94 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



,rr"..:v. 



LIGHTERS CONTAINING MINES GOING ALONGSIDE THE SAN ERANCISCO, FLAGSHIP 

 OE THE AMERICAN SQUADRON! INVERNESS ElRTH, SCOTLAND 



The San Francisco and the Baltimore each carried 350 mines at a time, while four new ships 

 could carry 860 each, two others 610 each, and the remaining two 350 (see text, page 96). 



Our Captain Murfin was sent over in 

 November, 19 17, to supervise the prepa- 

 ration of these bases and be in charge of 

 them when completed. The buildings, 

 grounds, and adjacent vacant land of two 

 idle distilleries afforded good accommo- 

 dation for offices, men's quarters, mess- 

 rooms, kitchens, and storage and ample 

 space for erecting the mine assembly and 

 storage plant. 



When finished, these bases could to- 

 gether prepare 1,000 mines a day. Cap- 

 tain Murfin had twenty officers and a 

 thousand men at each base and two out- 

 lying detachments, of three officers and 

 sixty men each, at the unloading points — 

 Fort William and Kyle. 



With every reason to establish the 

 mine-field barrier at the earliest possible 

 date, the estimated rate at which the new 

 mines could be manufactured was taken 

 as the basis for determining the capacity 

 of the new mine-laying squadron. 



It was expected that the output would 

 be 1,000 mines a day, and that one mine- 

 laying operation could be accomplished 

 at best in five days for the round trip. 



Hence the mine-laying squadron should 

 have an aggregate capacity of 5,000 

 mines. 



THE MINE SQUADRON 



We had two ships to begin with — the 

 San Francisco, Capt. Henry V. Butler, 

 and the Baltimore, Capt. Albert W. Mar- 

 shall. They were fine old war horses, 

 dating back 28 years, but sound in wind 

 and limb and as responsive as any thor- 

 oughbred. They and the. gunboat Du- 

 buque, Commander T. L. Johnson, a ves- 

 sel much too small for the North Sea 

 operation, constituted the original mine 

 squadron under my command. 



We had been developing and training 

 in the art of mine-laying for over two 

 years and were prepared to undertake 

 any operation of the kind. As if in an- 

 ticipation of this very war operation, we 

 had planted a three-line mine field just 

 below Sandy Hook one fine day in De- 

 cember, 1916 — 200 loaded mines. We did 

 not tell the press about it, as it might have 

 caused anxiety, and we took them all up 

 next day. 



