on of these
friendly ships, almost within our own territorial waters, by an
arrogant foreigner who gave himself no concern over the rescue of
the crews of the sunken ships but seemed to think that the function
of the American men of war. It was no secret at the time that
sentiment in the Navy was strongly pro-Ally. Probably had it been
wholly neutral the mind of any commander would have revolted at this
spectacle of wanton destruction of property and callous indifference
to human life. It is quite probable that had this event occurred
before the invention of wireless telegraphy had robbed the navy
commander at sea of all initiative, there might have happened off
Nantucket something analogous to the famous action of Commodore
Tatnall when with the cry, "Blood is thicker than water" he took a
part of his crew to the aid of British vessels sorely pressed by the
fire of certain Chinese forts on the Yellow River. As it was it is
an open secret that one commander appealed by wireless to Washington
for authority to intervene. He did not get it of course. No
possible construction of international law could give us rights
beyond the three-mile limit. He had at least however the
satisfaction when the German commander asked him to move his ship to
a point at which it would not interfere with the submarine's fire
upon one of the doomed vessels, of telling him to move his own ship
and accompanying the suggestion with certain phrases of elaboration
thoroughly American.

The rapid development of submarine warfare naturally made it
necessary to find ways and means to combat this new weapon of naval
warfare. Much difficulty was experienced, especially in the
beginning, because there were no precedents and because for a
considerable period everything that was tried had necessarily to be
of an experimental nature.

To protect harbours and bays was found comparatively easy. Nets were
spread across their entrances. They were made of strong wire cables
and to judge from the total absence of submarines within the
harbours thus guarded they proved a successful deterrent. In most
cases they were supported by extensive minefields. The danger of
these to submarines, however, is rather a matter of doubt, for
submarines can dive successfully under them and by careful
navigating escape unharmed.

The general idea of fighting submarines with nets was also adopted
for areas of open water which were suspected of being infested with
submarines. Re