SEA CONTROL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 December 1939, Page 5

SEA CONTROL

THE NAVY’S MAGNIFICENT WORK FIGURES OF LOSS & CAIN. '■ PROTECTION OF HUGE COMMERCE. ic t(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 2. .. It is authoritatively stated is in London that, in I lie three h months of the war the British l " Xtivy has eiiahled nearly 21,g (100,000 gross tons of British )_ shipping to keep the seas with ;s the loss of just. 4 per cent of e the total tonnage in actual j losses or disahleineiils. The British Navy at the beginning 1 ‘ of the war totalled 1,500,000 tons of ships, reckoning on a displacement 11 basis, comprising all types of battlen ships, cruisers, destroyers, and sub- * marines. To this must be added an unspecified amount of the commissionc ed tonnage for Navy purposes, which is not inconsiderable when one thinks " of the total number of big passenger liners and other suitable craft which . Britain possesses. ' Germany lias only put out of action J through sinking about 53,000 tons of 3 warships, and the most important £ units in this group were upward of , a quarter of a century old. Nor do y these figures make allowance for completions from one of the most extensive building programmes the world has even seen. On the other hand, it is officially stated in London that the total of German merchant vessels captured or sunk since the outbreak of the war is 34 ships of 145,301 tons. Sixteen vessels were captured by the British with a tonnage of 59,754 and by the French three ships with a tonnage of 16,122. Fifteen vessels have been sunk or scuttled with a tonnage of 69,425. Further to this list must be added the German vessel Watussi, of 9500 tons, which has been scuttled by her crew. FATE OF WATUSSI . INTERCEPTED BY PLANES. , SCUTTLED BY HER CREW. CAPE TOWN, December 2. ' The German ship Watussi (9500 tons) was intercepted by’ South African bombing planes this morning south of ' Cape Point, and, after being ordered to proceed to Simonstown, was scuttled by her crew, the survivors of which were later picked up.' (The Watussi was reported last week . to have slipped out of Mozambique harbour, where she had taken shelter since the war). GOOD SHEPHERDING SHIPS OF SCATTERED CONVOY. BRITISH AIRMAN'S FEAT. ■ LONDON. December 2. Flying low and battling against bad weather, an R.A.F. Coastal Command plane shepherded a scattered convoy of merchantmen carrying 100.000 tons of foodstuffs after the vessels had been dispersed owing to a storm and a threatened submarine attack. The air pilot, after searching an area of 50 square miles, discovered twofifths of tlie merchantmen and the destroyer escort. He asked for further information with a signalling lamp. He eventually found another two-fifths and finally the remainder and guided them till they united. TANKERS MINED SUNK OFF BRITISH COAST. TWO SEAMEN KILLED & OTHERS INJURED. LONDON. December 2. The tanker Realf (8083 tons) was mined and sunk off the British coast. An Italian steamer saved 44 members of the crew and transferred them to lifeboats which landed them at an east coast port. The oil-tanker. San Calisto (8010 tons) struck two mines and blew up on the south-east coast. Two members of the crew were killed. The noise of the explosion was heard ashore. A lifeboat put out and. aided by a minesweeper, picked up tlie remaining 27 of the crew, of whom seven were seriously injured. _ CAPTURE BY NAVY NAZI STEAMER AND TRAWLER. LONDON. December 2. The British Navy captured tlie German steamer Eilbek (2185 tons) and also lhe 25-lon trawler Sophie Busse.