Helen J wrote:Wed Jan 18, 2012 8:42 pm Just had to share this from my current OW reading (which some of you may have heard of by now!), Julian Thompson's Imperial War Museum Book of the War at Sea 1914-18. He's writing about the Northern Patrol, and the checking of ships for contraband. He answers one of my questions about what information captains had, with mention of the War Trade Intelligence Department, established in January 1915, which collated all the information and intelligence about enemy trading activities, and could supply up to date information about every firm mentioned in a ship's papers.
He also mentions the ingenuity of the ships carrying contraband, which was 'carried in hollow masts, double decks and bulkheads, and even rubber onions. This last only discovered by an onion bouncing on the deck.'
Sadly he doesn't say what kind of contraband could be concealed in a rubber onion - we'll just have to use our imaginations ... ???
Bunting Tosser wrote:Wed Jan 18, 2012 9:51 pm Might it have been rubber, itself? Needed for vehicle tyres for the war effort.
Thursday Next wrote:Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:05 pm I'd agree with Bunts on this. I'm sure rubber was on the list of contraband (per that well-known promoter of gender equality, E Keble Chatterton).
Bunting Tosser wrote:Thu Jan 19, 2012 1:26 pm ;D
He keeps on bouncing back, doesn't he?
Helen J wrote:Thu Jan 19, 2012 4:57 pm Yes, I'd thought that perhaps they weren't holding anything, they just were the contraband, cunningly (though not cunningly enough) disguised.
JamesAPrattIII wrote:Thu Jan 19, 2012 9:30 pm Chatterton's book "The Big blockade" has a lot on Northern patrol operation. Seriously the central powers sufured from a major shortage of rubber during WW I and got worse as the war went on. this is why in 1918 there are pictures of German training aircraft with wooden wheels. Synthetic rubber wasn't invented yet. The Central powers were also short of other items do to blockade which is why they collapsed in 1918.