Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 344
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[Page 344]
abroad so tired as the absence of home news.
Bermuda had now become the Headquarters of the American patrol, though sometimes the ships went to Halifax for their spell in harbour. Bermuda lent itself admirably as a base on account of its nearness to the American coast. Every alternate day, almost, ships used to come in after having been ten days or so off New York and other places. The Suffolks told us they had seen the Tiger off New York, and we disbelieved them. They explained that it was a dummy Tiger made of wood. Whether this ship actually crossed the Atlantic I do not know; but it was a fact that the Admiralty had a fleet of dummy ships made from large merchant ships which represented in every detail some of the famous men-'o'-war of our first line. This probably explains the German boast, of which we heard so much in those parts, that they had sunk the Tiger. Just imagine the amazement of the Huns, after they had sunk a battle cruiser, to see her crew floating away on the twelve-inch steel turrets - made of wood! What purpose exactly these fake craft served I do not know, unless to impress the Huns with a naval might which didn't exist. What a pleasant job going to sea in one of those packets! Wooden guns, wooden armour, and not even able to bolt if need be. If the Germans showed fight they were done: their one hope lay in a quick stampede on the part of the enemy.
The Suffolks did things well in the early days of the war. They used to patrol outside New York and have tugboats bringing out fair New Yorkers for tea parties. But this little pleasantry was soon stopped, and when we later went on the patrol we