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KITE BALLOONS WITH THE FLEET.

BY JOHN MACKWORTH.

SOME description has already been given of the way in which kite balloons first came to be used with ships at sea. The combination was an original one, and the success of the extemporised arrangements was sufficiently striking to open a vision of further possibilities. To some, at any rate, it was evident that if the kite balloon could be sufficiently improved, it might become a very valuable accessory to the Fleet. At that time-1915-aerial reconnaissance at sea was almost wholly lacking. Seaplanes were capricious in their behaviour, and, with the possible exception of Campania, there was no aircraft carrier capable of keeping station with the Fleet at battle speed. Our own airships were small, few in number, and helpless in rough weather, while, on the other hand, the Germans had Zeppelins; imperfect, it is true, but far more airworthy than anything we possessed. They could, weather permitting, keep our ships in sight while their own lay far over the horizon, thus putting us at a serious disadvantage, and turning the pursuit of their Fleet into a game of blind man's buff.

The kite balloon never claimed to be a complete reply to the Zeppelin. What it did do was to provide an enor

mously extended field of vision, coupled with reliable communication, which last was a point of very great importance.

But to produce a balloon capable of towing with the Fleet was a matter not altogether simple. Conditions in the Northern waters were far different from those in Gallipoli, where the first trials were made. Great winds boomed aloft, buffeting the balloons with the weight of many tons, and in the early experiments the cables snapped like carrots. One can picture the risks by remembering how even so small a thing as an umbrella can assert itself in a gale, and how many old ladies have been saved from disaster only by the runaway providentially turning inside out at the last moment. A balloon is larger than many umbrellas: a huge thing of rubbered fabric, comparable in size to a good-sized house. It rides far overhead, where there are no obstacles to temper the force of the wind, and, moreover, has to meet not only this, but the added speed of the ship itself, if the latter is towing against it; while the cable, which bears the whole strain, is a stranded steel wire, no thicker than a man's little finger.

As a general rule, the greater the altitude, the higher is the

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wind, though this is not invariable. With easterly breezes the reverse may be the case, and the wind-speed on deck be actually the greater. But with the westerly currents common in these isles, it is a safe assumption that, at a thousand feet, the deck speed will be increased by 15 or 20 knots.

This was a point which the mariner, standing in the partial shelter of his bridge, did not always appreciate; and there were times when he questioned the judgment of the balloon officer in refusing to send up observers. There was only one way of convincing him on such occasions, and that was to induce him to make the trip himself.

To be towed thus by a fast warship is an experience not easily forgotten. So long as the surface craft is steaming down wind, the conditions are strangely restful. Even with a half gale following, the balloon only lies out ahead of the ship, and the wind force is reduced to a gentle breeze. Looking down on the white-fringed vessel below, it seems pleasant to be removed from all the spray and tumult.

Pleasant enough it is till the ship alters course. Then comes a change. The wind, which has been humming musically in the rigging, suddenly takes a shriller note. The dangling side-guys slope astern, and the car gives an ominous swing. The sounds in the cordage rise like a syren, from a hum to a whistle, and from a whistle to a scream.

Every line, block, and rope adds its voice to the pandemonium; the handling guys on either side stand out like solid bars, and the long curve of the cable flattens and exudes an oily sweat. The balloon crouches under the strain, and, recovering itself, roars through the wind like a mad thing; while the uninitiated observer, with streaming eyes and probably minus his cap, clings to the side of the car, and waits for something to carry away.

In short, the first experience is not all joy; yet granting (as with a modern balloon is the case) that the system is adequate to standing the strain, there is no cause for apprehension. The materials are of tremendous strength, and the car is comfortable and protected by a tightly-stretched covering of impermeable fabric. Moreover, through all the racket of the elements, the balloon, once settled on its course, rides with a steadiness that is almost uncanny, so that in the roughest weather good observation possible.

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It is when the monster is brought near the deck that it is apt to become refractory. To see a balloon hauled in on a windy day reminds one of a groom trying to hold a plunging horse with a headstall. Yet, like a horse, a balloon can be "humoured "; it all depends who is in charge.

But at best the last hundred feet are apt to be trying, and even the hardened stomachs of sailors have been known to

revolt. Indeed, one admiral who braved the trial was landed on his quarter-deck only just soon enough to give him time to reach his cabin before disaster overtook him.

The German type of balloon, with its sausage-shaped body and clumsy parachute tail, was wholly incapable of facing the stern conditions of the North Sea. Nevertheless, it was the only thing available for trial at the outset, and like a vast aerial dachshund, it was dragged through the windy skies as long as it could be kept on the lead. Through its sufferings came success, but this would never have been realised except for the vigorous support of Admiral de Robeck, who constituted himself a father of balloons in the Fleet, and for the energy and initiative of a few picked officers of the Naval Air Service, who were sent north with the elastic order, "Do the best you can."

