mine-sweeping fleets

for clearing away the mines dropped by an enemy special vessels are employed. each vessel is fitted on both sides with a curious contrivance known as the “picking-up gear.” this apparatus is lowered into the water, and “picks up” any mines which may lie in the path of an on-coming fleet. when a mine-field is discovered by either destroyers or seaplanes these vessels are immediately dispatched to destroy it; and they are aided, in the case of the british navy, by a large flotilla of steam trawlers. many of these auxiliary vessels are not fitted with the picking-up gear, but go to work in pairs. two vessels, connected together by a long wire rope weighted in 180the centre to keep it submerged, range themselves on each side of a mine-field, and by steaming ahead in a parallel line sweep up the mines floating between them. this process can be carried on simultaneously by a large number of trawlers, covering a very wide area of sea. in the meantime the attached destroyers and seaplanes can be searching for new fields. it often happens during sweeping operations that mines are brought into contact with each other and violent explosions occur. sometimes the vessels engaged in this hazardous work will themselves strike one of the mines, but it is more often the searching flotillas which meet with sudden disaster in this way. fully equipped mine-sweepers usually precede a fleet of battleships and big cruisers through dangerous and narrow seas, within the likely zone of hostile mines.

the british mine-sweeping fleet comprises the following vessels:—circe (810 tons), jason (810 tons), speedy (810 181tons), 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 182estimated 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 183comparatively 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.