Signals between convoy and escort are to be done by the besides code. Do signals only if necessary. The last ship in each line don’t show any stern lights be ready to show navigation lights if necessary.
Zigzags are to be done according to the orders of the escort’s do (see diagramms besides). All the ships show the flag K. Manœuvring is to be executed only when the K is getting down all the ships do K, is to be taken like the origin of the diagramm, which is to be sailed by the beginning. Manœuvre when the signal gets down or when the least stations according to the regular numerotage.
By fog, and on order of the escort if necessary by WT, each column will steer like a special line each behind the escort ships on the same side. The right line will then steer ten degrees right hand and the left line five degrees left hand from the primitive curse of the convoy.
Escort and convoy ships are ordered not to bring anything overboard. Burn all you can and if impossible to burn, bring overboard rubbish altogether at once in the beginning of night. All the rubbish spread over the sea are precious indice for the submarine to know the curse of the convoy.
During the rest of the winter and through the spring of 1918, the Corsair was with the convoys and continued to base in the Gironde. The work seemed humdrum and monotonous to the crews, who pined for excitement and encounters, but this very fact was proof that the Navy was achieving the result expected of it, which was to keep the road open to France. Submarines ran amuck now and then and strafed a coastwise convoy of slow ships or sank an empty transport homeward bound, but never for a moment was the prodigious movement of troops and material interfered with or delayed. Grouping the steamers together and screening them with escort vessels, as far as possible, had baffled the high hopes of Von Tirpitz and his murderous gang.
The captains of these ships which moved deep-laden through the war zone were learning the tricks of the trade and intelligently adapting themselves to the exactions of the convoy system. Admiral Sims said of them:
The advantages of the convoy were so apparent to me that, despite the pessimistic attitude of the merchant captains, there were a number of officers in the British navy who kept insisting that it should be tried. In the discussion I took my stand emphatically on the side of this school. From the beginning I had believed in this method for combating the U-boat warfare. Certain early experiences had led me to believe that the merchant captains were wrong in underestimating the quality of their own seamanship. These intelligent and hardy men did not know what splendid ship handlers they were. In my discussions with them they had disclosed an exaggerated idea of the seamanly ability of naval officers in manœuvring their large fleets. They attributed this to the superior training of the men and the special qualities of the ships. “Naval vessels are built so they can keep station and turn at any angle at a moment’s notice,” they would say, “but we have no men in our ships who can do such things.” They particularly rejected the idea that when in formation they could manœuvre their ships in fog or at night without lights. They believed they would lose more ships through collision than the submarines could sink.
AMERICAN YACHTS CLUSTERED INSIDE THE BREAKWATER, BREST
As a matter of fact, these men were entirely wrong and I knew it. Their practical experience in handling ships of all sizes, shapes, and speeds under a great variety of conditions is in reality much more extensive than naval officers could possibly enjoy. I was sure that they could quickly pick up steaming and turning in formation under the direction of naval officers, the convoy commander being always a naval officer. Indeed, one of my experienced destroyer commanders reported afterwards that while he was escorting a convoy of twenty-eight ships of different sizes, shapes, speeds, nationalities, and manœuvring qualities, they kept their stations quite as well as battleships. This ability was displayed when the convoy executed two fleet evolutions in order to avoid a submarine.