ON THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 February 1916, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

THE moew::. APPAM'S PASSENGERS' STORIES. A WARING RAIDER , London, Fco. IS. A hundred of the Appam's passengers I'.avc arrived. Billingham, a goldmine)', in his diary states that the Clan McTavish iired seven and the Moewe four shuts in the running battle on January IS. The German commander sent a message to the captain and Sir E. Mereweather stating that all passengers who would give their word of hoaour not to take up arms against Germany during the war would hi! conveyed to their destination. Sir E Mereweather recommended everybody to sign as there was no alternative. | On January .10 Billingham wrote: "The coal cannot last much longer, and there are only five days' more provisions. It seems strange that we have been roaming about the Atlantic for two weeks without a British ship coming to our assistance. Lieutenant Berg told us that the Moewe got out of the Kiel Canal in a fog on New Year's Day. She passed British warships, which signalled and asked her if she had seen any Germans. The Moewe replied 'No,' and 1 wished the British a happy New Year. Throughout the Moewe was communicated with as if she was a British trader. It has been rumoured that the passengers of the Appam met in the lounge and decided to take over the ship and wipe out the German crew. I did not hear of it. When the Germans ordered the Appam to stop, the German prisoners from the Cameroons, realising that they were about to be released, smashed the doors of the cabins in which they were confined. We had to give up our firearms, knives, and telescopes. They even took golf sticks from one man, and a sjambok from another." A Liverpool passenger states that the Germans launched two boats filled with men armed. wit.', revolvers and other firearms. When the Germans' boarded the vessel they ordered the officers from the bridge and said they would not sink the ship. We saw the Clan McTavish sink bow first. Some of. the crew reached us in small boats, including some injured Lascars. Our rations were very low. For breakfast we had kippered herrings and a piece of bread, for lunch three biscuits and a piece of cheese, and lor dinner curry and rice. Drinking water was very short. Lieutenant Howell, of the Royal Navy, who had been in the Cameroons, noticed that the Moewe was well' provisioned. German officers boasted that after, leavI iug Kiel they passed ten British ships,

BRITISH VESSEL SUNK, NEARLY ALL THE CREW LOST. Received Feb. 30, 5.5 p.m. Paris, Feb. 18. The British steamer Cedarwood, from Middlesborough, with a cargo of cast iron, was blown up at sea, all the crew excepting two being drowned. GERMAN SUBMARINES. Geneva, Feb. 18. The Journal of Geneva learns from a German source that Germany has built a hundred submarines of a new type.