TIN-OPENER TO SEA-MINE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16194, 27 July 1918, Page 7

TIN-OPENER TO SEA-MINE.

BOERS SCARED IN HANDLING FIND ON THE SHORE. A Boer farmer and his son found on the shore near-Bland’s Bay, early this year, what they took to be “a new kind' of boiler used in the manufacture of wireless telegraphy,” but which was an active mine. They prepared for removing it in their cart by unscrewing a large brass cap and some pulley wheels, then rolling the “boiler” into the sea, filling it through the hole with salt water, and then screwing back the cap. As they were lifting the find into the cart a substance like brown tar began to trickle out (T.N.T. softened by the sun). They applied a lighted match, when flames rose to a height of 200 feet, scaring some of the coast inhabitants to the hills and sending others under their beds for safety. Seriously frightened themselves, the salvagers left the cart and told the local policeman, who came a day or two later, but did not feel any interest in the find, so rolled it into the bushes and covered it with reeds. Here the mine remained till an officer from the flagship came to collect the parts. He found that the primer had been apparently opened with a tin opener, and that the horns of the mine had been cut off with a hammer and cold chisel.