ON THE SEA.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 4 January 1917, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

THE PIRATES' WORK. MERCHANTMEN S ÜBMARINED. SIGHTED FROM MOKOIA. DUNEDIN, Jan. 3. Those who are responsible for the safety of vessels traversing the English Channel and the North Sea naturally have an anxious time of it watching for enemy submarines. The officers and crew of the well-known intercolonial vessel, Mokoia, now an army transport, which arrived at Port Chalmers on Sunday, witnessed one of the many diabolical acts committed by enemy submarines in Home waters. When off the Lizard, those on the Mokoia sighted a large cargo steamer, and when within a few hundred yards they noticed a torpedo fired from what was unqucsuonably an enemy submarine. The missile struck the vessel amidships, but some assert that there were two submarines. A British destroyer which accompanied the Mokoia, hastened to ' the vessel's assistance, and promptly ; rescued the officers and crew. When nothing further could be done the Mokoia and her convoy proceeded on their course, but they subsequently learned, through a message received from the transport Navua, that it was quite two hours before the steamer disappeared. It is now generally understood that the enemy submarines traversing Home waters hunt in pairs. PREPARING FOR EVENTUALITIES, j JAPAN TO ARM. MERCHANTMEN. | Received 10.20 WASHINGTON, Jan. 3. Japan states she intends to arm merchantmen defensively, and asks if there | are any regulations governing armed ships using the Panama Canal, of which Japan is one of the largest users. This is interpreted as indicative of the Japanese belief that there is danger of an extension of the zone of German submarining. Received 11.45.LONDON, Jan 3. Submarine sinkings: The Swedish steamer Goosebridge and the sailing vessel Aconagua -have been sunk. GERMAN BLUFF. SHIPPING TO RESUME. LONDON, Jan. 2. The Morning Post's Stockholm cor- ' respondent says the Norddeutschcr- | Lloyd and Hamburg-Amerika lines have ; circularised their connections that their '• steamers will be ready to receive freight for a United States port from February 1, and that the vessels are now being overhauled and equipped. ARMED MERCHANTMEN. Received 11.50. LONDON, Jan 3. The British Admiralty issues aAvarn ing that the German wireless press is using unauthorised comments in British newspapers in order to cast doubt on the defensive armament of British merchantmen. The Admiralty reiterates thaf the armament is defensive. WRECKS IN BRITAIN. LONDON, Jan 3. The Leyland liner Nestorian went ashore during a fog and is a total wreck. The crew were saved. The steamer Lennox was wrecked during a fog in the Irish Channel. The crew were saved. The British steamer Thistleban was wrecked off Alexandria. BELGIAN DEPORTATIONS. DEPORTATIONS STILL CONTINUE. Received 10.20. AMSTERDAM, Jan. 3. The Germans fined the Bugomastcr of Antwerp 10,000 marks because he refused to supply a list of those unemployed preparatory to deportation. The Echo de Beige stated that 304 of those deported at .Quaregnon included 227 who were in employment, Seventy per cent, of the blast furnaces and factories at Labcuviera were deportedi the {summons arriving while they were working.