A "Mosquito Fleet" of motor boats was mobilized at New York in September, 1916, to be drilled as an auxiliary naval defense A considerable part of the $115,000,000 naval emergency fund was used to construct small craft such as these The liner "La Touraine" coming into an American port. The gun mounted on the stern is the French answer to submarines The British "sea-wasps"submarine chasers, mosquito fleet, "stabbers" are some of their other names-have been England's effective answer to the German undersea attack. They were built by the Submarine Boat Corporation in this country, 550 of them; they mount 3-inch, rapid-fire guns, their speed is twentytwo miles an hour, and because they draw only four and a half feet of water they are immune from torpedo attack. The "sea-wasps" work in conjunction with an aeroplane to locate the submarines New York Harbor is thoroly mined: "Most elaborate and intricate mine field ever de vised will safeguard nation's water gate," is one headline description. It sounds extrahazardous for harbor tugboats till you stop to think that there are mines, and mines. These are not contact mines, of course; their menace is latent until, or unless, necessity for defense arises, and the coast artillery engineers are given the word to set them off. At the left the commander of our submarine fleet, Rear-Admiral Grant American Press (5) |