The lines by which mines are anchored
were thus guided clear of the ship till they reached the blades, where
they were cut. The mines then rose to the surface, where they could be
set off at a safe distance. Dragging a paravane through the water made
the ship go slow. But that was better than being blown up.
Minefields cannot, of course, be crossed at all. You might as well try
to walk over armies of porcupines in your bare feet. Some minefields
were very big. One British field ran from the Orkneys right across to
Norway, to stop the German submarines from getting out round the north
of Scotland. The American Navy did magnificent work at this field, the
greater part of which was laid by American, not by British, vessels at
the latter end of 1917 and earlier part of 1918. Other minefields
blocked the Channel. But here the Germans once played a very clever
trick which might have cost the British dear. A British minefield had
been laid, some fifty feet deep, to catch submarines without being in
the way of vessels on the surface.
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