AMERICAN SUB-CHASERS AT CORFU, GREECE
Eleven of these boats took part in the attack on Durazzo, the Austrian naval base in the Adriatic.
A FLOCK OF SUB-CHASERS WITH THEIR MOTHER SHIP
The U. S. S. Melville with sub-chasers at Queenstown.
A water buoy, with 50-fathom wire cable, was dropped near the spot, lanterns were hung on it; and the chasers got into position for the night. At times the listeners reported that the U-boat crew made attempts to start their motors. The next morning a few faint sounds were heard, and at last there came a noise of firing as if from revolvers or rifles, first three, then 22 shots. After this, nothing was heard, though the chasers remained on the scene all afternoon. They had been there thirty hours from the time the attack began. The chaser crews firmly believed that the U-boat's crew perished in their steel tomb, which sank to the bottom, never to rise again.
The best evidence of the good work done by our vessels at Plymouth is the fact, shown by official records, that from June 30th to the end of August, during which time our sub-chasers were covering the area between Start Point and Lizard Head, not a single Allied or merchant ship was attacked nor were any mines laid by the U-boats. This was in a section where some months before sinkings were of almost daily occurrence. After August, when many of our boats were withdrawn for duty farther to the westward, several ships were attacked and sunk, and mine-laying, though on a small scale, was resumed. This is regarded as conclusive proof that it was our little sub-chasers which made that area safe for Allied shipping in that important period.
While at Gibraltar, on their way to Corfu, the thirty chasers under command of Captain Nelson engaged in several hunts, on May 17, 1918, locating and chasing a U-boat to a point 12 miles northeast of Gibraltar. On June 13th, four of them formed patrol line to guard the commercial anchorage against a submarine which had been sighted.
Eighteen sub-chasers were sent to the Mediterranean to patrol the Gibraltar Barrage, and though they were on that duty only from Nov. 6th to 11th, Admiral Niblack reported that they made four contacts and three attacks, and that one was particularly well conducted and it was "highly probable submarine was damaged, and possibly destroyed."