MYSTERY OF THE AUDACIOUS.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 October 1915, Page 4

MYSTERY OF THE AUDACIOUS.

ANOTHER THEORY TO ACCOUNT FOR ACCIDENT. / London, August (1 Everyone knows that H.MS. Audacious and what happened to her has been the subject of almost as many rumors as those famous Russian troops that passed through Ixnidon. The general belief is that she was mined off lhe coast of Ireland, that a secret mine-layer wks discovered and destroyed, and thai th* crew was saved from the battleship in circumstances fully related in the American press by passengers on the Olympic, the liner on which the rescued crew wa.s placed, There is n Variety nf rumors as to what happened to the disabled battleship. Some assert, that she was eunk in deep water, others that she was beached, and she Ims been privately reported as under repairs in almost every dockyard in the United Kingdom.

I have n theory of my own on th:> subject, in which, knowing its source.'l have a profuund and pei-i'cct confidence. "Hie Audacious lies still '■five fathoms deep," a hopeless wreck, but minus ;■■»»>

of her big guns and fittings, which hoc been raised and salved. But how did -he meet her fate; I reject absnlm.lv ihe theory cither of submarine, torpedo, or of floating mine. If anyone wi-he- (o guess bow she sank I can do no more than ask them to their minds hack to the dramatic episode of the ill-fated Victoria, the battleship that was rammed and sunk in the Mediterranean, and to believe Hint history repeals i .-elf sometimes, even in the best regulated navies.

If this thcfliy is a correct one. it accounts for the popular rumor that she had reached dock badly damaged. Because it is ohwous Hi,,') (i,er,. would lie another ship that was badly damaged. That damaged ship has now been thoroughly repaired, and is fit for action at any moment, and (Ik Audacious Ims

been replaced by u still more formidable battleship. So there is no harm at this date in vpntilntiiif; one more theory on the subject of this mystery of the 'lrish Sea. But it will be-lapparent how necessary it was at the time to keep secret an episode that temporarily put out of nction not one, but two bijr ships. It may prove hereafter that this theory mine is as wroii" as all the others. Meanwhile, 1 am prepared to back it for a considerable amount.