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TRAPPING THE PIRATE U-BOAT 831
DIAGRAM OF THE TORPEDO BUOY SYSTEM
Each buoy has one torpedo tube of small size, one rapid-fire gun. and a switch for each of from eight to
fifteen tri-nitro-toluol mines.
supervision of the English Government,
have experimented on the project.
The alternative, a closure of Wilhelmshaven,
Zeebrugge, the Elbe and the
Baltic is near to the impossible, because
of the distance to be bridged, and because
such nets, being practically within
gunshot of the German batteries, would
be subject to continual attack and probable
demolition.
This turns us back to the proposed
250-mile net from the north coast of
Scotland to the southernmost point of
the western Scandinavian peninsula.
From the standpoint of engineers, the
construction of a steel net bomb curtain,
consisting of toughened strands of tenfoot
mesh, with twenty-pound tri-nitrotoluol
bombs sprinkled plentifully enough
up and down the two-hundred-foot depth
and vast width to insure the destruction
of any inquisitive U-boat, is quite simple
in reality, though of course the expense
would be gigantic.
The rub comes not in the building, but
in the maintenance, as in the case of the
W'illielmshaven net, though in the former
instance, from an entirely different
source.
The stretch of water which intervenes
between the two rocky coasts named.
possesses an unenviable reputation for
sudden and violent storms. It approaches
a certainty that once this gigantic
net were placed some storm would
arise that would undo the intensive planning
and work of months. Considering
the speed of construction necessary, the
stretches of wire and bombs would have
to be supported by towers placed far too
sparsely to give any margin of safety.
Then, too, the Germans probably
would perfect the wirecutting contrivance
about wdiich they are boasting now
—this is a spiral many-bladed knife that
projects twenty feet in front of the prow
of the U-boat, and which is engine
driven—for when the German has his
back against the wall for the lack of a
mechanical device, he is not apt to remain
long in that uncomfortable position.
One American inventor, out of the
hordes who now are working upon the
project, has advanced an idea which
may have sufficient practical worth to
merit its being tried out. This plan is,
succinctly stated, instead of the wire and
bomb curtain, which would be at the
mercy of storms and of German ingenuity,
to set a line of buoys across.
(Continued on page 946)