The British Mine-Sweeping Fleet comprises the following vessels:—Circe (810 tons), Jason (810 tons), Speedy (810 tons), Leda (810 tons), Gossamer (735 tons), Seagull (735 tons), Skipjack (735 tons), and Speedwell (735 tons).
These eight vessels are obsolete torpedo-gunboats which have been specially fitted out for the work of mine-sweeping. There is also a large flotilla of steam fishing trawlers engaged. Some of these vessels were purchased by the Admiralty before the war, and were also equipped for mine-sweeping; but many others were, by special arrangement, handed over to the Navy on the outbreak of war. The whole of the mine-sweeping fleet is manned by a special section of the Royal Naval Reserve, known as the “Trawler Section,” which consists of about 142 skippers and 1,136 men. This is, of course, in addition to the several thousand naval sailors employed on the regular mine-sweepers, named above, and also to those employed on the large number of additional small steamers taken over for this work by the Admiralty at the commencement of hostilities. It is estimated that the task of keeping the North Sea clear of mines during the first four weeks of the Great War required over 100 vessels and 5,000 sailors, in addition to the usual destroyer and submarine patrols with their crews, and also to the seaplanes with their pilots and observers.
Almost any steamship can be quickly converted into an effective mine-sweeper, and for this reason it is impossible to give here more than the very briefest information concerning the vessels employed in these operations by the other Naval Powers at war. Russia had fifteen special mine-sweeping vessels building when war broke out; but, doubtless, many small merchant ships have since been used for this purpose. France employed a number of mine-sweepers in the Adriatic; and Japan used some in clearing the approaches to Tsing-tau. Germany and Austria, of course, did not need many vessels of this kind, as the Allied Navies laid comparatively few mines and German oversea commerce ceased to exist almost as soon as war was declared. It was in the North Sea, during the first phase of the naval war, that the value of a big British mine-sweeping fleet made itself so wonderfully apparent.
CHAPTER XIV
COMPARATIVE FIGHTING VALUE OF THE SUBMARINE FLEETS AT WAR
Tempered and tried in the forge of war the submarine has at last been lifted from the experimental stage of naval construction to the fore-front of fleets in being. For over twenty years naval experts, marine engineers and scientists have been wrestling with the vast and complex problems of submarine construction, navigation and warfare, and have, at a cost of many lives and many millions sterling, produced submersible warships of steadily increasing size and power, until to-day 264 of these vessels, of over a dozen different and more or less secret designs, with displacements ranging from 100 to 1,000 tons are in the fighting line of the Fleets at war. Thousands of sailors have been trained to fight beneath the seas; torpedoes, guns, engines, and even the air to breath, have been adapted for submarine work. A comparison, therefore, of the strength and fighting power of the submarine fleets engaged for the first time in this great struggle for the mastery of the seas is of more than passing interest.
BRITISH NAVY.
Sea-going Vessels.
| Submarines of 1,000–1,500 tons (“F” class), range 6,000 miles, speed 20/12 knots, armament 6 torpedo tubes and 2 q.-f. guns: (nearly completed) | 6 |
| Submarines of 800 tons (“E” class), range 5,000 miles, speed 16/10 knots, armament 4 torpedo tubes and 2 q.-f. guns: (in commission) | 19 |
| Submarines of 500–600 tons (“D” class), range 4,000 miles, speed 16/10 knots, armament 3 torpedo tubes and 1 q.-f. gun: (in commission) | 8 |
| Submarines of 300–400 tons (“C” class), range 1,700 miles, speed 14/9 knots, armament 2 torpedo tubes: (in commission) | 37 |
| Total Sea-going Submarines | 70 |
Coast Defence Vessels.
| Submarines of 300 tons (“B” class), range 1,000 miles, speed 12/8 knots, armament 2 torpedo tubes: (in commission) | 10 |
| Submarines of 200 tons (“A” class), range 350 miles, speed 11/7 knots, armament 2 torpedo tubes: (in commission) | 8 |
| Total Coast Defence Submarines | 18 |
| —— | |
| Total number of vessels in British Flotillas | 88 |