ON THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 November 1915, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

DODGING A SUBMARINE. AN UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT, j Received Nov. 26, 9.25 p.m. Paris, Nov. 26. Official: A German submarine on November 24 fired thirty shots at the steamer Tafna, in the eastern Mediterranean. The captain put the ship at full speed and reached safety. Unfortunately, some boats, despite orders, put out, and were immediately swamped.

THE GRAND FLEET.

A FRENCH IMPRESSION. Paris, Sept. 12. j In the Figaro M, Joseph Reinbach, j under the pseudonym of "Polybe," publishes his impressions of a visit to the Grand Fleet, which was made by the invitation of the British Government. He says the fleet is the most powerful ever gathered. The Armada was only a squadron beside it. He was struck with the admirable state of training shown by the crews, with the ease and exactitude of the movements on board, with the rapidity with which the seaplane took its flight, with the regularity and speed with which the gigantic Fleet, on the order being given, got up steam and proceeded to sea in majestic file as if Admiral Jellicoe, who had scarcely interrupted a conversation on General Joffre to give a few instructions, had pressed the button of a machine. England, he says, never had finer crews or a more homogenous or better-armed Fleet.

The English, M. Reinach says, regard the submarine attacks on the liners as infamous, and that the officers of the Navy would rather 'freak their swords than engage in such work. About half the German submarine fleet had now been destroyed, and, though others, of larger tonnage were now building, the numbers did not compensate for those which had been destroyed, while the crews were wanting in the boldness and cleverness of the original complements, and seemed conscious of the risks which their piracy involved. Though the submarine war was ardently pursued by net, cannon, explosive boinb, and other means, the war was too narrow to please a Fleet bred in the traditions of big battles, but the duty is joyously aceom-