ON THE SEA.

Taihape Daily Times, 25 October 1917, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

A DIVFMG CRUISER. NEW GERMAN INVENTION. SUPERSEDING THE SUBMARINE. Received 8.40 LONDON, Oct -24. A.writer in the Daily Mail declares that Germany is building numerous diving cruisers, of 6000 to 8001) tons, armed with eight-inch guns. They will have a world-wide range and be able to submerge quickly. It was probably two of these diving cruisers that sank the North Sea convoy, adding obviously to the submarine peril, .which is entering the third and most dangerous phase. MARITIME .MISFORTUNES SEVERAL STEAMERS SUNK. Received 10.5 a.m. COPENHAGEN, Oct. 24., The Danish stpamers Anglodame and Flynderborg were mined while voyaging from England. The Norwegian steamer Leander was submarined and all the crew were rescued except one. The steamer, Eanfos, carrying corn for Belgian Relief is stranded on the Norwegian coast and is a total wreck.

THE CONVOY DISASTER. . LONDON, Oct 23. In the House of Commons, Sir Eric Geddes stated that Sir David ‘Beatty would order a court-martial on the loss of the convoy as soon as the survivors were fit to attend. A naval inquiry, mentioned would also be held immediately. It would deal with the general question of convoying, which the Admiralty ivaS' now reviewing owing to the loss of the convoy FIENDISH ACTION IN NORTH SEA * I '■Bur LONDON, Oct 23. According to a message from Christiania, the officers and men rescued from the Mary Rose state after sinking the destroyers the Germans fired broadsides at the merchantmen, sweeping away the upper structures, and killing passengers and crews. The captain of one merchant vessel says that after the broadside his crew entered, the boats, which German shells destroyed, killing nine men. The rest returned to the steamer, when a number of shells struck simultaneously, breaking the vessel and killing all except the captain, who dived and was picked up later. Similar scenes were visible everywhere. Lifeboats signalled and cried to the Germans, while two women waved white garments from the upper deck of the sinking ship but all appeals were in vain.

ANOTHER LINER SUNK. LONDON Oct 23. The armed mercantile cruiser Orama was torpedoed and sunk on Friday. There were no casualties. The Orama wa s the largest vessel of the Orient Steam Navigation Company’s fleet, a vessel of 12,927 tons, 18 knots, and built in 1911, Prior to the war the Orama was a well-known trader between England antt lian ports. A short time’ ago another of this company’s largest vessels, the Otway, 12 ? 077 tons, was a submarine victim. It is something in the nature of a coincidence that the largest and most modern vessel in the respective Orient, P. and 0., and Union Company’s fleets has been lost as the result of enemy action. The Admiralty reports that a destroyer was sunk as the result of a collision. Two officers and 22 men were saved. ~,