., which I took the liberty of employing
in an operation against Durazzo on October 2. They screened heavy
ships during the bombardment under enemy fire; also apparently
destroyed definitely one submarine which torpedoed _H. M. S.
Weymouth_, and damaged and probably destroyed another submarine.
During the return voyage they assisted in screening _H. M.
S. Weymouth_, and in escorting enemy hospital ship which was
being brought in for examination. Their conduct throughout was
beyond praise. They all returned safely without casualties. They
thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
That was the message sent by the British Force Commander regarding the
attack on the Austrian naval base by British, Italian and American
vessels October 2, 1918. And the Italians expressed their appreciation
in this dispatch from Rome:
Italian Naval General Staff expresses highest appreciation of
useful and efficient work performed by United States chasers in
protecting major naval vessels during action against Durazzo; also
vivid admiration of their brilliant and clever operations which
resulted in sinking two enemy submarines.
The exploits of our submarine chasers formed a notable feature of that
brilliant and successful attack. When, on Saturday, September 28, the
British commodore asked Captain Charles P. Nelson, in command at Corfu,
if he could have twelve chasers, with four days' supplies, ready to
leave in twenty-four hours, for "special service," Nelson's reply was
one word: "Yes."
Sailing Sunday evening, the next morning they reached Brindisi, where
the Allied forces were assembled for the attack, and received their
instructions. It was 1:30 a. m., on October 2nd, that the four units,
under command of Captain Nelson, got under way for the expedition. The
chasers and their commanders were:
Unit B--Lieutenant Commander Paul H. Bastedo, commanding on S. C.
215, Lieutenant (junior grade) Wildon A. Ott; S. C. 128, Ensign
Hilary R. Chambers, Jr.; S. C. 129, Ensign Maclear Jacoby.
Unit D--S. C. 225, Lieutenant (junior grade) Elmer J. McCluen; S.
C. 327, Ensign Walter P. Grossmann.
Unit G--In command, Captain Nelson, on board S. C. 95; S. C. 95,
Ensign George J. Leovy; S. C. 179, Ensign Erskine Hazard; S. C.
338, Ensign John M. Beverly.
Unit H--S. C. 130, Ensign Henry R. Dann; S. C. 324, Lieutenant
(junior grade) Clifford W. Eshom; S. C. 337, Ensign Andrew J.
Kelley.
At 8:40 they arrived off Durazzo, and stood by six miles from shore to
await the arrival of the bombarding force. Its smoke could be seen on
the horizon, and as the Italian vessels hove in sight, the sub-chasers
moved to their stations.
Moving along on the flanks of the bombing squadrons, the chasers acted
as a screen for the larger vessels, which poured out a rain of shells
upon the Austrian defenses. Guarding the British Light-Cruiser Force,
the three boats of Unit B had to run in close to shore, only 800 yards
from the enemy batteries. They had a lively experience for fifteen or
twenty minutes, shells falling around them. But, going at full speed
and "zigzagging to beat the band," as the sailors say, they managed to
escape unscathed.
Suddenly came the cry, "Submarine!" Sub-chaser 129 had sighted the
moving feather of a U-boat about 1,600 yards off her port quarter.
Signaling to S. C. 215, S. C. 129 altered her course to the left to
deliver an attack at right angles. The U-boat was heading south,
apparently getting in position to attack the bombarding forces. In a
moment a second feather was sighted a little farther to westward. As S.
C. 129 reached the supposed path of the undersea boat, a depth-bomb was
dropped. When it exploded, the enemy submerged for almost a minute, and
then reappeared, showing both periscopes. S. C. 129 immediately began
laying a pattern of depth-charges ahead of the U-boat and at right
angles to his course.
When the seventh bomb exploded, in the water thrown up objects
resembling pieces of metal appeared, and there was another explosion,
seemingly in the submarine. The chaser crew was confident that
submarine was destroyed.
