ON THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1915, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

TURN ABOUT. BRITISH SUBMARINE SINKS QERMAN BOATS. Received Oct. 12, 11.30 p.m. Copenhagen, Oct. 12. A submarine, believed to be British, sunk a German collier off Aaland, and aim shelled the ore steamer Germania, which was beached. The crews were saved. LOSS OB TURKISH SHIPS. Received Oct. 12, 9.45 p.m. Petrograd, Oct. 12. The ships destroyed on the Anatolian coast were mostly ammunition-laden. The crews of fifteen were saved. One was blown up. FRENCH NAVY COMMAND. Received Oct. 12, 9.45 p.m. Paris, Oct. 12. Admiral Fournet, commanding at the Dardanelles, has been appointed Com-mander-in-Chief of the French Navy, vice Admiral 'a Peyrere, who has resigned owing to ill health. NEW ATLANTIC SERVICE, (Times and Sydney Sun Services.) London, Oct. 11. The Cunard Company is inaugurating a new fortnightly service between London and Boston, beginning on "October 10. GERMAN SHIPPING SCARED. Copenhagen, Oct. 11. The exploit of El!) has caused a panic among German shipping in the Baltic. TURKISH VESSELS SUNK. Petrograd, Oct. 11. ■A communique states: Two of our torpedo boats on the coasts of Anatolia destroyed nineteen Turkish sailing boats with cargoes destined for the troops. GERMAN NAVAL DEFEAT. ' GULF OF RIGA ACTION. SINKING OF THE MOLTKE. The last mail brings some details of the German naval defeat in the Gulf of Riga in August. There were two distinct events, one being the torpedoing in the Baltic of a German Dreadnought, the Moltke, by a British submarine. The second affah was an enterprise against the gulf itself. The undertaking lasted a whole week, with four days' actual fighting, and it ended disastrously for the Germans. • The purpose of the enemy was not j only to obtain thte mastery in the gulf, but to effect a landing to the north of Riga at Pernau. If the plan had succeeded not only would the communications of Riga with Petrograd have been cut, but a further advance on the capital facilitated. It was necessary, however, first to obtain command of the waters of the gulf, and the Germans made a systematic effort to achieve this result. They seem to have attempted to enter by both channels—that to the south, which is used by heavy warships, and that by way of Moon Sound, where some of the heaviest, fighting took place. It was insufficient to sweep a passage through the mines and fixed defences if the mobile defence could not also be accounted for, and this is exactly where the German scheme failed. While the defenders were still in force every attempt at disembarkation could only be made at great peril, and the Russian torpedo craft and gunboat flotilla, skilfully and couiageously handled, made !hc landing of a single German soldier hopeless. The most severe fighting appears to have taken place in the Moon Sound, where the Russians admit the loss of the Sivutch after a gallant defence which is in itself a source of pride. Slow, but well armed for her size, the Sivutch was a useful vessel, but the Russians have many more of these small gunboats. The Germans claim also to have sunk the Koreets, a Bister ship to the Sivutch, but the experience of other engagements at sea during the war has shown how very difficult it is to make certain of an enemy's loss or to identify ships or vessels supposed to have been destroyed. There is a similar discrepancy about the German losses, but that they were severe, and that they included the force which it was intended to throw ashore, is proved by the abandonment of their enterprise. GERMAN SUBMARINE RUN ASHORE. Another ac.ount says that a German submarine was run ashore on the coast of Dago, and is doubtless also a loss, it is practically certain that no Russian ships able to cope on even terms with these German cruisers were present in the Gulf of Riga, as it is inconceivable that the Russian admiral would risk dividing his force, in the first place, and incur the further risk of having valuable rhips bottled up in the gulf. Therefore, the destruction of the German ships was probably the work of submarines and mines in the main, though doubtless it was lively lighting between the respective small craft. The Russians lost one gunboat, which wa3 set on fire by German shells A later despatch speaks of the manner in which the Russian gunboat Sivutch—which means sea lion—was set afire. A red glow of conflagration visible ashore caused anxious speculation, which is only now satisfied. With the deck plates already red-hot, the Sivutch continued firing, and went down to glorious death, all standing—the only loss sustained by the Russians during their 48 hour-,' unequal fight against odds in the Gulf of Riga. JERMANS LOSE TWELVE VESSELS. The total losses of the Germans are I luce cruisers and eight destroyers. The '.'fiicial communique makes no mention of the German submarine cast ashore on Dago Island, but says that a German "Dreadnought"' cruiser, one of the most powerful in the German fleet, was torpedoed by a submarine in the Baltic. By pre cess of elimination this must be the Moltke. since the Goeben is with Turkey, the Von dc-r Tumi was long ago put out of action by striking on a German mine in home waters, and the Seydlit/ was badly battered by British cruisers in the North Sea. The Derflinger is now tfe only cruiser of this class left to Germany, whose fleet is rapidly becoming an unweildy trunk lopped of its limbs. The captured boats of the landing party arc estimated to have contained about a battalion of COO to. 1000 men of the German marines. The expulsion of the German fleet from the Gu'f of Riga has perceptibly cased the position on this front. No further details of the series of naval engagements which led to this result have become tnowa,