Maritime Activities

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 133, 29 October 1914, Page 5

Maritime Activities

AN INGENIOUS DODGE.

PERISCOPES OK MINES,

SUBMARINE TRANSPORTS. GERMAN PACIFIC SQUADRON. LONDON, October 27. A naval officer writes: 'The latest German dodge is to place periscopes on mines, hoping British warships will ram them, but the dodge, has been discovered."

Copenhagen report*) that the Germans are building in the Elbe, at Hamburg, a new type of Large submarine to transport troops. It can be used as a pontoon when on the, surface. Large numbers are engaged working day and night. Ihe Times correspondent .describing the coast fighting, says that somewhere near the inferno is perched a watcher marking where the shells from the warships are falling. With him sits a telephonist, and each time a shell bursts he gives a message to the telephonist to •transmit to headquarters, whence it is transmitted to a wireless operator who flashes it to the ships. Fifteen seconds after firing a shot the gunner at seat receives intimation where the shell has fallen, regulates his aim, and fires again at an invisible foe.

Copenhagen, October 27. A message from Berlin states that the lNiu-nbeig called at Honolulu for coal and provisions on September 2nd after being chased for several days. '

REFUGE STEAMER SUNK.

TWO THOUSAND REFUGEES ABOARD. London, October 27. After the explosion the Belgian refugee steamer Admiral Ganteaume commenced to settle on an almost even keel. The steamer Queen and two l'reiwh torpedo boats sped to her assistance. Meanwhile men and women hud in a panic rushed to the sides geaticulatmg and screaming for help. -As the Queen approached a number of men and women jumped overboard, but some failed, to grasp the ropes and lifebelts and uftoon others were crushed between the two ships. ' One boat capsized and three persons were drowned. It proving too rough to launch her boats. *The Queen finally manouevred alongside and the refugees, who were the poorest, of the poor, scrambled aboard, tumbling over each other with fright. Despite the disorder the Queen rescued over 2000 in twenty minutes. The captain of the Queen states that the disaster -was due to a mine; other attribute it to a boiler explosion.

MINES ON IRISH COAST.

BRITISH STEAMER SUNK,

London, October 27. Official.—German mines laid on the north coast of Ireland sank the steamer Manchester Commerce. Fourteen were drowned. *

I AN EXTENSIVE MINEFIELD. i Received 20, 12.55 a.m. London, October .27. A trawler rescued thirty survivors of the Manchester Commerce. It is stated that a minefield was laid twenty miles north of Tory Island. The Admiralty notifies that it is unsafe to approach within fifty miles of Tory Island. (Tory Island lies a f(W miles off Bloody Foreland, County Donegal, North coast of Ireland). vi THE BADGER'S PREY ONLY WOUNDED. ADMIRALTY' PRECAUTIONS. Received 20, 12.45 a.m. , Amsterdam, October 27. It is reported that the submarine which the Badger rammed returned to Germany. The Press Bureau issues an Ad- : miraltys order closing' several Thames J channels.