THE "AUDACIOUS" MYSTERY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 67, 19 March 1915, Page 7

THE "AUDACIOUS" MYSTERY.

« A PROBABLE Z-CP-AKATIOH. OF THE ADMIRALTY'S SILENCE. Interesting light upon the many con- . flicting reports circulated, chiefly from | German and other foreign sources, about the disappearance of the warship Auda- I eion's, which the Germans claimed to ■have sunk in the Irish Sea several weeks ago, is thrown by a letter recently received by an Aucklander from a friend in England, an employee in one of the shipbuilding yards on the Clyde. It will be remembered that the Audacious was reported to have mysteriously and suddenly disappeared, and the story wae circulated that she had been sunk by a mine or a torpedo off the northwest coast of Ireland. An air of mystery surrounded the whole affair, and a great deal of comment was aroused in the Press all over the world, chiefly in America, some papers going so faT as to elaborate upon the report by publishing half-page photographs-of the sinking ot the battleship. The matter appeared aU the more strange on account of the refusal of the British Admiralty to give any information or 'particulars on the subject. The writer of the letter states that the warship concerned whs bußt in the yards in which he is employed, and only a few days prior to the report of her lose, set sail on her trial trip before being handed over to the Admiralty. She returned some time later, and was docked while repairs were made to her hull. The ship had apparently been damaged in action. Possibly the fact that the vessel had not been taken over by the Admiralty from the contractors accounts for the otherwise mysterious silence of the British naval authorities in the matter.