Admiral Bishop, watching this exhibition, grasped for the first time what it really meant. As the unfailing precision with which the destroyer tracked her quarry became more and more apparent, his enthusiasm grew till his eyes fairly sparkled with delight. He shook hands with Commander Rich and congratulated him heartily on the splendid equipment which his division had installed in the ships.
After that it was only natural that, when the report of the test had been made, a motor-boat equipped with a radio compass should be set aside for the drilling of operators. And in the wake of this reform there naturally followed similar methods for the drilling of personnel in the use of hydrophones of all sorts, and all manner of special apparatus.
About a fortnight after this convincing demonstration on Chesapeake Bay, the Sheridan, a brand-new scout cruiser, was steaming back to the Boston Navy Yard after making her speed trial at Rockland, Maine. She was the first of a new batch of scout cruisers being rushed to completion, and in speed and every other important essential for this type of craft she was the last word. She was, of course, equipped with a radio compass of the latest model, and before the trip to Rockland this had been carefully tested and calibrated. In view of the importance attached to this apparatus since the demonstration on the Chesapeake, a radio gunner named Long had been sent by the Bureau of Engineering to stay on board throughout this trip and check the work of the operators to be sure that both they and the apparatus were dependable for purposes of navigation. On the way to Rockland, Long had seized every opportunity of taking bearings on stations along the coast. The results had delighted the navigator, who saw that in every case he could depend on the bearings given.
Now, on the return trip, the navigator had occasion to be especially glad of the pains Long had taken, for a thick fog shut in soon after they passed Monhegan Island; every adjunct that could help him in his important duty of fixing the ship’s position was more than welcome.
Late in the afternoon the captain, the navigator, and the officer of the deck stood on the bridge straining their eyes ahead into the dense, wet fog.
“Captain,” said the navigator, “I think we’d better get some radio-compass bearings; my dead-reckoning shows us about ten miles from Cape Ann, and we don’t want to go much closer without checking our position.”
“Very well,” said the captain, “you may instruct the radio room to get the bearings.”
A signal was sent out, and in less than five minutes a full report from the radio room was handed to the officer of the deck on the bridge. It read as follows:
Cape Cod reports bearing 338°, Gloucester reports bearing 73°, Fourth Cliff radio compass temporarily out of commission; ship’s own radio compass gives bearing of Boston Navy Yard transmitter 242°.
With alacrity the navigator plotted on the chart the position thus given.