FLOATING MINES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1288, 25 August 1914, Page 4

FLOATING MINES.

PART IN LAST NAVAL WAR

In the naval operations in connection with the present great European war the nse of submarine mines will probably, be considerable. The deadly part played by these engines of destruction in the Russo-Japanese war to years ago will be recalled, and much improvement in both construction, explosive power, and method of laying has been made since. When the investing Japanese fleet had the Russian squadron bottled up in Port Arthur in April, 1904, a ship was sent into the entrance of the harbour and surreptitiously laid a number of mines, Then the Russians were lured out, only to discover, by the rising of a mist, that a superior Japanese force that had been signalled by wireless in its infancy) was lying in wait. The Russians turned and ran for the harbour. They had not been enticed far enough PUL and were likely to make it without

accident. It was then that the Japanese mines played their terrific part. Within sight of her haven of safety, at its very mouth, the great battleship Petropavlosk, with Admiral Makaroff and a complement of 700 on board, struck one of those lurking death dealers, and in two minutes was sent to the bottom. This event, which thrilled the world, was afterwards paralleled by the destruction during the same war of the Japanese battleship Hatsuse, with consequent terrible loss of life. The Hatsuse ran into a floating Russian mine 10 miles from land, and was ripped to pieces. As a defence for harbours submarine mines stand pre-eminent. Usually they are anchored to the bottom, and kept there until occasion arises for their use. By an ingenious devise they are then released, and come up to near the surface ready for their deadly work. Mines may be either made to explode by contact, or be fired by an electric arrangement actuated from the shore. The explosive is usually guncotton, the larger mines containing from 2501 bto soolb. The cases are of mild steel, cylindrical in shape. No hostile ship thinks ot risking a passage known to be mined. To do so would be to go to certain destruction. Various devices have been evolved for clearing places of mines, but usually Governments keep the ideas they have adopted a secret. The Japanese cleared Talien Bay of Russian floating mines by the simple expedient of firing rifle bullets into them.