Sub-chaser 215, sighting another periscope 750 yards away, opened fire
with her three-inch gun and port machine-gun, hoisting signal to form
for attack. The second three-inch shot dropped within two feet of
the periscope, the commanding officer reported, and shattered it, a
column of water six feet high rising into the air. The U-boat seemed
to be turning sharply to starboard in the direction of the British
light cruisers, which were then entering their bombarding sector. S.
C. 215 and S. C. 128 closed in on the submarine and laid a pattern of
depth-charges. As the fourth charge exploded, the executive officer of
S. C. 215 sang out, "That got him!" He had seen what appeared to be a
ship's plate and debris rise to the surface and then disappear. Heavy
oil rose, covering the water in the vicinity, and the chaser crews
concluded the U-boat had been sunk.
S. C. 215 and S. C. 128 then turned and headed for S. C. 129, which had
first reported sighting a "sub," but which was lying to, repairing her
engines. The unit stood over to capture the Austrian hospital ship,
hoisting the international flag, "Stop instantly!" The British cruisers
_Nereide_ and _Ruby_ were, at the time, astern of the Austrian vessel,
and the _Nereide_ signaled that she would stop and take off the armed
guard crew if the chasers wished to take over the hospital ship. The
chasers, which were north of the Austrian port, replied that they would
take her over when clear of Durazzo.
The little American craft took charge of the big Austrian vessel, the
British cruisers _Tribune_ and _Shark_, signaling, "Go to Brindisi."
Reaching Brindisi, they released the hospital ship, which had been
taken to port for investigation. Then, with a sense of duty well done,
the chasers dropped anchor in the harbor, and "called it a day."
While Unit B enjoyed the most exciting experience, all the other units
were busy doing their full share of the work, escorting the bombing
vessels and playing their part in the bombardment. When the British
cruiser _Weymouth_ was torpedoed, Units D, C, and H went to her
assistance, and aided in warding off further attack. Though damaged,
the cruiser was safely navigated to port. The boats of Unit D got close
enough to fire at the houses on Cape Laghi.
The attack on Durazzo was a decided success. The city was practically
put out of business as a naval base, and was of little further use to
the Austrians who, defeated on land and sea, soon sued for peace.
The United States naval base at Corfu, where thirty-six of our
sub-chasers were stationed, was established May 24, 1918, by Captain
R. H. Leigh, Commander of Submarine Chasers for Distant Service. The
primary duty of our forces there was to patrol the Straits of Otranto,
the entrance to the Adriatic. That narrow stretch of water, forty miles
wide, from Corfu to the "heel" of Italy, was the only route by which
Austrian and German vessels from Trieste, Fiume, Pola, and Durazzo
could make their way into the Mediterranean.
There was established the Otranto Mobile Barrage, which, though
comprising mines and nets, depended mainly for its effectiveness on
patrol vessels. There were three lines of these, at some distance
apart, two of British vessels, destroyers and trawlers, and the
third, ten miles below, of our submarine chasers, twelve of which
patrolled this line day and night. While this barrage was by no means
"air-tight," and occasionally U-boats slipped through, it proved very
useful and after its establishment there was a material decrease
in submarine activity in that whole region. After the armistice an
Austrian officer said that six U-boats were lost in that area.
Four hundred and forty sub-chasers were built, 340 manned by the United
States Navy, and 100 by the French. They operated in the Atlantic,
Pacific and Arctic Oceans, in the North Sea, in the Adriatic, the
Ionian and Aegean Seas, and the Sea of Marmora. After the armistice,
special duties carried them to Russia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, to
Austria, Dalmatia, Greece, and Turkey, and parts of Asia Minor.
"How are you going to get them across the Atlantic?" foreign naval
attachés asked, when we were turning out chasers by scores. That was
a problem, sending small boats over 3,000 miles of ocean in wintry
weather. Pluck, daring, endurance and good navigation were required,
but the problem was solved with surprising success.