The first operations in home waters in which the balloons took part were off the Belgian coast, and bore some resemblance to those in the Dardanelles. Yet, between Gallipoli and the Belgian coast there was a wide difference. The conditions off the latter were seldom ideal; fog and mist were prevalent, and the shore bristled with guns. Moreover, the sallyports of the German ships lay near at hand, and generally, there was too much possibility of unpleasantness for the leisurely methods of the earlier days to be employed with

safety. Whatever ship was to operate, it was desirable that she should be able to produce, or dispose of, a balloon with the maximum celerity. To this end, the City of Oxford was designed. Like Manica, she was originally a tramp steamer, and having suffered a similar mutilation, she was provided with an inflation system of a startling, even alarming, design. This consisted of a number of "low pressure (150 lb.) tanks, holding in all a hundred thousand cubic feet of hydrogen, which is enough to fill a balloon. They were connected to a huge standpipe in the centre of the foredeck, and were able, if called upon, to deliver the whole quantity of gas in a single mighty belch. Deflation was slower, the gas being pumped back into the tanks; but in cases of emergency the balloon could be instantly ripped. For some reason the apparatus made a special appeal to the officer in command, possibly because of its favourable comparison with the cruder system of the Manica, in which it had taken two hours to inflate a balloon. At any rate, he was frequently to be seen, stop-watch in hand, exhorting the man at the gas controls to greater deeds in the effort to beat his own record; and daily on his decks the balloon burst quicker and quicker into bud. It was natural that this strange performance should attract the attention of the authorities on shore, and in due course a

signal was received that a very eminent official was coming on board to see what it was all about. He duly arrived, and misled perhaps by a national reputation for discretion, invited the commanding officer, who was a Scotsman, to give a display. One can only record that everything worked admirably.

The balloon appeared with such suddenness that the high official shied like a startled horse, and the roar of its birth could be heard many miles away. The commanding officer was well satisfied; So apparently was the high official, who immediately left the ship. Shortly afterwards the City of Oxford received a letter from Their Lordships of the Admiralty, thanking the Scotsman for his exhibition, but expressly forbidding him to repeat it. Apparently this was the record performance; at any rate, there is no trace of a yet swifter inflation, and the City of Oxford settled down to work with the monitors off the Belgian coast. Theirs was no easy task. From Nieuport to the Scheldt the long muzzles of the enemy's guns peered out to sea, and every device for protection and concealment was employed. Camouflage, dummy redoubts, and false flashes served to mislead; earthworks of enormous strength to protect; and aeroplanes, submarines, and even fast surface craft, to counter attack. The whole system on this coast was, in fact, so formidable and elaborate that the king, always interested in

such matters, paid a special visit to inspect it after the war.

It was because the enemy recognised his right wing to be a sensitive spot that he protected it so thoroughly, and for the same reason he took care, when molested, to hit back with the maximum vigour. Lying out on the flat leadcoloured sea, the monitors presented an almost ideal target; and as heavier and heavier pieces were mounted on shore, they were pressed farther and farther out, till the limit of their extreme range was reached. Knowing the trajectory of their guns, the Germans had been at pains to bring up others which would outrange them, and, having done so, considered that the matter should be at an end. So it might have been, but for some fertile brain which conceived the idea of mounting 12-inch naval guns near Dunkirk, from which position they could reach the Germans easily. The simple device of painting the monitor white and providing her with an extra canvas funnel deceived the Germans into the belief that she was a new and more devastating brand; and while the City of Oxford spotted for the guns on shore, the monitor, lying well out of range, industriously fired blank. It does not seem to have occurred to the enemy to notice which way the shells were coming from, and they spent a great deal of ammunition trying to reach her. At length, desperate at the pounding, they sent forth a call for

their light forces to come out servers whisked heavenwards deal with their persecutors, and the gay deceivers might have met with a certain, if glorious, end, had not the City of Oxford picked up the signal, together with the reply that the German ships were coming. It seemed wise to depart, for three knots, though a round speed in its class, is not much use against destroyers; so after passing the glad news on to Harwich, the balloon-ship and the monitor waddled off home, leaving the Germans with their curiosity unsatisfied, and several days' supply of ammunition blown into the sea.

It was at about this time that experiments were beginning with the Grand Fleet. The first ship to be fitted with a kite balloon was the aircraft carrier Campania. Being an ex - Cunard liner, there was plenty of space in her, and in due course Campania received this notable addition to her complement of seaplanes. It must be admitted that his new command caused her captain some anxiety. Seaplanes he recked of; indeed he flew one himself, and though they had their disadvantages, he knew pretty well what to expect. But entrusted with this gigantic bubble on the end of a string, his seaman's heart descended into his boots. Visions of seaplanes entangled in the cable crowded his dreams of sheets of flame and frightful explosions from stray sparks from the funnel, and of ob

and vanishing into space. Nor were his nightmares entirely without foundation. The equipment was primitive, and the balloons were called upon to face a buffeting that they were not designed to stand. One ripped its cable from the winch and landed in Norway; a second broke free and was lost for ever, and other setbacks of a like kind occurred. Yet Campania's captain persisted in his task: sending up observers when the weather was good, and ballast only when conditions were dangerous. No lives were lost, nor was any one injured, while from every failure something new was learnt. Work was going on apace at the Admiralty also, and new types of balloon began to emerge. The sausage was transformed into an egg, and the egg sprouted queer-looking fins and shed its tail of parachutes. Finally came the three-tailed "M" type, the invention of a Frenchman, far superior to anything that had gone before. The Fleet began to take notice. Up till now the balloons had been regarded mainly with amusement: it was entertaining to watch them, and pleasant to organise sweepstakes on the time that would elapse before they broke away. No one was very anxious to go up in one, the prospects of a free run and a bath in the North Sea being insufficiently attractive, even in

summer. But with the arrival of the new type came

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