LUCKY ACCIDENT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20050, 23 September 1939, Page 5

LUCKY ACCIDENT

SUBMARINE SUNK RAMMED BY TRAWLER U-BOAT TOLL ANALYSED GREAT WAR COMPARISON DIM] NISIIIN G RE SU LT S (Eloc, Tel. Copyright—United Tress Assn.) (Reed. Sept. 23, noon.) LONDON, Sept. 22. Captain Arthur Darwood, the skipper of a trawler, related how lie believed that his ship had accidentally rammed and sunk a German submarine The trawler sighted two British warships, and a British aeroplane circling over the warships signalled that there was a submarine in the vicinity. Consequently, the trawler went at full speed. Suddenly there was a crash and the bows of the vessel rose high in the air. There was a second crash amidships a moment later, the trawler being partly thrust out of the water. A third crash followed, and then the stern seemed to be pulled down. The force of the impact was such that the trawler was brought to a standstill despite . the fact that her engines were going at full speed. Oil Comes To Surface Looking astern, the crew saw the water boiling with air bubbles. A quantity of oil then rose to the surface.

The trawler’s propeller was damaged and the vessel was leaking when she reached port.

An analysis of the results of the submarine campaign show that the losses ip. the first fortnight, despite the German advantage of having Üboats at focal points before the declaration of war, were only half in tonnage and one-third in number of the peak month of 1917 during the Great War. Not. a ton of British shipping had been lost to submarines since the night of September 18. The Admiralty announces that mines have been laid over an area in the North Sea extending roughly from the Humber to the Tyne.