GERMAN SUBMARINES ATTACK ALLIED SHIPPING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15848, 19 February 1915, Page 5

GERMAN SUBMARINES ATTACK ALLIED SHIPPING.

COLLIER AND STEAMER SUNK IN THE CHANNEL. NO WARNING GIVEN TO BRITISH CREW. London, February 17. The German submarine Ul6 on Tuesday blew up and sank the French steamer Yille de Lille between Cherbourg and Dunkirk, giving the crew ten minutes to escape. The submarine was about to sink a Norwegian steamer when torpedo boats arrived, and the submarine disappeared. The British collier Dulwich, of 3200 tons, was blown up by two explosions at Cap d'Antifer, near Havre. A French cruiser rescued 21 of the crew, and the rest landed at Fecamp, north of Havre. It has been established that the collier was torpedoed, probably by a submarine, without the slightest warning being given to her crew. The night was clear, and there was every opportunity to give warning had the crew wished to do so. Three submarines chased the steamer Kirkham Abbey, bound from Rotterdam to Hull, for 90 minutes, off the Dutch coast. The steamer went at full speed, then zig-zagged and escaped. The Ville de Lille was a steamer of 977 tons, owned by the Compagnie des Batteaux, a vapeur du Nord, and was registered at Dunkirk. She was built at Antwerp in 1877. The Dulwich was a steamer of 3200 tons. She was owned by the British S.S. Company, and was built in 1893. The Kirkham Abbey is a steamer of 1166 tons, owned hy {lie Hull and Netherlands S.S. Company, and registered at Hull. GERMANY'S SUBMARINE FLEET. The German submarines are numbered from U1 upwards. Submarines I-1 to Ul6, were built between 1904 and 1912. They have a displacement of 236 to 300 tons when submerged. The later boats, the U8 to Ul6, are capable of a speed of 13 knots above water and 8 knots below, and have a radius of 1200 mile.3. They are each armed with three torpedo tubes. The Ul3 to Ul6 are fitted with sleeping accommodation for the crews. Between 1911 and 1914, fourteen submarines of a much improved type were added to the German Navy, ana it is believed that at the outbreak of the war Germany had 36 submarines ready and others building or completing. One of the newest types of German sufcruarin-j displaces 1000 tons when submerged, carries five torpedo tubes, and motors on the surface 18 knots with its heavy oil engines, and below "the surface 10 knots with electric propulsion. Of this class some ten boats were probably complete in August, 1914. These newer boats carry a powerful gun armament. From U25 onwards they are equipped with two Impounder disappearing guns, which can come into action within twenty seconds of the boat emerging from the water. They also carry two one-pounder anti-aircraft guns, which remain exposed to the sea when the boat dives. Dl 7 to U24, to which type belongs the U2l, which sank three British steamers in the Irish Sea, have each one 14-pounder, and one one-pounder gun, in addition to four torpedo tubes. They have a speed of 14 knots above the surface, and 9 knots below, and have a radius of 2000 miles.