PICKING INFERNAL MACHINES OUT OF THE SEA
The enemy mine-fields were often located by seaplanes and then mine-sweepers had to undertake the extremely hazardous task of raising the mines or destroying them. If they were of the offensive type, it was much better to destroy them. But occasionally, when conditions permitted, mine-sweepers undertook to raise the mines and reclaim them for future use against the enemy. The work of seizing a mine and making it fast to the hoisting-cable of the mine-sweeper was usually done from a small rowboat. Raising the first mine was always the most perilous undertaking, because no one knew just what type of mine it was and how to handle it with safety, or whether there was any way in which it could be made harmless. There were some mines, for instance, that contained within them a small vial partly filled with sulphuric acid. The mine carried no prongs, but if it were tilted more than twenty degrees the acid would spill out and blow up the mine. Such a mine would be exceedingly difficult if not impossible to handle from a boat that was rocked about by the waves.
After the first mine of the field was raised and its safety-mechanism studied, the task of raising the rest was not so dangerous. A water telescope was used to locate the mine and to aid in hooking the hoisting-cable into the shackle on the mine. The hook was screwed to the end of a pole and after the mine was hooked, the pole was unscrewed and the cable hauled in, bringing up the "devil's egg" bristling with death. Care had to be taken to keep the bobbing boat from touching the delicate prongs until the safety-device could be set.
However, this painstaking and careful method of raising mines was not often employed. Shallow-draft mine-sweepers would run over the mine-field, dragging a cable between them. The cable would be kept down by means of hydrovanes or "water kites" deep enough to foul the anchor cables of the mines. The "water kites" were V-shaped structures that were connected to the cable in such a way that they would nose down as they were dragged through the water and carry the cable under. The action is just the reverse of a kite, which is set to nose up into the wind and carry the kite up when it is dragged through the air. By means of the cable the anchor chain of the mine was caught and then the mine with its anchor was dragged up. If the mine broke loose from its anchor it could be exploded with a rifle-shot if it did not automatically explode on fouling the cable.