SHIPPING LOSSES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 29 January 1940, Page 6

SHIPPING LOSSES

GERMAN CLAIMS NEUTRAL VESSELS SUFFER NAZI CYNICISM [U.P.A.—By Electric Telegraph-Copyright] LONDON, 28th January. In a war communique issued in Berlin to-day it is stated that “the navy, continuing its successful warfare, sank on 25th January over 20,000 tons of shipping. A U-boat also sank two British steamers in convoy, off Oporto. I The Australian Associated Press has been officially informed that only two neutral vessels, totalling 5700 tons, and one French vessel of 3000 tons were sunk on that day by German mines or torpedoes. No British ships were sunk. British Official Wireless comments that the German High Command’s reference to “shipping” in general without regard to whether Allied or neutral, is seen in naval circles here as a new high-water mark in Nazi cynicism, which is the more flagrant for the fact that all shipping sunk on that day—with the exception of a small French ship possibly sunk off Oporto—was neutral The total, incidentally, was, according to the Admiralty records, not 20,000, but just over 5000 tons, comprising the 400_ton Everene (Latvian), and the 1300-ton Gudveig (Norwegian). NEUTRALS’ LATEST LOSSES Attacks by U-boats on neutral ships are continuing. The Norwegian steamer Gudveig (1300 tons) was torpedoed off the north-east coast and nine of the crew of 17 are missing. Another steamer, presumably foreign, was torpedoed at the same time. Three ships picked up the survivors from both vessels. Eleven seamen and the captain of the Swedish steamer Sonja (1828 tons), which was torpedoed in the Atlantic, arrived at a port in Eire after five days in a lifeboat. The Sonja was torpedoed because the captain refused the submarine commander’s demand to sign papers stating that the ship was carrying contraband. The crew drifted in two lifeboats for five days and nights. A British trawler has picked up members of the crew from a second lifeboat, and thus all are saved. An Amsterdam report says that the Dutch motor-tanker Mamura (8245 tons) was mined off the south coast of England, but is proceeding to a British port. A Spanish vessel landed at Vigo 28 survivors from the French steamer Tourny (2769 tons), which was torpedoed at dawn on 25th January. They were picked up from a small boat in a critical condition. Six were wounded, and it is feared eight men from the ship were lost. It is learned that one sailor is missing from the Latvian Everene (4434 tons), which was torpedoed shortly after leaving a British port. Seven survivors from the Norwegian steamer Enid, which was torpedoed and shelled off the north.east coast of Scotland on 18th January, have arrived at Las Palmas. This brings the number saved to 23. Sixteen additional survivors from the Swedish steamer Patria (1188 tons), which belongs to the same line as the Flandria, which sank on 21st January after striking two mines off the Dutch coast, have been landed at Helsingborg. One died on a raft, ten were killed by the explosion, and the fate of six is uncertain. The submarine war hitherto had cost Sweden 27 ships and 120 lives. NINE GERMAN SHIPS INTERCEPTED PARIS, 27th January. French warships intercepted nine ships carrying 15,600 tons of contraband, bringing the total for the war to 480,500 tons.