m*- w - Clpdigital.org

SMOKE GUN BAFFLES U-BOATS 181
with smoke helmets, not unlike those used in the trenches to offset the use of the
deadly gas bombs of the Germans. These are to be donned immediately. All
doors and windows of the Lakonia must be closed tightly to keep the smoke out,
and the Captain of the vessel must rise to the occasion, and change the course of
his vessel in order that the smoke will be carried away from it. The changing of
course is not an unfrequent occurrence in these days of submarine warfare. With
the impenetrable smoke wall shielding it and the submarine helpless, the would-be
victim is enabled to take any course its master chooses, and by continually throwing
out the smoke screen, keep the waters masked for days at a time.
THE DONALDSON FREIGHTER, LAKONIA
Captain Mitchell would not reveal the nature of the chemicals used in generating
this smoke veil. In fact he declared he could not do so, for the nature of them
or their names have never been made known to him. He said he was notified that
the British Admiralty was about to install a new apparatus aboard, and did so.
He and his officers were then instructed in the use of it. The turning of a small
lever on the bridge or in the pilot house automatically released the acids, and so
long as the valve is open, the acids continue to drain slowly into the smoke vat.
That the Lakonia is at Baltimore and not among the scores of vessels sent to
the bottom of the Atlantic by a torpedo fired by a German submarine is due to
the smoke gun. One day out, a submarine gave chase. The U-Boat was making
for the Lakonia when Captain Mitchell ordered the smoke gun fired, and the little
lever in the pilot house was turned. The chemical reaction started immediately. For
a few moments only a thin curl of smoke poured from the "gun," but within the
next couple of minutes as more acid was fed into the vat, the smoke increased in
volume, until it was vomiting forth and covering the sea. It was not long, before
the entire vessel was on one side of the smoke cloud and the submersible on the
other.