"_The foredeck boat opened beautifully like a lily and the gun came up, with its crew gathered round it._ The twelve-pounder was not a second behind its smaller relative. Her gunlayer, too, was a useful man. He planted a yellow-rigged shell immediately at the base of Fritz's conning-tower. It exploded there with deafening report and great gouts of water flew upwards with dark patches amongst the foam."
By my friends I was disparaged for foolishness in not putting forward a claim for compensation in connection with these ideas, followed by an accepted invention of recognised utility. In the U.S.A. in the spring of 1919 I heard this invention considerably lauded; in New York, Boston, and Washington. It was also described and illustrated in certain American periodicals.
If the figures given by Admiral Sims are true estimates, and, say, only twenty-five submarines were sunk by the direct assistance of this simple contrivance, then it follows that about 1,000,000 tons of shipping were saved each year it was in active use.
Eventually I communicated with Admiral W. R. Hall, C.B., through whom I had submitted my suggestions in the first instance. From him I received a charming letter in which he regretted the matter had passed beyond his department. Therefore on January 26th, 1920, I wrote to the Secretary of the Admiralty referring by number to previous letters conveying the _secret_ thanks of the Lords of the Admiralty to me in 1915 and asking him whether (now that the war was over) I was entitled to any recognition for this invention, and if so, how and to whom I should apply.
I wrote again on April 29th, asking for a reply to my previous letter, but being only a civilian, I suppose he did not consider either myself or the subject matter I enquired about worthy even of simple acknowledgment.
THE SINKING OF THE "LUSITANIA" BY GERMAN TREACHERY
HOW THE DASTARDLY DEED WAS PLANNED--COMMEMORATION MEDAL PREMATURELY DATED--SINKING ANNOUNCED IN BERLIN BEFORE THE VESSEL WAS ATTACKED--GERMAN JOY AT THE OUTRAGE--BRITISH SECRET CODE STOLEN--VIOLATIONS OF AMERICAN NEUTRALITY--FALSE MESSAGES--AUTHORITY FOR THE FACTS.
So long as the memory of mortal man endures, this dastardly act of German treachery will never be forgotten.