Dummy Ships That Fooled the Germans 



Their "suicide fleet" of imita- 

 tion dreadnoughts a huge joke 



Because of their utter helplessness in the event of attack, the British naval officers who 

 knew of this wooden hoax referred to the fleet as "The British Suicide Squadron" 



THE sinking of two wooden 'dread- 

 noughts' by Great Britain, some 

 days ago, to form a breakwater, 

 brings up more evidence of what disposi- 

 tion is being made of the dummy fleet 

 of fourteen battleships with which Great 

 Britain fooled Germany for some fifteen 

 months during the earlier part of the war. 



This titanic war jest, which was re- 

 cently exposed by Lieutenant Henry 

 Clay Foster, with the consent of the 

 British Admiralty, completely deceived 

 not only the Germans, but the English 

 people themselves. No one in England 

 was able to explain how the Germans 

 could claim to have sunk the Agamem- 

 non at the Dardanelles, when the 

 Admiralty had admitted, officially, the 

 sinking of only the Goliath and "some 

 supply ships." 



Germany rejoiced over this supposed 

 sinking of the Agamemnon. But they 

 must have wondered why the turrets 

 and "guns" of the sunken dreadnought 

 floated, for days, in the Dardanelles. 



Lieutenant Foster states that the 



dummy battleships were converted from 

 old third-class passenger ships of the 

 Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, 

 which were enrolled in the English Navy. 



In an Irish port, says Lieutenant Foster, 

 the dummy battleships were painted in 

 exactly the same hue as the vessels of 

 which they were counterfeits. Canvas 

 was stretched over the decks and painted 

 gray, and the upper decks and equip- 

 ments finished in every detail to resemble 

 the Grand Fleet ships so that any foreign 

 aviator — or any British one, for that 

 matter — flying overhead, would never 

 suspect he was looking down upon any 

 other than a member of the Grand Fleet. 



Turrets and guns were all made of 

 wood, with a careful exactitude in their 

 outer color and finish. There was nothing 

 real about the ships, so far as war pur- 

 poses were concerned, except the brass 

 trimmings, which were kept shining, as 

 on a battleship, and some lifeboats, in 

 which the crew were required to drill. 

 The ships had neither speed nor defenses. 

 Not one carried a real gun. 



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