On the Sea.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 298, 26 May 1915, Page 5

On the Sea.

NORWEGIAN" STEAMER SUNK, i Received .May 25, 8 p.m. London, May 25. The Norwegian steamer Minerva was torpedoed in tin; North Sea. GERMAN PRIZE VESSEL. (iibrn'tar, May 24. The Macedonia and her cargo has been declared a lawful prize. (The Macedonia is a German steamer, which some tiiisi; ago escaped from capture and was recaptured again ia tlio .Atlantic.) TURKISH GUNEOAT SUNK. Amsterdam, May 24. ' An ollicial report that a Turkish gunboat y:.ih sunk. by a submarine yesterday. THE EMDEN'S SURVIVORS. Amsterdam, Mav 24. The Emden's survivors have reached Constantinople. WITAT OF THE FLEET? A; ■wjsird ■ '

London, April 0. Nearly a fortnight ago it uats announced t.iat "the Admiralty had good reason to believe that the Uenmin C'M had beon sunk with all hands.'' Last Monday a statement received by German wireless was puU.shed, over the signature of tile (Jnief of the Naval .Stall' in Berlin, to the el'u.it that this vejsel "did not return from her latest cruise," and that in view of the claim by thu British naval authorities, the vessel must therefore be considered to 'be sunk." The 121) was one of the largest and most elticient of tae cnemy'.s submarines. One day early 1a; t month she ■ issued forth on her errand of piracy; nothing further has been heard of her by the enemy except that somehow and somewhere she lias been dcsiro.ud, and ail on board drowned. The Germans will probably ik rer know how the L'2o met her fate, for apparently our Admiralty autiio: ii:es do not intend to give t.ie world nnv indication of w.uit constituted the "good reason" aforementioned, and they have caused a poor journalist to be pmseciited because he penned a story concerning a certain torpedo boat having bumped into an un-d#r-\vater obstruction in a cirtain locality, and associating this incident with the sinking of the U2U. His indiscretion cost him £.5, though apparently hia story did not get into the papers except ill an emasculated form.

The U2i), we are permitted to believe, wils not the lirst nor tlii' tiihL (.ermau '' submarine to disappear in a manner IS niojst mysterious. The gossips !-:ay that there are at a certain 'English post half r ' a dozen submarine* interned which are 0 certainly not British by construction, l " and from time to time one hears very circumstantial stories concerning the destruction of German undcr-water craft by patrol vessels. The Admiralty neither troubles to confirm nor to deny these tales, and the silence of the authorities upon these matters is extended to practically everything connected with the ' navy. When we come to think about such things we realise, for example, that since January -24, when Sir David Beatty'a squadron so badly punished the marauding Uernmns, sinking the Bluchpr and damaging two other battle cruisers, we have had 110 intelligence of the grand fleet under Vice-Admiral Sin John Jcllicoe, or any section of it; that since March 18 we have had 110 official news of the progress of the operations in the Dardanelles, where the greatest naval force ever engaged -in active operations • of a warlike character is at work, and that for a longer period we have had no word of any other portion of the iltritish navy, except vague reports that men-of-war have been co-operating with the land forces on the Belgian coast. The grand fleet miglit be at the bottom of the sea for all the British public sees about it in the newspapers. The Germans declare that it is "in 'hiding," but even they do not give us any hint as to its hiding-place at the present time. Some months ago they declared 1 that it was in the Atlantic off the, west I coast of Scotland. But no one believed ! that yarn, and on January 24 the Germans themselves had proof positive that, at least a portion of it was in the North ' Sea. 1 In the earlier days of the war the ' silence concerning the worlting of the great naval machine caused a good deal of disquietude, and gave rise to a num- ! ber of distressing rumors concerning the ' fate of individual ships. But to-day [ people have got accustomed to official . reticence, and have come to the conclusion that if "no news" is not necessarily I "good news'' the absence of tidings con- . cerning the navy's doings bus no sinister import. We cannot, it is true, quit* comprehend why our naval authorities ""keep dark" about the sinking of some enemy submarines, whilst they permit the publication of all sorts of details about the destruction of others, but we conclude that there is some good reason for this discrimination, and that it is rcaflyi in the ibest interests of the country that the news of the sinking or capture of certain of the enemy's submarines should be withheld from us. There is, however, one point on which we . should now like enlightenment, and that is what ,if anything, actually happened to H.M.S. Audacious, which, according to American papers, was sunk oir the north-east must; of Ireland some six months ago, and which, by British gossip, was variously sunk by mines, ran on a rock and foundered, or was merely damaged and taken to the Clyde or Belfast for repairs. It certainly seems •strange that at this distance of time from the alleged catastrophe the Admiralty should refuse to either admit or deny the truth of the very circumstantial stories that have been circulated from time to time regarding this much-dis-cussed battleship.