Crossing the Atlantic and going through the Mediterranean to the
Adriatic under their own power, they weathered storms that distressed
many a big steamship. But these little 110-footers had some thrilling
experiences. Disabled in a terrific gale Sub-chaser 28, manned by the
French, seemed doomed. The other chasers pulled through, but this one
was missing, and after days was given up as lost. A month later we were
surprised and delighted when the news came that it had reached the
Azores. How did that little boat, disabled and alone, manage to make
its way 700 miles to port?
It was a thrilling story Alexis Puluhen and his men had to tell.
Storm tossed, their engines broke down and the boat began leaking.
Salvoes were fired and distress signals hoisted, but no relief came.
Lubricating oil was exhausted, and all the salad oil and butter aboard
were used in an effort to start up the engines. All motive power gone,
table-cloths, sheets, bed-spreads and blankets were rigged up as sails.
Rationing the crew to the smallest amount of food that could sustain
them, doling out the drinking water, the little boat headed east. With
a favoring breeze, she could sail about four knots an hour.
For a month the sub-chaser kept plodding along, laying its course for
the Azores. Occasionally a steamer would be sighted far away--four in
all were seen--but only one came close enough to see or hear the S. C.
28, and when seven guns, the distress signal, were fired, that vessel
ran away. At last, after a struggle of thirty-three days, Puluhen
sighted land. It was Fayal, one of the Azores. He hoisted the signal
"YP"--"I need a tug"--and not long afterward a tug steamed out, and
towed him into Horta. The sub-chaser was repaired, continued across
the Atlantic, and took its place with the other American-built chasers
which served on the French coast.
Three days at sea and three days in port, many chasers steamed an
average of a thousand miles a month. "You people on yachts and cruisers
don't know what it is to live in a sub-chaser," one seaman remarked.
"Tossed about on ocean swells, swept by seas, with decks leaking and
things below wet; gas fumes from the engines filling the interior,
sometimes half the crew were seasick. The destroyers, I know, were no
pleasure palaces, and they had no easy time, but none of you had a
harder job than we fellows on the 110-footers." But they took things as
they came, with unfailing cheerfulness and good humor.
Some of the sub-chaser squadrons developed codes of their own and got
a lot of fun out of them. "Quack! Quack! Quack!" was one sub-chaser
signal. The first time that queer call was heard over the wireless
telephone in European waters it mystified our English friends quite
as much as it did the Germans. And when the call was answered by an
outbreak of strange words and phrases, listeners at the radio phones in
all that area were plainly puzzled.
"Quack! Red-white-blue," they could understand, though what it
might mean they could not conceive. But when it came to "Quack!
High-low-jack," the thing was beyond all reason.
This was something new, probably a German trick. The British naval
officers were concerned about it, and were decidedly relieved when they
found it was no enemy concoction but came from the American sub-chasers
which had lately arrived from across the Atlantic. They wanted to
know what kind of a "quack" game the Americans were playing. And they
were vastly amused when told that it was a new code they had devised
that could be easily remembered by officers and men, but could not be
deciphered by the Germans.
The commander of one group named his boats in jingles or phrases. Three
boats, as I have stated, constituted a submarine hunting unit. One set
he designated as "red-white-blue," another as "corn-meal-mush," and
a third as "high-low-jack." "Quack! Quack! Quack!" meant "operate at
once."
The men were fond of making parodies on "Mother Goose" and other
familiar rhymes, applicable to their job of hunting the U-boats. One of
these, paraphrasing "The Spider and the Fly," went this way:
"Won't you come into my area?" said the chaser to the "sub";
"I'll treat you just as kindly as I would a tiger cub;
"I will listen to your motors, I will catch you without fail,
"And then I promise I will put some salt upon your tail."
What do you suppose the Germans thought of all this queer stuff that
was coming over the radiophone? I should have liked to have seen the
U-boat captains under water, and code experts in Berlin searching the
books and racking their brains to find out its meaning, for no boats or
calls or orders were ever phrased in such language before.
