SWEEPERS    WIN    A

FOUR     YEARS

ATTLE



it could be exploded or sunk by rifle-fire. To facilitate cutting, the Admiralty introduced a serrated wire, the effect of which was to saw through the cable. The sweep-wire was towed between a pair of trawlers about 400 yards apart, and held beneath the surface by a heavy kite, which dived under the water when in motion, just as an air kite rises in the wind. In order to cover as wide a front as possible two or more pairs of trawlers might work together.

Germany began her minelaying campaign with a flying start. She is known to have laid 600 mines off the East Coast alone by the end of August, 1914.   Of these, the gallant

trawlers had been able to account for only twelve, at a cost of six ships and over half their crews. During the first two months of the war one trawler was sunk for every five mines swept.

It became clear that while the trawlers were invaluable for the routine sweeping of the traffic lanes, their average draught of 14 feet made them too vulnerable for clearing minefields. For this purpose the Admiralty requisitioned a number of excursionist paddle-steamers, which were moderately fast and drew comparatively little water, while the torpedo-gunboats—little coal-burning ships of 800 tons and more than 20 years old—were