ON THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 March 1916, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

THE LAW OF NATIONS. AS LAID DOWN Bf GERMANY. Arabic and baralong cases. ' Received March 8, 5.5 p.m. London, March 7. In a White' Paper containing AngloGerman correspondence, through the American Ambassador, Mr. Page, the 'German Government traverses Sir Edward Grey's Note of the fourteenth of December. It maintains that the Arabic was sunk in self-defence, and declines to submit the case to a court composed of American naval officers as the investigation by German authorities 13 sufficient guarantee of impartiality. Britain met the demand for reparation in the Baralong case with empty excuses, and rendered herself responsible foi a crime against the .law of nations and the principle of humanity, and as Britain refused reparation Germany was obliged to retaliate. LjjSir E. Grey, on February 25, replied that the German version of the Arabic was.contrary to the moat truthworthy evidence. > GERMAN FLEET. REPORTED IN NORTH SEA. v London, March 7. Statements circulated in Holland afjrm that over 20 German warships were observed in the North Sea yesterday. CAPTURED AND TORPEDOED. STORY OF THE CLAN McLEOD. Capetown, March 7. • Werdrldge, chief officer of the Clan Macfarlane, relates that when he was chief officer of the Clan McLeod she surrendered when within a quarter of a mile from the submarine, which continued firing. The Clan McLeod launched her boats, but two were hit by shells and a dozen people killed. The submarine'! captain said: "We are not barbarians', or we would Sre on you in the boats. Our orders are to kill you ali." ' Wordridge contrasts this action with the chiValry of the commander of the Emden. which captured him off Colombo U> October, 1914. CONCEALING SUBMARINES. " Tines and Sydney Sun Services. London, March 8. TheV: Daily Mail correspondent at Copenhagen says that the new German submarines are fitted wih an apparatus to make waves a distance from the boat to conceal its exact position. THE APPAM CAPTURE. MOEWE LAY IN WAIT. TALK WITH GERMAN CAPTAIN. American papers to hand by last mail contain accounts < ' the arrival of the Appam at Norfoilk Roads on February 1. The International News Service sent out .the following:— lieutenant Berge is a veritable man of mystery. His identity is a profound puxle to navy officers and port officials. He is a sphinx, adamant, cold, severely silent. His stereotyped answer to every question asked concerning his prize was: !*That is a war secret." He talked very guardedly, hut there vfu » merry twinkle in his eyes. Between clouds of cigarette smoke Lieuenant Berge said:' "We know we accomplished a great feat" in bringing the Appam safely through flie enemy's lines, but we are not boastful. The ship is not hurt and she is a good prize. We waited in her path for several, days and had given up hope. rife thought she had heard of u» and had gone to another port. "We gave passengers every comfort and had the doctors care for the injured taken from another ship. if We intended going to New York, but were advised that the enemy's ships were cruising near that point. So we headed for Norfolk. "We «xpeeted to arrive here Sunday, but had to be cautious, and so went in a roundabout way to reach the Virginia cape*. We sighted no British cruisers, but met several merchant ship*. We might have taken them, but that would have endangered us, so we let them p*M." "Did a submarine accompany the ship that captured the Appam f' Lieutenant ferae was asked. "That i« war business." he replied. don't tell'how we do things." "How many men were on the »hip (hat cnturtd the Apjauii"

"That also is war business. \\ e had expected the Appam, and we were waiting for, her. When we hear from our ambassador perhaps then I will tell you more." "We expect to keep this steamer in Norfolk until we can get ready to return to sea. The passengers have begged to go ashore and the little children are very tired of the water. "Everybody is well and we had a good time. lam glad we are in port, for the poor injured men will get better care in a hospital. We are tired of ourselves and want to rest. "When we captured the Appam we had seen five months of hard work. .We slept but little and our nerves were tired. We were only a few miles from a port at one time, but we dared not go In. We stood off and waited. Then along came the Appam and we took her. "We captured another ship after that, but she was not good enough to take along, so we took off her cargo and sank her. "Only four of our men were injured, and none seriously. No one was killed. I received a nasty wound in my arm, but it has healed. lam all right now." Lieutenant Berge refused to say a word about himself. He was told that the German Embassy at Washington lias no record of Captain Berge, and that they believe him to be an officer of German merchant marine in the auxiliary service. Lieutenant Berge smiled, .hi* time mischievously. "Tkat, too, is war business,' he replied. THE SUBMARINE MENACE. The Prevence, torpedoed in the Mediterranean, was a fast modern passenger liner that had been employed in the French Atlantic service. She was requisitioned for naval purposes and armed as an auxiliary cruiser, and Jately she appears to have been used mainly as a transport. The faster liners for the most part appear to have relied on a vigilant watch and on their speed for protections against submarines, and the marvel is that the enemy has claimed so few victims. Of course, where ships congregated there were also destroyers and other ar«ed waft to guard them. The Provence, however, was armed in the regular way and was capable of looking after herself. It is stated that every Allied seaman in the Mediterranean regards the submarine menace not precisely with contempt, but with something approaching indifference, his peculiar view being due to the comparative immunity that the ships have enjoyed. "You know there's a war on," wrote a Member of a trawler's crew, "but you wouldn't think so sometimes, if you heard the big fellows asking us if we have caught any fish. They will have their jokes. But they take all the risks of the game, and if you ask them if they get nervy they tell you there aren't any risks. If you could see how all the ships, liners and cargo tubs, stood up to the work you Wouldn't be downhearted.'' "When the war is over," wrote Reuter's correspondent recently, "and merchant seaman go home, they will have interesting stories to tell of narrow squeaks and hairbreadth escapes. Once, not far from Malta, the ship I was in picked up by wireless a message from one of the finest vessels in our mercantile marine. She was hurrying down the Mediterranean with troops for the Suvla landing, when she sighted a submarine in broad daylight on the surface. Fortunately, her speed enabled her to laugh at the danger. Before leaving the subject of the enemy submarines a word must be said about the delight of the North Sea trawler skippers In the prospect of a brush with them. The trawler men get letters from home, and they know.that the enemy submarines hate trawlers, and they hate enemy submarines. Two days after the sinking of the Majestic, a submarine was sighted off Lancashire Landing, Her conning tower was visible, and the sea breaking over her made a ridge of smooth water, as if there was a ledge of rock just below. The trawler I was in at the moment was the nearest ship to the enemy, and it did one good to see the zest with which the skipper and crew dropped the >job they were doing, and set off after that submarine as hard as the engines would let them. Naturally, the enemy had disappeared long before we could get near her." "The crews of the transport fleet have had a hard time during the past year," says the same writer. ''They draw almost twice their ordinary pay, but that is only an extra annoyance when you have beea cruising in the Mediterranean for six months and want to get home to spend your savings. Long, dull waits in som e bare island harbor, where life does not even disguise the fact that it is not worth living, with an occasional week under fire off the peninsula, get on the nerves of men who have not seen their homes for many months, and have; pockets full of money which they want j to get rid of in a sailorly manner and J cannot. Yet there are plenty of ships vfhoise crews are thoroughly contented, and whose captains see their 'crowd' go js-hore at Malta or Alexandria without »gli&ie of aniiety."