Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 140
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[Page 140]
home news.
Bermuda had now become the Headquarters of the American patrol tho' sometimes the ships went to Halifax for their spell in Harbour.
Bermuda lent itself admirably as a base on account of its nearness to New York 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 the writer does 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 in these parts we heard so much in these parts that they had sunk the Tiger.
Just imagine the Amazement of the Hun after they had sunk a battle cruiser to see her crew floating away on the 12 inch steel turrets - made of wood.
What exact purpose these fake craft served