ON THE SEA.

Taihape Daily Times, 9 August 1918, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

— BRITISH SUBMARINE LOSSES FOR JULY. LOWEST SINCE 1916. Received 8.55 a.ra. LONDON, August 8. It is announced in the House of Commons that British merchantmen losses for July are the lowest since 1916. SINKINGS IN AMERICAN WATERS. Received 9.20 a.m. WASHINGTON, August 8. A German submarine sank a small American steamer in American waters. An American steamer of 3000 tons was submarined in American waters. A boatload with 18 of the crew i» missing. ARMED YACHT SINKS SUBMARINE SOLE SURVIVOR DIES. Received 11.35 a.m. LONDON, August 8. An armed yacht, destroyed a submarine in the English Channel. She sighted a periscope and sent over a shot and dropped depth -charges, and observed a disturbance, in the 4idst of which there was bubbling,- indicating there was air They picked up the submarine’s sole survivor, covered with oil, .who died from internal injuries. ~ - ... BRITISH .SHIPBUILDING r LOND'ON, August 7. New construction of i British merchantmen completed in July reached 141,948 gross ton, giving 960,004, tons for seven months of this year, and )for the year ending /July 31st, compared with 83,073 tons in July of last year, and 578,643 on September Ist last year, and 865,147 for the year ending July, 1917. The Controller-General * * states. that July is always a bad month for shipping, owing to the workmen’s holidays, while this year a- shiudus influenza epidemic proved an additional drawback. Nevertheless the British output in July, 1918, increased 174 per cent, compared with July, 1916, and 71 per cent compared with July, 1916, and 71 per cent compared with duly, 1917. WHAT THE NAVY HAS DONE. SOME STUPENDOUS FIGURES. LONDON, August 7. A Press Bureau statement, affording an idea of the activities of the British Navy, shows that between the declaration of war and the 30th June last, the Allied needs involved the sea carriage of twenty million men, two million animals, a hundred and ten mili lion tons of naval and military stores. The total losses of the men embarked, due to enemy action, to 30th April, I reached the relatively trivial figure o? 3282. The transportation of well over a million Americans to July 31st, involved the organisation of fifty-one 1 British ocean escorts, 393 -destroyer j escorts, forty American ocean esj certs, 335 destroyer escorts. In the ! course of such duties, the British escorts steamed over a million and a quarter miles monthly. The patrol vessels engaged in frustrating ' the submarine activities voyaged at least six million miles monthly in Homo waters. Evidence of the success of convoying was shown by the fact that British shipping using the main oversea routes, convoyed between MafCfi and June last, sustained submarine losses totalling 1.23 per cent., compared with 5.41 per cent, losses between April and June last year, before convoying was established. The world’s new merchantmen construction for the quarter ended June 30th, is announced as 1,243,274 grose tons, comprising 442,966 British, and 800,308 Allied and neutral. Tills compares with the world’s output of 870,317 tons for the quarter ended June 30 exceeded the losses from all causes by 296,696 gross tons. JUST arrived, a new shipment '.f the " world-famous Royal Worcester Corsets. See window display.—Sole agent, Collinson and Gifford. Ltd.