BOMBS AT SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 January 1916, Page 8

BOMBS AT SEA.

STEAMER'S REMARKABLE ESCAPE. In,the North Sea on November 17 the British steamer Dotterel, of the Cork Steamship Company, from London to Rotterdam, was the first subject of a new German method of attacks on .merchant vessels (writes the Rotterdam correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph), Two flying machines, one a hydroplane, besides dropping bombs, circled around the steamer for forty minutes, firing on it all the time it was within range with machine-guns. The full story of the attack was told by Captain Kelly. "I did not see the two aeroplanes until they were close on us," he said. "Then I picked up my rifio and waited, hut I could not make out what they were or what they, were after. Then I saw bullets splashing into the sea close to the ship. 'They are fighting each other,' I said to the mate, for I thought it was one of our fellows and a German having a scrap. "They circled round the ship throe times, Mazing away at us all the time. The rattle was continuous. They each had a machine-gun, and shots fell all over the ship. It was a miracle none of us was hit. All the crew except the engineer's staff were on deck all the time; even the firemen who were off duty 'came up to have a look at the show. The third time the Germans circled round they also dropped bombs. I steered all over the place to dodge the aeroplanes, and had to keep my eyes all the time on the ship's course, watching for mines. "To me that was the worst part of It, because we passed very close to some of the jnines in heading the ship off her true course. The mate saw one of the bombs drop very close to the ship. After they had come round the third time, the mate had a couple of shots with a rifle, and I had a blaze at them, too, while we also fired a rocket, hut they had by this time risen higher, and went off in the direction of Ostend. Most of the bullets hit the sides of the ship, some some being below water, hut as they were fired at an angle they did not penetrate. One missile went through the water tank of one of the ship's boats, leaving a large hole, which looks as if it had been caused, not by an ordinary hullet, hut hy an explosive projectile of some sort. Other evidence that something other than ordinary bullets was used is contained in the fact that several small bits of metal have been found in different parts of the ,6hip. The attack took place 13 miles 'west of the North Hinder Lightship."