DANGERS FROM FLOATING MINES

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXIII, Issue 2975, 2 August 1912, Page 4

DANGERS FROM FLOATING MINES

In many mivHs eonsideral.lj attention is being given to the development of improved mines for use in future waif, especially with a view of fsicili'.ating sac handling and ease am! rapidny of sowing them, ami :-pecu.l ye. sel.s are being fitted ■ out for sticli mmci service. Several dilYuvnt types'of fixed or anchored mines, fired from contact, either electrically or mechanically, but which becomes inoperative once they have broken adrift and come to the surface, have been invented, and it has been proposed to do away with or strictly limit the use of freely floating mines, which arc a menace to all navigation. 1 i to be hoped that ah interiKUi agreement will be reached whit, will so limit or regulate the 1190 of nriues as to prevent a recurrence of a series of disasters to merchant shipping, due to mines, such a* marked Hie period following the Russo-Japanese War, The damagi inflicted by the explosion of a single mine was sufficient to, in many" cases, cause the total loss of the vessel struck, the -vessel foundering within a few minutes after the explosion, even in the case of a battleship, both Japan and Russia having lost battleships in this way. It is interesting to note that while the niines employed contained a weight of explosives, of 5001b. and over, we may say that, in.- general, the damage inflicted by the explosion, of a mine, is local in character r.athcr than widespread enough to cause the distortion or dismemberment of the ship structure ns a whole. ' ]f the explosion of the mine ai'Tecls the ship's -magazines this would, of course, uot ho true.