The sub-chasers put the Navy flag signals into words instead of
letters. "Able-Boy!" was the code to "Take hunt formation; distance 500
yards." They had a word for every letter in the alphabet: Able, boy,
cast, dog, easy, fox, George, have, item, jig, king, love, Mike, Nan,
oboe, pup, quack, rot, sail, tare, unit, vice, watch, X-ray, yoke, zed.
Almost any necessary order or information could be transmitted by
radiophone by means of this code. Here is a typical instance of how it
worked when a submarine was heard:
Listener of Boat No. 1 reports: "Submarine, 90 degrees."
Executive officer; "Submarine, 123 degrees."
Executive reports: "2 (number of wing-boat) turbine 112 degrees."
Executive reports: "3 (number of other wing-boat) submarine 130
degrees."
Captain orders: "Course 123 degrees."
Executive to Radio: "Fox-unit; dog-easy-cast!"
Executive to Listener: "Up tube."
At the order "Up tube," the listening tube was raised from its position
beneath the vessel; the signal-boy beside the mast hoisted the cone,
the position of which showed the other boats what the engine of this
sub-chaser was doing; the steersman put the wheel over, and the vessel
headed for the estimated locality of the U-boat. All this was done in a
moment or two.
If the submarine was not located, the captain ordered "Stop!" the
executive called, "Down tube!" The tube, which extends through the
bottom of the chaser, was lowered, and the listener strove again to
hear any sound of the U-boat.
When the success of our detection devices had been demonstrated, it
was decided that sub-chasers were well adapted to this duty, and were
to be used mainly for this purpose. On May 12, 1918, six arrived at
Portsmouth, England, and with the destroyer _Aylwin_ began training
tests with British submarines, south of the Isle of Wight. Eighteen
chasers soon after reached Plymouth, and this under command of Captain
Lyman A. Cotten was made the chief base, having eventually a force
of 66 vessels. On August 20th, 30 of these chasers were ordered to
Queenstown, where a base had been established under command of Captain
A. J. Hepburn.
The Plymouth sub-chasers were in an area of considerable submarine
activity, and reported a number of contacts. The S. C. 84, 85 and 86,
Ensigns E. F. Williams, A. B. Baker and Gr. H. Lane, respectively,
were credited with attacking and damaging a U-boat on July 10th. Nine
chasers, Units 6, 2, and 10, were on hunt off the English coast on
September 6th, when the listeners heard a submarine. Unit 2 attacked,
dropped depth-charges, but its flagship was damaged by an explosion,
and Unit 6 took up the pursuit. Located again, the U-boat went down,
and the chasers bombarded her with depth-charges. Her machinery was
evidently badly damaged. Listeners could hear the crew at work on the
motors which would at times turn a few revolutions; but at last they
stopped dead. The U-boat was unable to move. The chasers dropped over
the spot all the depth-bombs they had, and at 6:15 two boats were sent
to Penzance to get a fresh supply.
[Illustration: AMERICAN SUB-CHASERS AT CORFU, GREECE
Eleven of these boats took part in the attack on Durazzo, the Austrian
naval base in the Adriatic.]
[Illustration: A FLOCK OF SUB-CHASERS WITH THEIR MOTHER SHIP
The _U. S. S. Melville_ with sub-chasers at Queenstown.]
A water buoy, with 50-fathom wire cable, was dropped near the spot,
lanterns were hung on it; and the chasers got into position for
the night. At times the listeners reported that the U-boat crew made
attempts to start their motors. The next morning a few faint sounds
were heard, and at last there came a noise of firing as if from
revolvers or rifles, first three, then 22 shots. After this, nothing
was heard, though the chasers remained on the scene all afternoon. They
had been there thirty hours from the time the attack began. The chaser
crews firmly believed that the U-boat's crew perished in their steel
tomb, which sank to the bottom, never to rise again.
