ON THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 February 1916, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

A SUBMARINE MONITOR. I ,NEW GERMAN DEVICE. London, Feb. 15. The Hull correspondent of the Daily Telegraph states that Germany has built a new type of submarine monitor with a largo cylindrical hull, on which i« a long water-tight battery protected by armor, carrying powerful guns. The vessel has n high speed and is able to keep her hull below water while the bat tery is in action, thus she will be practically immune from the gun-fire of armed merchantmen and can easily submerge if a warship attacks her. AN ADMIRAL HONORED London, Feb. 15. The Army and Navy Gazette states that the Admiralty has named a new destroyer after Admiral Moresby. It is the first time such an honor has been paid to a living naval officer, and recalls Admiral Moresby's work in surveying New Guinea in 1873-4. This honor is regarded as a belated recognition of it. j SUBMARINE LOSSES'. | From the beginning of the war to December 31 220 British ships were'sunk by submarines or mines, and 50 by surface ship's, making a total of 282. Of neutral ships, 111 were sunk by submarines and mines, and of Allied ships 65. Mr. A. 11. Pollen points out in a recent article that the total British loss has been aft the rate of just over 2Va per cent, per annum, but for the sub" marine campaign only the percentage would be at'the Tate of 3% per annum. These calculations are made on the assumption that the steamers engaged in foreign trade number 8000. But a very large proportion of these have been withdrawn from trade altogether, and have cither been formally incorporated with the Navy or have been devoted exclusively to naval or military purposes. Taking this proportion .to be 25 per cent., the loss of the actual working merchant marine of the day is more like 3>/ 2 per cent., and the rate at which we have been losing by submarines and mines only more like 4 1 /,. per cent. Comparing this with losses in previous wars, Mr. Pollen points out; that Commander Kenneth Dewar, in an essay for which he was awarded the Royal United Service Institution's gold medal, estimates the annual percentage of foreign trading ships lost during the period 17941800 at almost exactly 7 per cent, per annum, and for the nine years 1804-1812 at just over five. No one, says Mr. Pollen, seems to suppose that the present war can possible continue for more than three years from the commencement. If the highest raft of loss be maintained for the whole of this period, and if only the merchant shipping actually engaged in trade is taken into account, we shall, in these three years, have suffered the loss of 13'/. per cent, of our shipping. But in the Revolutionary war we lost 50 per cent., and in the Napoleonic war 45 per omit. Finally, there seems no early reason for supposing that the high rate of 4 1 /.. per cent, per year can or will be maintained. It took the Navy about five months to perfect its arrangements for dealing with the submarine menace in our own waters, and in the two months, October and November, the loss by submarine activity had been reduced to what would amount to a 3 per cent, loss per annum. It may take another two, three or even four months before our Allies in the Mediterranean bring their anti-sub-marine campaign to the nerfecUon of ours. During this period the losses in the Mediterranean will continue. They may, indeed, temporarily increase. But in the end the activities of the surface ships will make the proceedings of submarines at once too difficult an.l too dangerous for the thing to continue. It seems, therefore, highly improbable that the Allies' loss of shipping will In the end exceed 3 per cent. ,