Page:Jack Heaton, Wireless Operator (Collins, 1919).djvu/198

 was to sink every ship afloat that did not fly the German flag, and soon after this program was agreed to by the war-lords they seemed in a fair way to succeed, for they were sinking ships faster than the Allies and the United States could replace them.

Any number of schemes to beat the U-boats were thought up and while most of them were quite impracticable there were a few that proved effective when put to the test. One way was to build more merchant ships every month than the U-boats could sink and when Uncle Sam put the job into hands this was done. Another plan was to hunt down the U-boats with . A submarine chaser is a small, high-speed boat carrying one or more rapid fire guns.

As you know a submarine can shoot a torpedo at the biggest ship afloat and if it hits her she is sure to sink in a few minutes and yet it is the easiest thing in the world to send a U-boat to the bottom if you can only get a chance to land a shell on her.

Just before we got into the war Germany built two great submarines each of which was over 300 feet long. One of these U-boats was