THE FLOATING DEATH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 121, 23 May 1919, Page 7

THE FLOATING DEATH

PERIL OF DRIFTING AVAR, MINES,

AFTERMATH OF GERMAN

BARBARISM

Floating mines have' no regard for ar--1 misticos or treaties. The Hague Jon- , voi.tioa directed that all war mines and torpedoes nhouiJ be 30 adjusted that they could never become a permanent menace to navigation, but the Germans were rather careless about those things. They, had plans for being their own ; Hague. Convention after the war, and although circumstances interfered with , these the floating mines float on, a menace to the ships of all nations. | “One of the stipulations of the annis. tice,” says the Scientific American, called; for the full disclosure by Germany of the plans, charts, etc., showing j the location and extent of the areas I which she had mined during the wav. la view of the disorganisation of the German Navy during the latter par ti of [ the war it is doubtful if their Admiralty accurately charted the mined areas, and this must be particularly true of tho work done by the German submarine mine-planters, which probably had 1 a roving commission to drop their ‘eggs’ wherever the individual commander had opportunity for undisturbed operation.

“But even if the German Admiralty has accurate charts of its own minefields, the complete removal of these would' not mean that the seas have been rid ot this deadly peril. Swift currents and heavy seas frequently cause the mines to break adrift from their moorings, and when this happens each mine becomes a floating menace which is j more deadly to navigation than any wa- j ter-logged lumber schooner or other derelict of the sea. The Allied Navies followed strictly the rules of The Hague Convention, and when Allied mines broke adrift or torpedoes wen t astray they became, Or were designed to become innocuous. The ruthless methods of sea warfare followed by the enemyincluded a- total neglect, of tins precaution, with the result- that Heaven alone knows how many mines are floating on the surface of the sea.

“Many merchant skippers are alive to, the danger, and are acting accordingly, The captain of a freight ship informs us that, once clear of the harbour entrance of an American port, he throws overboard his paravanes, and does not take them in until he is well out to sea, and that, on approaching hia European port of destination, he makes a point of dropping them overhoard again. How long the peril will continue cannot even be conjectured; but it will be remembered that over a year after the close of the RussoJapanese War a merchaiij. ship was sunk rn the eastern waters of the Pacific by a mine which had broken adrift during or subsequent to the naval operations of the war.”