The best evidence of the good work done by our vessels at Plymouth is
the fact, shown by official records, that from June 30th to the end
of August, during which time our sub-chasers were covering the area
between Start Point and Lizard Head, not a single Allied or merchant
ship was attacked nor were any mines laid by the U-boats. This was
in a section where some months before sinkings were of almost daily
occurrence. After August, when many of our boats were withdrawn for
duty farther to the westward, several ships were attacked and sunk, and
mine-laying, though on a small scale, was resumed. This is regarded as
conclusive proof that it was our little sub-chasers which made that
area safe for Allied shipping in that important period.
While at Gibraltar, on their way to Corfu, the thirty chasers under
command of Captain Nelson engaged in several hunts, on May 17, 1918,
locating and chasing a U-boat to a point 12 miles northeast of
Gibraltar. On June 13th, four of them formed patrol line to guard the
commercial anchorage against a submarine which had been sighted.
Eighteen sub-chasers were sent to the Mediterranean to patrol the
Gibraltar Barrage, and though they were on that duty only from Nov.
6th to 11th, Admiral Niblack reported that they made four contacts and
three attacks, and that one was particularly well conducted and it was
"highly probable submarine was damaged, and possibly destroyed."
This group closed its war service with two exciting experiences.
On November 10th the S. C. 126, 190 and 353, while on patrol, were
mistaken for enemy submarines and were fired upon by the steamship
_Bahia_. The next day, about the time the armistice went into effect,
a British vessel, without waiting for recognition signals, fired on
the S. C. 214. Luckily the shells missed and the sturdy little boats
escaped unscathed.
The organization of our sub-chaser service in European waters was:
At U. S. Naval Headquarters. London--Captain R. H. Leigh, Commander
Sub-chasers, Distant Service; Lieutenant Commander W. R. Carter,
detection devices; Lieutenant Commander E. C. Raguet, communication
officer; Lieutenant Commander R. M. Griffin, sub-chasers; C. F.
Scott, technical expert, devices; E. L. Nelson, technical expert,
radio.
Sub-chaser Detachment 1, Plymouth--Captain L. A. Cotten,
commanding; _Hannibal_, repair ship; _Parker_, _Aylwin_,
destroyers; 36 to 66 sub-chasers.
Submarine Detachment 2, Corfu--Captain C. P. Nelson, commanding;
_Hannibal_, repair ship; 36 sub-chasers.
Submarine Detachment 3, Queenstown--Captain A. J. Hepburn,
commanding; 30 sub-chasers.
These were the principal bases, though our chasers also did valuable
work from Brest, Gibraltar and other points and at the Azores.
Twenty-four sub-chasers assisted in sweeping up the mines of the North
Sea Barrage from April to the end of September, 1919, and four were
damaged by exploding mines.
The sub-chasers played an important part in operations against the
German U-boats off the American coast in the summer of 1918. Scores of
them were on patrol along the Atlantic, and speeded to the vicinity
whenever a submarine was reported. Immediately after the U-151 appeared
off the New Jersey Coast, June 2, a special hunting group was formed
of 33 sub-chasers, headed by the destroyers _Jouett_, _Henley_ and
_Perkins_, and later another group, headed by the _Patterson_, was
organized. These hunters kept on the move, pursuing the "subs" for
months, from the Virginia Capes to Nova Scotia.
Many were kept busy escorting coastwise convoys, and patrolling
the coast. One group is reported to have escorted from port, with
other naval ships, vessels bearing 400,000 troops. Many chasers were
almost constantly at sea. The Hampton Roads Squadron, in command of
Lieutenant Herbert L. Stone, averaged 75 per cent of the time on duty.
Sub-chasers, under Lieutenant Le Sauvage, in the vicinity of Fire
Island, when the _San Diego_ was lost, were on duty 28 days out of 30.
Patrolling and listening was dangerous work, for the little boats
lying in the shipping lines, with all vessels running without lights,
might be run down or mistaken for enemy craft. This was the fate of
S. C. 209. Shelled and sunk off Fire Island by the steamship _Felix
Taussig_, two of her officers, Lieutenant Henry J. Bowes and Ensign E.
