SHIPPING LOSSES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 November 1939, Page 5

SHIPPING LOSSES

MORE VICTIMS OF’ GERMAN MINES CREWS SUFFER HEAVILY. ANXIETY IN DENMARK. By Telegraph-Press Association —Copyright LONDON, November 21. Ten ships, live neutral and live British, have now been sunk by enemy action since Saturday, eight of I hem through striking mines laid in disregard of international law. The other two were sunk by. submarines. More I han 11)0 lives are reported to have been lost. The steamer Arlington Court (5000 tons) was sunk by a submarine off the Irish coast. The Netherlands vessel Algenib rescued 22 members of the crew, of whom the chief engineer died in a lifeboat. Eleven members of the crew are missing.' They were in a lifeboat which became separated from its companions and no trace of it could be found by the Dutch ship. The Arlington Court is a sister ship of the Kensington Court (4863 tons), which was sunk in the Atlantic by a submarine on September 20, its entire crew of 34 being rescued by two Royal Air Force flying boats. The London agents of the lost Dutch liner Simon Bolivar announce 86 presumed casualties in their latest list. Earlier they reported 18 of the crew and 59 passengers missing and the captain dead. The Copenhagen correspondent of “The Times” says Denmark anxiously received the news of the weekend sinkings by ruthless mine warfare. The Minister of Trade warned Danish ships bound for England not to go south of Newcastle without fresh instructions. The existing Danish mine area has been' extended to include the Great and Little Belts, with provision for day and night fairways which, contrary to the 1914 procedure, will be open to both merchantmen and warships. Several German mines which had broken loose during storms exploded on coming ashore. Because of the unrestricted sea warfare, orders for mine-sweepers in Canadian shipyards are being hurriedly completed, a Daventry message states. Some are for Britain and some for Canada. Commenting on the sinking of the Simon Bolivar, a Copenhagen newspaper says that the problem facing shipping was no longer a matter of drifting mines, but of mines laid secretly. The newspaper adds that though it has only the British account of the sinking to go on. it would obviously be suicidal for Britain'to lay mines in the very channels used for shipping.