4.

THE CONVOY SYSTEM

The convoy system, under which many merchant vessels travel together,
with or without escort of war craft, was adopted in an extended form in June,
1917. Prior thereto single vessels were frequently escorted, but did not often
travel in convoy. The entry of the United States into the great war brought
the application of the convoy system to Atlantic traffic. The practice is not of
recent origin. The old Hansa towns had it. In the 17th Century the Spanish
fleets, which carried silver from America to Spain, were convoyed. The Gen
oese thus protected their merchant vessels. In the Napoleonic wars its use was
common.

Merchantmen for convoy abroad assemble at Halifax, New York, Hampton

Roads and other rendez-vous. Vessels proceed in groups to Great Britain and
France. Convoys are used also in the North Sea and occasionally in the Medit
erranean. It is not possible, however, to convoy or even to escort vessels all the
time. Unfortunately, there are not enough destroyers in all the Allied forces
to escort all the vessels as thoroughly as one would wish. The Allies do so with
very good success in the open sea, but conditions of commerce are such that it
is wholly impossible to form convoys all of whose ships are bound for the same
port, or if this were possible, to discharge them expeditiously in particular
ports. The consequence is that a convoy of say thirty-odd vessels that arrive
off the Channel, though adequately escorted from the Western edge of the dan
ger-zone to the entrance of the Channel, must then be split into detachments go
ing up the Channel, going to Brest and going in the Irish Sea. Each time the
convoy is subdivided, the efficiency of the escort is decreased. Moreover, ves
sels proceeding to a rendez-vous to form an outward-bound convoy must neces
sarily perform at least a part of their voyage unescorted. Vessels, then, fre
quently proceed alone after separating from a convoy or after the scattering
incidental to being attacked.
European and American coastwise vessels and ships plying between Great
Britain, France and Spain run the U-boat gauntlet alone. Ships proceeding to
the Mediterranean are escorted or convoyed part way only. Transports touch
ing at Toulon, Malta, Gibraltar, Naples, Salonica and Algiers often sail alone.
Occasionally convoys proceed between Gibraltar and Italy and from Egypt.
Ships returning from Great Britain and France to the United States and Canada
are escorted a few hundred miles only on their journey. Vessels in the South
American trade are not embraced in the convoy system nor are vessels else
where of a speed less than about 8 knots or more than 16 knots. The fast
Cunard passenger liners, such as the Mauretania, are escorted a few hundred
miles in their transatlantic race. It should be noted that the convoy system
extends to the absolutely vital arteries of sea communication only and that
many ships are without even escorts in the now ocean-wide danger zone. More
mileage is covered by ships traveling alone than in convoy or with escort.

The U-boat has been virtually deprived of the naval gun as a weapon
against ships in convoy, for no submarine can afford to rise to the surface
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