SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17338, 9 December 1919, Page 11

SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN.

BRITISH SHIPS SUNK. TOTAL OF 3154 VESSELS LOST. [FROM our own correspondent. ] LONDON, Oct. 23. At the instance of Lieutenant-Colonel Burgoyne, M.P., a Parliamentary paper has been prepared by the Admiralty, setting forth the -results of tHe German submarine campaign against British merchant shipping, • between August 8, 1914, and November, 1918. From summary tables appended to the lists it appears that from the outbreak of the war to the signing of the armistice a total of 3154 merchant ships and fishing boats, of an aggregate tonnage of 7,830,855 were sunk, and 1885 merchant vessels, aggregating 8,007,967 tons, were attacked but escaped, although in many cases not without damage. The number of lives lost in these attacks throughout the war was 15,313. The number of merchant ships sunk was 2479, in which 14,287 lives were lost, while the tonnage loss totalled 7,759,090. Altogether 1885 ships, of a tonnage of 8,007,967 were attacked, but saved, but with a total death roil of 592. While the submarine was the main instrument in the German .campaign, we also suffered considerable losses from the operations of surface craft and from mines.' The high-water mark of destruction was reached in th e early part of 1917, after the inauguration of the " intensive " submarine campaign in February of that year. In the month of April no fewer than 169 merchant ships, of a total tonnage of 545,282. were sunk, with a loss of 1125 lives. Happily this record as regards tonnage was never approached, either before or afterwards, and the number of victims is comparable only with that M May, 1915, when, the Lusitania was torpedoed and 1208 lives were sacrificed. > The total number and tonnage of ships sunk in ea<-h month of 1917 were: January, 49, of 153.666 tons: February, 105. 313,486 tons; March, 127, 353.478 tons; April. 169, 545.282 tons; Mav, 122, 352,289 tons; June, 122, 417.925 tons: July, 99, 364,848 tons; August, 91, 329,310 tons; September. 78, 196,212 tons: October, 86, 276,132 tons; November. 64. 173.560 tons; December, 85, 253,067 tone. i