THE SUBMARINE MENACE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3334, 6 February 1918, Page 16

THE SUBMARINE MENACE.

, The Admiralty supplies the following figures of shipping for the week as relating to submarines, which compare with the previous week as follow: * ■ Jan. 20. Jan. 27. Arrivals for week 2255 2852 DeDartures for week ceAi co\M Vessels over 1600 tons sunk 6 9 Vessels under .1600 tons sunk 2 6 Unsuccessfully., attacked 6 8 Fishing smack sunk 1 Italian official: Arrivals'for the week. 446; sailings, 430. Two steamers over ..500 tons and two sailing ships under 100 tons, wore sunk. One damaged steamer reached French official: Arrivals, 731; sailings, 863. Three vessels under 1600 tone were sunk, and one belonging to the previous week. Three vessels.-were unsuccessfully attacked. _ ~. On Sunday night, 27th ult., the Dublin packet City of Cork, with 42 passengers and crow aboard, was sunk. Nb warning was given. A torpedo exploded in her engino room, and the vessel immediately broke In two and sank in four minutes. Twenty-four persons scrambled into the boats. Seven passengers and five of the crew were drowned. The Spanish Government has demanded from Berlin reparation for the torpedoing 1 of the Giralda, and asked for a reply within 48 hours. f The Germans sank 69 American ships, mostly sailers, during last year, aggregating 171,000 gross tons. This was counterbalanced by tho seizure of 515.000 tqna of enefnv shipping'. America also requisitioned 426 ships of 2,000,000 tons, and awarded contracts for 884 hew vessels.* -Mr Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, announces that America will have 300 newtype destroyers ready in August. The Navy Department is utilising • the Ford Motor Works in the construction of standardised destroyers 200 ft long, carrying two guns, at record speed. Tho Bremen Zeitung has published an article signed " Admiral X," declaring that the submarine campaign is a failure. German papers point out that ft has costhundreds of precious lives, and many of the best submarines have been lost. THE LINER ANDANIA SUNK. Tho Irish Daily Telegraph states that the Cunard liner Andania (of 13,408 tons, twin gcrew, 15 knots), carrying 40 passengers and' a crow of %0, was torpedoed off the Ulster coast. The ship was abandoned and all hands were picked up; but the liner did Cot sink at once. Four stokers were killed by tho torpedo. Two of the Andania's crew were lost. The list caused by tho explosion hampered the lowering of the boats. One was stove in, but tho occupants were rescued. The Andania carried mails for Australia. It is officially confirmed that the An flan i a ■was sunk, apparently while being towed to port. The Press Bureau states that letters and mails for Australia. New Zealand, China, Japan, and Hongkong, posted between

! January 23 and 25, were' lost in the Andania. J SUNK IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. HEAVY LOSS OF LIFE. Included in the sinkings (cabled on January 9) of larger transports was the Pacific Mail Company's Aragon (sunk December 30) with 2000 souls . aboard, including troops, nurses, and medical men. The second vessel was tho old Khedival steamer Osmanleh (December 31), with 800 aboard. It_ is believed that both vessels ran into a minefield, the disasters occurring within a few hours of each other in the Eastern Mcditeranean. The destroyer cabled on the 7th as hav- , ing been torpedoed was sunk whilst picking up the Aragon's survivors. The Aragon's casualties were 610, including Captain Bateman. The Osmanleh casualties were : 199, including Captain Mason and eight ! nurses. I It is _ interesting to note that during the •' war nine transports have been lost, the i casualties' aggregating 2000. Something like 11,000,000 effectives have been carried ] without a casualty, and close on 250,000 I troops were often afloat on a single diy. !. _ The first published story of the Aragon sinking came from a nurse v who was. aboard | the transport. [ j She says they left Marseilles under destroyer escort, and sighted land at 10.40 a.m. on December 30. .Tho Aragon was torpedoed half an hour later. The nurses I were sent away in the earliest boats ; launched, and-all were saved. They saw ■ the Aragon settling deep in the stern. I The troops were then on deck, singing. ! Several boats were soon on the spot, and after tho ship had sunk they picked up many. The escorting destroyer was torpedoed immediately afterwards while pickj ing up survivors from the water, and she • had hundreds of rescued troops aboard. ; The destroyer broke in halves'. Tho nurse adds that_ the Osmanleh, • another transport, sank in five minutes. She had 40 nurses aboard, eight of .whom, I were dead when brought ashore. I Another account states that the troops | aboard the Aragon showed the greatest gallantry. They never moved towards the boats containing women, though the ship was dipping badly, till finallv sho heeled over so far that the men fell down. j The colonel in charge of the deck gave : orders to abandon the ship, and everyone jumped into the water. After rescuing the sisters the boats quickly returned and rescued many in tho water. The British Admiralty reports that the armed boarding steamer Louvain was torpedoed and sunk in tho Eastern Mcditeranean on January 21. Seven officers and 217 men were lost. FIENDISH HUNS. The Merchant Service Review vouches for the following story:—A large British cargo boat was torpedoed in December. Tho crow took to the boats, whereupon tho submarine shelled tho boats, killing and wounding several in the captain's boat " and throwing the remainder into the water. The submarine fired 20 shells at the mate's boat, but all "missed, the occupants meanwhile lying in the bottom of the boat. The submarine then came up and ordered the castaways to feboard the cargo vessel, and covered them wtih rifles while they cross-examined them. The mate asked for permission to succour tho captain's crew, but this was refused.

The Germans took all the navigation instruments over, and then ordered the survivors to . re-enter the boat. The mate visited the captain's boat, and found the captain, severely wounded, washing about in the bottom of the boat. A seaman hung on the gunwale, supporting an apprentice, who, however, was already dead. The castaways were manv, hours in the boats without food, and suffered severely from exposure, until a patrol vessel rescued them. THE CONVOY SYSTEM. Sir I/. G. Chiozza Money states that the ocean convoy system for ships has proved satisfactory. Fourteen million gross tonnage had been convoyed up to January 19, and the loss was equivalent to 1.44 per cent. The Admiralty reports that the armed escort vessel Mechanician was torpedoed and subsequently stranded in the English Channel on January 20. (She became a total wreck. Thirteen lives were lost. MORE SHIPS WANTED, Sir Eric Geddes, First Lord of the Admiralty, interviewed by an Associated Press correspondent, said that the submarines acre being held in check, and he thought we were now sinking them as fast as Germany could build them. He could not foresee any changes except for the better; but we must have more ships, so as to turn an enemy failure into a posi.tive Allied victory, because the destruction of merchant ships still exceeded the construction, although our tonnage output was increasing by leaps and • bounds. There were, he said, no present indications that the Germans were withdrawing their submarines for concentration against American transports. All the" evidence pointed to there being as many operating as ever, -and our decreased losses were due to the steady improvement in the Allies' anti submarine methods. The sinkings of submarines were steadily increasing. The British Government has decided to embark upon an extensive wooden shipbuilding industry on the Pacific Coast of Canada. Orders have been given for 40 shins for immediate construction. Other orders are pending for steel ships. MINES AND COLLISIONS. The steamer Drome struck a mine and sank near Marseilles. The same fate befell a trawler. Altogether 40 lives were lost. There were passengers aboard the Drome. The Admiralty reports that the torpedo boat Hazard was sunk in the English Channel on January 29 as the result of a collision. Three lives were lost.