Maritime Activities

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 208, 11 February 1915, Page 5

Maritime Activities

H.M.S. Philomei En Action NO DETAILS GIVEN. NEW ZEALANDEK KITTED. ANOTHER WOUNPPD. (Press Extraordinary.) AVellington, Last Night. The, Naval authorities regret to announce the receipt of a telegram from TT.M.S. Philomel, dated Bth inst., reporting the following casualties: —William Stanbury, able seaman, killed ;n action; William Edward Knowlcs, seaman, died of wounds received in action; John Thomas Moreton, dangerously pounded: A. T. Liliou, severely wounded; Arthur E. •!. Spiller, slightly wounded; Samuel Campbell, slightly wound"!. Beyond the fact that the wounded fuv o n board the Philomel no further details arc given. Knowlcs' widow resides at Lyttclton, and Moreton's mother at Christchurch.

BLACK SEA FORTS BOMBARDED. NORWEGIAN STEAMER SEIZED. Tokio, February 0. The authorities have seized the Norwegian steamer Christian Bors because it surreptitiously conveyed to China Ilerr von Hint/.e, lately German Minister to Mexico.

Petrograd, February 0. Tlic Brcslau bombarded Yalta, damaging five buildings. Tin: Russian cruisers retaliated by bombarding Trebi/.ond anil sank four v

INTERNED SHIPS EMPLOYED. Times and Sydney Sun Services. Received 10, 5.5 p.m. London, February 10. Dr MacNamara, Secretary to the Admiralty, interrogated i n the House of Commons, said that thirty out of thirtysix enemy's interned steamers had been employed in the coastal trade, resulting in reduced freights. A large portion of the German fleet was lying at Danzig, and all communications had been stopped.

THROTTLING GERMANY. EXCUSE FOR SUBMARINE RAIDS. Times and Sydney Su n Services. Received 10, 5.. r i p.m. London, February 10. The German papers' favorite argument in support of submarine raids is that England deserves any punishment because she is coolly employing all her strength in throttling German}'.

THE WILHELMN-i. RUNS ,NO RISKS. Received 10, 7.3 a p.m. London, February 10. The Willielmina entered Falmouth owing to stress of weather.

BEWILDERED SUBMARINE, " OFFICER'S GRAPHIC NARRATIVE. From the diary of a naval officer, pub. lished in the Morning Post: — "I suddenly heard a shout: 'Submarine! Action there! At the double here, you!' The stentorian orders came from without, and away we went. I have never seen dogs of war leave a gun-room quicker than that mess was .cleared of us. When I got to my actionstation. the men having been turned up ill a trice by the quickest way we know, fear (the sailor in terror turns to his action-station as a chick to the old lien's wings, such is the result of continual drill) I saw the approaching from the entrance, and 50 yards astern of her was a little stick that looked about six inches high. • "Tile word was passed to all to stand still and silent to delude the submarine —for that was what it was —into the idea that she had not been seen. Sure enough, when the submarine saw us she dived to pass unobserved, and get in to the battle fleet inside tile harbor. Wc were all alive in a moment. The ■ , which was being followed into harbor, a favorite submarine dodge, led on a little, and then very cleverly turned a few circles, all of which the boat, following the sound of the propellers, alsc carried out, and finished when the stopped engines with much/the same feelings as the blind man in'blind man's buff when he has had his three spins round.

"We got under way, and steamed up with a view to patrolling between where the had stopped and the Grand Fleet.

"Tlic ntsc worked. The bewildered submarine came up to find out her bearings, and we saw Tier on ouv starboard quarter. Bang, went a round of lyddite, and a column of spray shot up short of tlie submarine, tile top of whose conning tower, the periscope being housed, now began to show. '"Down 50 left!' went the order, and ban" went two rounds- of 'common.' , A areat white cloud formed where the shells burst, where tlm submarine had been and a moment later <ip came masses of her oil fuel, staining the ca.ni water with all the colors of the rainbow. and we knew that some more Cierwomen would weep- patrolled for some. time further. '•These attacks are not generall, single-handed, but we saw no more. ,„d returned to our anchorage at 8 10 Onr men were wonderfully calm under || 1,, circumstances. No words can describe the suspense of waiting for tlmt deadliest weapon of deadliest 01 fn * ' submarine's torpedo.. There were miml tes, during which we tingle with {he expectation of the impact of olKJll). ~f hiirli explosive .on our bottom. "Later we put to sea, and at • am. the —= reported by wireless that she had picked up a Oerman call it seems proW.le, the wreck at the bottom of the hail,or behind us."