ip two torpedoes at 3000 yards' range,
and both missed, the range being too long but they did not care
to come any nearer, as they believed the ship to be well armed.

They prefer to fire at 500 to 700 yards, which means that at this
range the track or "wake" of a projectile would be discernible
for, say, twenty-five to thirty seconds--not much time, indeed,
for any ship to get out of the way. At 100 yards' range or less
they do not care to fire unless compelled to, as the torpedo is
nearly always discharged when the submarine is lying ahead of the
object, _i. e._, to hit the ship coming up to it; it follows that
a gun forward is more useful than one aft, the gun aft being of
real service when a submarine starts shelling, which she will do
for choice from aft the ship rather than from forward of her,
where she would be in danger of being run over and rammed.

CHAPTER XVI

SUBMARINE WARFARE

At the moment of writing these words the outcome of the greatest war
the world has ever known is believed by many to hang upon the
success with which the Allies can meet and defeat the campaign of
the German submarines. The German people believe this absolutely.
The Allies and their sympathizers grudgingly admit that they are
only too fearful that it may be true.

To such a marvellous degree of military efficiency has the ingenuity
of man brought these boats which so recently as our Civil War were
still in the vaguest experimental stage and scarcely possessed of
any offensive power whatsoever!

Nevertheless these machines had reached a degree of development, and
had demonstrated their dangerous character so early in the war that
it was amazing that the British were so slow in comprehending the
use that might be made of them in cutting off British commerce. It
is true that the first submarine actions redounded in their results
entirely to British credit. In September of 1914 a British submarine
ran gallantly into Heligoland Bay and sank the German light cruiser
_Hela_ at her moorings. Shortly after the Germans sought retaliation
by attacking a British squadron, but the effort miscarried. The
British cruiser _Birmingham_ caught a glimpse of her wake and with a
well-aimed shot destroyed her periscope. The submarine dived, but
shortly afterwards came up again making what was called a porpoise
dive--that is to say, she came up just long enough for the officer