H. Randolph, and fourteen enlisted men lost their lives.
Keeping open the shipping lines from Mexican and Gulf oil fields was
an important duty; it was considered probable that the U-boats would
extend their operations to Mexican waters. Consequently we organized
a special hunting squadron of 12 sub-chasers, headed by the _U. S.
S. Salem_ (Captain S. V. Graham), as a part of the American Patrol
Detachment commanded by Rear Admiral Anderson, which patrolled the
waters of the Gulf and Caribbean.
Twelve sub-chasers served in the Panama Canal Zone, eight being
stationed at the Atlantic entrance, and four at the Pacific entrance to
the Canal, which it was their mission to protect.
Six chasers were assigned to duty in Nova Scotia, three based on
Halifax, and three on Sydney, Cape Breton. Arriving in May, 1918, they
were engaged in patrol, convoy and guard duty, and conducted a number
of submarine hunts when the U-boats were active in that region. Two
were sent with the _Explorer_ to Alaska, for protection against alien
enemies and disturbing elements which threatened the fish pack and
other industries of that region. Sub-chaser 310, to which was assigned
the section between the Canadian boundary and Petersburg, visited 112
canneries and other points, covering 6,079 miles. The S. C. 309, which
patrolled the remainder of southeast Alaska, visited 132 points and
covered 8,500 miles.
Perhaps the most remarkable voyage of these small craft was made by
the group built at Puget Sound Navy Yard, near Seattle. These chasers,
under command of a reserve officer, Lieutenant Roscoe Howard, all
manned by reservists, who were trained at the station while the boats
were building, were brought down the Pacific Coast, through the Panama
Canal and up to New London, and from there several of them sailed
for Europe, reaching the Azores, arriving just as hostilities ended.
Sailing from Bremerton May 6, 1918, this group was joined by others at
San Diego, Magdalena Bay and Pinchilinque until there were fifteen in
the party. August 4th, at 8 p. m., they arrived at New London, where
officers and men began their training in listening and anti-submarine
tactics. They had successfully negotiated a voyage of 7,470 miles;
escorted 2,985 miles, unescorted 4,485. Three of the Pacific coast
boats were in the convoy of 10 American and 19 French chasers which
left New London, October 24th, for Europe, Captain H. G. Sparrow,
in the cruiser _Chicago_, commanding the convoy. They proceeded via
Bermuda, and were only a day off the Azores when the news came that the
war was over.
After the armistice, sub-chasers were sent on various missions, to
Austria, Turkey, Norway, Sweden, Holland and Denmark. They served from
Northern Russia to the Black Sea.
When the work abroad was ended and the homeward bound pennant was
flying over these glory-bedecked Cinderellas, the spirit of contest and
mastery of the sea did not permit them to be towed back to the United
States or to come quietly and deliberately under their own power.
Eternal youth and love of victory was in their blood, and ships which
had won world applause at Durazzo decided upon a race from the Bermudas.
Six which had rendered conspicuous service--the S. C. 90, 129, 131,
217, 224 and 351--were selected for the contest. Starting at 4:21 p.
m., August 16th, their progress was followed with general interest,
being reported by the _Ontario_, their escort, and bulletined all over
the country.
The race was won by S. C. 131 (Lieutenant Joseph L. Day), which arrived
at Ambrose Channel lightship at 1:17 a. m., August 19, 1919. Her
running time was 56 hours, 56 minutes--8 hours and 43 minutes less than
that made by the _Dream_, which had set the fastest pace in 1914. Four
of the others also beat the best previous record.
The sub-chasers, after long and wearing service in the war zone, had
excelled the speedy light pleasure craft.
It was a race of thoroughbreds, and when the winner tied up at the
Brooklyn Navy Yard, there was the same absence of self exploitation
that had signaled the services of the Cinderellas from the first
day they began writing glowing pages of new achievement against new
enemies.