NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16162, 16 March 1918, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

MORE SUBMARINE SINKINGS

The latest figures regarding the losses of British ships caused by tho submarine campaign do not, on the fa.cc of them, bear out Sir Eric Geddes's statement last week that the losses of merchantmen were still tending to decrease. One cannot follow his comparison between the February sinkings this year and those of the same month last year, because the Admiralty did not begin to publish their weekly return until February 28th, 1917. But there is not much ground for satisfaction in the fact that in the three weeks of the New Year that have elapsed the sinkings of big steamers have been 14, 12, 15, as against 15, 14, 13 last year. The number of steamers over 1600 tons, 15, notified as having been lost in the week ending the 9th inst. is tho greatest since the week ending January 9th, and has only been beaten four times in the last haif-year. The losses during the past week or two have included, it must be remembered, such vessels as the Atlantic liner California, 17,500 tonSj the Ley land liner Tiberia, 4880 tons, the hospital ship Glenart Castle, 6800 tons, and the Pliiladelphiau, 5120 tons. "Over 1600 tons" is an elastic term, which covers vessels up to the biggest liner afloat. The totals for the first year in which, these dismal statistics were issued weekly | were 822 losses in bis steamers, and 307 vessels under 1600 tons, figures I which sufficiently indicate the urgent ! need for the greatest efforts being concentrated on the building of new ships. '' UNS INK ABLE SHIPS." The havoc caused hv the submarines has naturally induced inventors to try t-o devise some means of defeating the torpedo. An Italian naval engineer i has invented a system of constructing cargo vessels which enables them to offer considerable resistance to torpedo attack. Tho vessels are said, indeed, to be practically unsinkable. The new system involves a- slight reduction in the cargo-carrying capacity, and also a certain reduction in speed; but those are small sacrifices in comparison with the saving of the ship and her cargo. Hudson Maxim, the American inventor, has another plan which he detailed before the committee of the Senate that has been investigating tho ship-building business. His idea, he explained, was to line the inside of the hulls of vessels with cylinders containing water with a steel screen behind them. When the torpedo exploded the water tanks would be hurled against the scrcen, atomising the water, which would disperse the heat and absorb the gases. But the hole in the hull would be there just the same, and what Mr Maxim did not explain was how his water-filled cylinders were going to help matters while the sea was pouring I into the vessel. Unless there was more in his plan than was published it! sounds rather futile. Concrete ships are believed to offer moro resistance to a torpedo and to localise the explosion better than steel

or iron, or wooden vessels. We have not heard of any concrete vessel being torpedoed, possibly because there aro very few yet afloat, but it will bo interesting to learn how thev fare when put to the test. The French Government has secured some invention which it is claimed allows a vessel to be torpedoed three times without sinking, but no details of the invention have yet been published. The fact that a large number of ships arc to bo constructed on tho new principle shows, however, that it must have passed satisfactorily through tolerably searching tests. TREASURE UNDER THE SEA. There is no doubt that one of the most active businesses after the war will be tho salving of the treasure that the Üboats have sent to the bottom in the last three years. Many of the shattered ships that have been sunk lie in the "dark, unfathomed caves of ocean,'' deep down beyond all hope of recovcrv. But many others have been sunk in the shallow seas round the British coasts, and in the Mediterranean, and these are within the reach of the modern diver, and on both sides of the Atlantic salvage companies are said to have been formed for the purpose of exploiting the treasures of "Davy Jones's locker," now infinitely richer than ever before. There is a firm belief that the treasure on board tho .Lusitania can yet be recovered. One parcel of diamonds from that illfated ship, on which insurance amountine to some £2500 had been paid, was found by an Irish fisherman among the fish in his net not long ago. The find was worth several hundreds of pounds to him. Elsewhere on the British coasts fishermen have reaped an unusually rich harvest of the sea. Some on the 'South Coast brought ashoro twenty hogsheads of good wine, unspoiled by the sea. The people on a certain portion of the East Coast made a good thing out of saving some tons of peanuts that camc floating shoreward, and the residents of one of the Hebrides group were paid sums totalling £2300 ifor raw rubber which had been washed ashore. But for every pound's worth of cargo that comes ashore there must be vast quantities still at the bottom of the sea, much of it, of course, useless even if recovered but a very large amount well worth salving.