DODGING MINES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 172, 22 July 1924, Page 6

DODGING MINES.

PERILS OF THE SEA. WORK OF THE TRAWLERS. During the war hundreds of North Sea trawlers were detached from the work of fishing to engage in mine sweeping. What with the ordinary perils of the sea being added to by preying enemy submarines and the chance of being blown to glory by a mine at any minute, shipping on a trawler was akin to court- , ing death. Yet there was no lack of men to take the risk, and in time those engaged on trawlers learned to spit over ! the side in derision at the sight of a submarine. Time and time again the crews of trawlers, and indeed of other mer- , chant ships, signed on for further service after their vessels had been sunk. They became so conversant -with mines that they played with them as a child with i a, toy, and perhaps there were more | accidents than should have been as the result of this recklessness on the part of the "sons of the sea." Captain Myroft, who went through the war as the master of trawlers in ' the North Sea, and who has, among other adventures, been sunk by snb- . marines, has had some unique experiences with mines. The general method of sinking a mine was by perforating its air chambers by rifle fire, but though this got it out of the road as a common danger, it by no means rendered it harmless, as some trawlers dis- ' covered when they occasionally hauled one to the surface in the trawl. A live mine, fast in the net and bumping j against the side of a ship, is not at all a I welcome fish. One dark morning, Cap- i lain. Myroft, was watching the hauling in of the trawl, when, by the light of an electric lamp, he saw a large foreign object among the lish. As lie related j to a "Star" man to-day, he lost no time | in grabbing a hatchet and severing the wire ropes holding the mine as they lay , on the rail, and the mine went back to the bottom. ''That was my narrowest escape (that I know of) from a mine," said the ekipper. '"They were so thick that sometimes we were all day engaged in sinking them, and, I suppose, that we must have passed some pretty close at night. However, you had to take the risk in those days, and it is wonderful how you got used to it. JMany ships did strike mines at night, of course, and went down. I must have been lucky. 1.