Ocean Travel Still Endangered by Mines

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 772, 19 September 1929, Page 15

Ocean Travel Still Endangered by Mines

RELICS OF WAR NOT ALL ACCOUNTED FOR “Until a few months ago all merchant ships carried rifles and the necessary ammunition to sink these mines, but when one is sighted now the ship reports the fact, and it is the usual practice for a destroyer to go out and dispose of it,” said Captain H. L,. Upton, master of the steamer Northumberland, which is at present in port, when discussing the numerous old war mines which are still, from time to time, being reported of the British and European coasts. “The majority of the mines reported are about the size of an ordinary harbour buoy and float about nine inches above the water, and being dull and rusty in colour, are very often hard'to sight,” said Captain Upton. “Although most of the old British mines which are floating about are well dead by now, it is wise to give them all a wide berth for Germany ignored the international law during the war in removing every safety device from her mines, and consequently they are good for many years after.” Captain Upton said that after the war Germany was forced to declare all her mine fields and for the safety of shipping these were immediately swept. But it was impossible to secure all the mines. if rough weather came up while a submarine was laying her mines in a certain field it could not be reported with a great deal of accuracy just where the mines were laid. “They may have been laid twenty or so miles from where they were intended,” continued Captain Upton. Then there were hundreds of mines which were cht adrift from their sinkers by the protection gear on merchant ships and these would float off, well away from their course. “Then there was the magnetic mine,” said Captain Upton. "This type is always dangerous and after the war there was a great deal of trouble experienced in sweeping them.” On the top of this mine is fitted a compass arrangement. When passing within a certain distance a ship will attract the needle which on swinging round, automatically explodes the mine. Within a 40ft range there would be sufficient explosive force to sink a ship. After the war the collecting of these mines formed a real problem. Some bright and characteristically intelligent Americans came to the fore with the suggestion that the sweeping of these mines could be left in their hands. They announced that they would build wooden ships. Some still more intelligent British authority reminded them of the attractive qualities of their engines. “Well we guess we can’t build wooden engines so you had better give us another think,” they said. INTERNATIONAL LAW IGNORED At the commencement of the war the British mines were constructed with the straight bar across the top, but later they adopted the horn type, a feature of the German mine. But while recognition was given the international law in the manufacturing of the British mine in that a connection was made from the detonator to the sinker line, so that when this sinker line was worn or broken off the detonator would be pulled completely away, the Germans did not bother about this device. Some idea of how dangerous a mine can be many years after it has been laid, may be gathered from the experience of a fisherman after the Russo-Japanese tussle. He found a mine floating some distance from the coast. He roped it, and dragged it ashore. In proceeding to roll his hard-earned prize up the beach he rather unfortunately knocked off one of the horns. That was the last ever heard or seen of the fisherman who was standing over a mine which, at 40yds distance, would sink a great merchant ship.