THE FLOATING DEATH

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 202, 21 May 1919, Page 7

THE FLOATING DEATH

• PERIL OF DRIFTING WAR MINES

AFTERMATH OF GERMAN BARBARISM

Floating mines have no regard for ar-; inistices or treaties. The Hague Con.-, vention directed that all .wor_.niines. a i;nd torpedos should he so adjusted that they , could never'become a permanent menace' to navigation, but the . Germans were . rather careless about those things. They had plaus for being their own Hagua Convention after the war, and although eircuuistancas interfered- with theso the* floating mines float on, a menace to ths ships of all uations. ;.-'■.' ■' :i£ "One of the stipulations of the armistice," says the "Scientific American," called for the full disclosure by Germany of the plans, charts, etc., showing the location and extent of the areas which she had mined during the war.. In view of the disorganisation of their Navy diiringthe latter part of the war, it is doubtful if the German Admiralty' accurately charted the mined areas, and this must be particularly true of the work dbho-by the German submarine mine-planters, which probably had a roving commission to drop their 'eggs' wherever the individual, commander had opportunity for undisturbed operation. "But even if the German Admiralty has accurate charts of ite jwCil&uiefields, the complete removal--of these would not mean that the seas have been rid of this deadly peril. 'Swiftcurrants 1 , and heavy seas, frequently cause t.ho\ mines to 'break adrift from -their moor. ' ings, and when this happens Gas's.inino becomes a floating menace which is moro deadly to navigation than any water- . logged lumber schooner or other derelict of the sea. Tho Allied Navies. followed •strictly tho rules of The Haguo- Convention, and when Allied mines broke adrift or torpedos went astray thoy became, or were designed to become, innocuous. Tho ruthless methods of sea warfare followed by the enemy included a total neglect of. this precaution, with tho result that Heaven alono knows how many mines are flonting on tho surface of tho sea. "Many merchant skippers aro alivo to the danger, and are acting accordingly. Tho captain of a freight ship informs us that, onco olear of tho harbour entranco of an American port, he throws overboard his paravanes,- and does r.ot tako them in until he is well out to sea, and that, on approaohing his European port of destination, ho' makes a point of .drop< ping them overboard again. How'long tho peril will continuo cannot.oven be conjectured; but it will he remembered that over a year after tho closo of-'-tho llusso-Japaueso War a merchant'ship.'was sunk in tho eastern waters of. the ricifio by a mine which had broken adrift during or subsequeut to tho naval operations of the war."