Page:Victory at Sea - William Sowden Sims and Burton J. Hendrick.djvu/213

1918] invariably referred to the enemy as the "Hun"; the slogan on which he insisted as the guiding principle of his flotilla was "get the Hun before he has a chance to get us." He had the supreme gift of firing his subordinates with the same spirit that possessed himself; and the vigilance, the constant activity, and the courage of the subchasers' crews admirably supplemented the sailor-like qualities of the man who commanded them.

I have already referred to the sea-going abilities of the subchasers; but the feat accomplished by those that made the trip to Corfu was the most admirable of all. These thirty-six boats, little more than motor launches in size, sailed from New London to Greece a distance of 6,000 miles ; and, a day or two after their arrival, they began work on the Otranto barrage. Of course they could not have made this trip without the assistance of vessels to supply them with gasolene, make the necessary routine repairs, care for the sick and those suffering from the inevitable minor accidents ; and it is greatly to the credit of the naval officers who commanded the escorting vessels that they shepherded these flotillas across the ocean with practically no losses. On their way through the Straits of Gibraltar they made an attack on a submarine which so impressed Admiral Niblack that he immediately wired London headquarters for a squadron to be permanently based on that port.

As already said, the Otranto Strait was an ideal location for this type of anti-submarine craft. It was so narrow—about forty miles—that a force of moderate size could keep practically all of the critical zone under fairly close observation. Above all, the water was so deep—nearly 600 fathoms (3,600 feet)—that a submarine, once picked up by the listening devices, could not escape by the method which was so popular in places where the water was shallow—that of sinking to the bottom and resting there until the excitement was over. On the other hand, this great depth made it very difficult to obstruct the passage by a fixed barrier—a difficulty that was being rapidly overcome by a certain Franco-Italian type of torpedo net. This barrage, after the arrival of our chasers, was so reorganized as to make the best use of their tactical and listening qualities. The several lines of patrolling vessels extended about thirty-five miles; there were vessels of