The Electrical experimenter

20 THE ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTER May, 1917
LlEUTEXAXT Commander Parker,
U.S. submarine F-609.' Our
torpedoes useless. Proceed at
mce and see if you can do anything.
Enemy's defense perfect.
-Admiral Gregg, U.S.X.,
Commanding Flotilla."
I glanced up from reading this message,
scrawled on a scrap of paper, to ask Parker
what it meant, but lie was not there. I
heard him in tlie forward compartment
issuing orders in his rapid-fire manner.
It puzzled me, this brief dispatch which
Parker had translated from the muddle of
code words that had come in over my
wireless. Could it be that the great fleet
of submarines now in mid-Atlantic, supposed
to be torpedoing the enemy's fleet
"Eddy Currents"
By C. M. ADAMS
we went out, thirty-two knots an hour,
headed for the open sea.
As we went I picked up a message with
my wireless which seemed to be related to
the information in the code message Billy
had received. It was a press dispatch and
read
"There is a report that the defensive
submarine flotilla which was to meet the
imperial fleet in mid-ocean, is helpless because
of the excellent defense of the imperial
fleet against torpedo attack. The report
says that the submarines have discharged
every torpedo aboard and have not
damaged a single enemy ship.
"The imperial fleet was reported by aeroscouts
to be of si.xteen battleships, together
with eight destroyers and followed
by our navy with its present equipment.
How could we save our country from the
invader? How could we stay off the defeat
which seemed iminent when that wonderfully
trained army got into action
against our meager forces?
I voiced these sentiments when, about
nine o'clock I found Billy standing beside
the conning tower on the open deck, looking
forward over the double wave that
marked our bows.
I felt free to ask Billy Parker much, for
we had been old classmates at the Tech.
school before he went into his electrical
engineering work and I drifted off into
mine, not seeing each other until I dropt
into this craft as its v.'ireless operator
when the call came to me from the navy.
Once Again He Called to Start the Alternator. The Hum of the Machine Sounded and as Before the Switch Was Deprest.
and Found That It Was Held Down Six and a Half IVIinutes.
as it tried to approach our shores, had failed
in its mission? Were the new powerful
torpedoes. loaded with hundreds of pounds
of high explosive, and the great mechanical
fish which launched them, useless as
far as defense was concerned? I wanted
to ask Billy Parker these and many other
questions but he was busy.
An hour after this message had come
buzzing in we cast off our moorings and
were slipping out thru the harbor dotted
with hurrying navy craft. We did not attract
any Lnusual attention, for submarines
were quite common sights in these times.
Soon we past Sandy Hook, thru the line
of patrolling cruisers, then out into the
open sea. Our turbines were purring
smoothly and our drivin.g motors were
spinning like great smooth-running tops as
by twenty transports carrying the invading
army. There are also several enemy aeroplanes
which accompany the enemy fleet."
Evidently something was wrong with the
defense planned by tlie navy officials. The
fifty great under-sea craft were not doing
their duty, which had been to sink as many
of the invader's ships as possible. T puzzled
over this as I sat about waiting for my
call and wondered what we would do now
that our chief defense had gone.
What would happen when the army in
those twenty transports landed on our
shore, unprotected save by the scanty coast
defense guns, made scantier by the appropriation
for submarines, and met our volunteer
army in a pitched battle? This truly
was a surprise, an overwhelming, unexpected
contingency which could not be met
Timed It Now
Wireless operator was all I was good for.
owing to my lame leg.
"What will happen now that our submarines
are helpless?" I asked.
"It's up to the coast defense and the fleet
if we can't stop them," he said, looking
away ahead where the sea rolled under the
faint stars.
Billy confided in me. His showing me
the translated code message proved that.
But this was a new turn.
"If we can't stop them?" I repeated
blankly.
It had not occurred to me that we were
going to try to stop them at all. T did not
know why we were going, but it seemed
obviously impossible for us to do anything
in that direction when the rest of the submarines
had failed.