ON THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 June 1917, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

THE NEXT FIGHT. AMERICA HOPES TO BE IN IT. Received June 4, 8 p.m. "London, June 3. Admiral Sims, speaking at the Jutland commemoration, expressed the hope that if another Jutland battle took place the American navy would participate. A SUBMARINE ENCOUNTER, Received June 4, 8 p;m. Amsterdam, June. 3. The Rhonische Westphalen reports that an English submarine, steaming under the surface, rammed a German submarine. Both rose to the. surface. After frantic efforts to clear each other, the Gorman submarine dived for the purpose of delivering an attack, but the Britisher disappeared. The German submarine reached its base. ' A SHIPPING NEWS AGENCY. Received June I, 8 p.m. Amsterdam, Juno 3.' A meeting of three hundred German shipping experts at Hamburg decided that it was of national importance to Germany to create a shipping news agency after the war similar to Lloyd's. SIX DESTROYERS SUNK. DISABLED SUBMARINE'S RUSE. GERMAN DESTROYERS TRAPPED. How a British submarine, disabled and forced to come to the surface in Prussian waters in the North Sea, captured an enemy mine-layer and sank six Prussian destroyers was told in graphic language the other day by an officer of a British vessel that arrived at an American port, says the New York Herald.' According to the narrative the officer commanding the submersible forced the mine-layer to tow 'him out to sea and then, repairs being completed, sowed the sea with 1 mines, and in German code sent out a ' call by wireless that brought six Prussian destroyers down on them. Four of ' the destroyers struck mines, and the '' remaining two were sunk by the sub- ; marine, which then made her. way home 1 in aafcty. "We were cruising sfl' the mouth of the Wcser at night," the ofiicer said, "when something went wrong with our machinery, and we came to a stop. We felt sure that our time had come when we found that it was a broker, connecting red that had caused thb damage. Be- ] 1 fore the motors could be stopped the ; broken rod had thrashed about and cre- " ated damage that would take several hours to repair. > SETTING THE TRAP. "We had passed close by to several Prussian vessels earlier in the evening, ' but had not touched them, for ours waß 1 a mission of observation. So we cbn--1 sideved that we would fall iri with one '' pretty soon. Sure enough, in an hour's tune we caught sight of a dark shapo coining down, and which would apparent- • ly run afoul of us if alio 'kept on. Through the night glasses our lieutenant made her out to be a trawler. At once \ he decided on a desperate expedient. He sent off the bo'sun and six men, all the J available men he had, in our collapsible boat, and as the trawler bore down on , ; ua he hailed her in German and feport- \ cd himself as U29, with machinery disabled and unable to communicate by '' wireless. Tho trawler, apparently unsuspicious, slowed down and came alongside, her wheelman handling her as easy as you would swing a stick, "it wasn't till she was right on top e of us that they smellcd a rat. Someone shouted out an alarm aa her overhang t grazed us. And as tho cry went up . ouv collapsible, which had pulled around, :l boarded her from the other side. The e lieutenant and I went over the trawler i ■ side and shot two of them before they rushed us, for oui boat'* crew had kept the remainder of the watch on deck busy. Tho lieutenantlslammed shut tho foc'sle hatch, penning in the remainder of tho crew, and then we took tho other e Huns from behind, and in a. jiffy we s, had cleared them out. Once in possession of the deck it was s easy to do for the engine-room force li of three, and the boat was ours. We e made sure that there was no communio cation from the foc'sle except by tho e locked batch. Then the lieutenant passi ed a line to our own submarine, and t with her engine-room crew working like e mad the rest of na on the trawler got t under way. It waa almost dawn before, the engineer on tha wkmarino hailed u*.

' and announced that he had cleared awajj I the broken stuff and replaced too rods, "The lieutenant then cut Loom feojn* ' our submarine, and the trawler aui * wide semi-circle, dropping overside tl» surface mines ehe had on board—flf) o£ them. Then we sent a radio fat Gengn —the lieutenant had found the Hmfii secret code-book in the wheel-hom<i" ' calling for help, and announcing: tt*)t the trawler had fallen in with a flotilla of fast British cruisers,' evidently tymt on a raiding expedition. With that we wrecked the wireless, abandoned the trawler with ber crew still locked in, the ' foc'sle, and submerged behind our bar* rier of mines. DESTROYING THE DESTROYERS. "We didn't have long" to wait The dawn was just breaking wnen up from the east came four destroyers in column. We had hardly sighted'them when, they saw the trawler, and spread out furaiat* ' As they shot into the 'minefield the bad' ing destroyer went leaping out of the water with her bow torn off. The others sheered, and the second and third, thul. running up the mine trail, both strode, each one beiqg fairly torn to pieces. The; fourth destroyer, her enginer revettmg , ' at top speed and hauling her back on her haunches, took a pot shot at the |MW W ,' ier for luck, realising that they had ton' " into a trap. As she was'filing vn<mt; slowly up and let her have a torjseaof -■■ amidships. \ -' "The roar of the explosion had died away when another detonewm, , shook us, and we found that two stare* destroyers had come up from the «n% • ,' and had fallen foul oi the mines. The '■■ leading one was untouched, but the second had struck another mine. As the remaining destroyer turned to run wtf made for her at an angle, and get her. She went up with an appalling roar. "We had no chance to breathe, how- • ever, for something dropped into the sea close by and exploded. Swinging our periscope upwards, we saw fine Taubes circling above us. We turned and cut for home, with the trio banging , jjfer us. But, as luck would have it; they missed, and after running with tha ■'. fear of death in our hearts for more r"' than tin hour we got within our cruiai ing area, and the Taubes were driven' awav by a couple of our own seaplanes, • "The lieutenant srot the Victoria Cross . for his work, and we all got the Military ' Cross." . '