ON THE SEA.

Taihape Daily Times, 5 November 1918, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

AUSTRIAN DREADNOUGHT SUNK . .AT POLA. LONDON, Nov 2. The Central News states that Italian mosquito cruft entered Pola and sank the dreadnought Viribus Unitus. The Viribus Unitus was one of the four Dreadnoughts of the Austrian Navy, of -which the Szent Istvan and another vessel were sunk by an Italian motor patrol in June. The Viribus Unitus had a displacement of 20,300 tons, and mounted twelve 12in and 12 6iu guns. DUE TO A NEW BOAT. Received 9.15 a.m. ROME, Nov 4. The destruction of the Viribus Unitus was due to a new boat invented by Commander Rossetti, leader of the raid.

SPLENDID WORK OF THE NAW,

SUCCESS OF CONVOY SYSTEM, Received 9.35 a.m.

LONDON, Nov 4

From the fourth to twenty-sixth October the Admiralty convoyed 75,722 merchantmen, of which 443 were lost, or 0.51 per cent. The Atlantic convoys from 26th June, 1917 to October sth, 1918 comprised 14,968 ships of a gross tonnage of 77,057,231, of which 118 were lost whose tonnnage was 654,288. To carry the 1918 Argentine wheat crop 307 ships of a tonnage of 1,466,000 were convoyed, of which only one was lost. Altogether twentysix million tons of munitions were convoyed to the United Kingdom, whereas prior to convoy system we lost ten per cent of ships. The present rate of loss is approximately one per cent. The relative risk of loss to and from the United States for the three quarters of 1918 shows a most satisfactory reduction. The total traffic of that period increased by onethird, while the risk of loss decreased by one-half. The success of the convoy system was largely due to the way the mercantile shipmasters cooperated. Their skill i n keeping their stations in bad weather and under attack was splendid.