THE NAVY'S WORK.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 January 1918, Page 7

THE NAVY'S WORK.

FIVE GREAT TASKS. ..-• The Navy is fighting five enemies at sea, which may be set out thus:— Natural Forces.—Storms and fogs and currents- are conspicuous among them. This country loses many hundred lives a year at sea—what are described as mavinc casualties. We are at war,'lint nature, indulges- in just as fierce outbreaks, and just as baffling moods of fog and mist; as at. other times, Nature. has .to be-defeated.

The High <Sea? Fleet.—We cannot see t.lio German ships, hut they exist. We are apt to forget that the High Sea Fleet offers a continual menace to us. No force has ever been "contained" as the enemy of to-day- i- being "contained"; month after month ns;:c~. r.nd, rather than fight, he remain's behind his minefield?, shore guns, and subnfarincs, with Heliogoland as his impregnable advanced base, provided with destroyers, submarines, and aircraft. But the* Grand Fleet, with its attendant cruisers, destroyers, and auxiliaries, must be kont aoncentrated and at the fullest possible strength, bo» that if the Germans suddenly break out their defeat is certain. The Grand Fleen must always be ready for battle. The Mine—All the time the Germans are laying mines off our shores, in the entrances to our harbors, and in the highways of commerce. They have many mine-laying submarines always at work, creeping alone unseen, and planing tiieir ''eggs" where they are likely to do the most harm.

The Raider.—Sime the war began, the , _" -»f the raider has existed,'and it still exists. The Germans have not, got many through the not, even in the darkness and by using neutral.flags and disguises, but they are continually trying to do so. Their ill-success-is a tribute ■to the efficiency ■of ■ our patrols, an:; to the vigilance of the Grand Fleet. In the last great war the only trouble after' Trafalgar was due to raiders, which weiv always at sm, getting in and out of their ports, in spite of the watchfulness of our blockading forces, end capturing thousands of our 'merchantmen.' We'thus lost half of our mercantile marine, and the captures were more numerous after Trafalgar till an before.

I The Submarine.—The Germans have pressed into their serviee the submarine, armed with powerful quick-firing •guns And the torpedo, carrying an ex" plosive _ charge which can sink almost, any ship. The submarine lias a, great radius of action, and is no longer confined to the waters in proximity to its* base: it can travel on the .surface twice as fast as an ordinary tramp-steamer, and under the water about as fast- it can operate by night as by day; it 'can fire its torpedo when submerged, with only a periscope dliowing above the surface, and the periscope, a very small object, is often umlistingnishable even at fairly close quarters. The effect of arming merchantmen has been to drive the U-boats under water when attacking, and that, while decreasing our shippin" I losses, increases our Fleet's difficulties. °