Page:Victory at Sea - William Sowden Sims and Burton J. Hendrick.djvu/103

1917] alarm was immediately sounded, and presently the battleship Dreadnought, which had seen the periscope, started at full speed for the submarine, rammed the vessel and sent it promptly to the bottom. As it was sinking the bow rose out of the water, plainly disclosing the number U-29. There was not one survivor. Weddingen's attempt was an heroic one, but so disastrous to himself and to his vessel that very few German commanders ever tried to emulate his example. It clearly proved to the German Admiralty that it was useless to attempt to destroy the Grand Fleet with submarines, or even to weaken it piecemeal, and probably this experience had much to do with this new kind of warfare—that of submarines against unprotected merchant ships—which the Germans now proceeded to introduce.

The simple fact is that the battle fleet was never so safe as when it was cruising in the open sea, screened by destroyers. It was far safer when it was sailing thus defiantly, constantly inviting attack, than when it was anchored at its unprotected base at Scapa Flow. Indeed, until Scapa Flow was impregnably protected by booms and mines, the British commanders recognized that cruising in the open sea was its best means of avoiding the German U-boats. No claim is made that the submarine cannot dive under the destroyer screen and attack a battle fleet, and possibly torpedo one or more of its vessels. The illustration which has been given shows that Weddingen nearly " got " the Neptune ; and had this torpedo gone a few feet nearer, his experiment might have shown that, although he subsequently lost his own life, crew, and ship, he had sunk one British battleship, a proceeding which, in war, might have been recognized as a fair exchange. But the point which I wish to emphasize is that the chances of success were so small that the Germans decided that it was not worth while to make the attempt. Afterward, when merchant vessels were formed into convoys, a submarine would occasionally dive under the screen and destroy a ship; but most such attacks were unsuccessful, and experience taught the Germans that a persistent effort of this kind would cause the destruction of so many submarines that their campaign would fail. So the U-boat commanders left the Grand Fleet alone, either because they lacked nerve