96 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



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a large squadron equally capable. No 

 matter how superior and numerous our 

 mines might be, the success of the barrier 

 depended on its being properly planted. 



NO TIME TO WASTE 



There was no time to waste. Eight 

 merchant ships of suitable size, speed, 

 and condition were soon taken over; a 

 special training camp for their officers 

 and men was established under the direc- 

 tion of the San Francisco, and the Balti- 

 more took up experimenting with various 

 features of the new mine. 



The captains and officers of the new 

 ships were ordered in connection with 

 converting them, taking some of the Du- 

 buque's officers, since she would not be 

 employed. 



Commander Johnson was sent over to 

 London at the same time with Captain 

 Murfin, with a long memorandum of in- 

 formation to bring back as soon as he 

 could — everything we could think of as 

 useful to know about the preparations 

 and local conditions at the base from 

 which we were to work. 



One most important step for early set- 

 tlement was to provide elevators in the 

 new ships. In a ship about 400 feet long, 

 the size of ours, about four-fifths the 

 length is available for installing mine 

 tracks. Four such tracks on one deck 

 hold about 350 mines, and, using two or 

 more decks for mines, the total load could 

 be increased accordingly (see page 105). 



Four new ships could thus carry 860 

 mines each, two of them 610, and the re- 

 maining two 350 each. With 350 more 

 in the San Francisco and Baltimore, we 

 would have a total of 5,700, giving a rea- 

 sonable margin over the requisite 5,000, 

 for contingencies. 



If all the mines in a ship could be 

 raised to the launching deck rapidly 

 enough for all to be planted in a continu- 

 ous string, it would result in a great sav- 

 ing of time and great saving of space in 

 the mine-field area, besides making better 

 mine fields than if the mines were laid 

 one deck-load at a time, in comparatively 

 short strings. 



The British had tried elevators, but 

 with little satisfaction. For our ships, 

 Naval Constructor Beuret called in the 

 Otis Elevator Company's representatives 



