ON THE SEA

As in the past, naval warfare during the six months' period, August, 1917, to February, 1918, consisted primarily of attacks by German submarines on units of the allied merchant marine. There was again a wide discrepancy between the figures published by the allied and German governments. An example of this are the respective totals of monthly tonnage losses for the year 1917.

Continuous detailed figures of losses are available only regarding the British and American merchant marines. Between August, 1917, and February, 1918, the British weekly losses were as follows:

On August 14, 1917, it was also officially stated in the House of Commons that since the beginning of the war and up to June 30, 1917, a total of 9,748 lives were lost on British merchantman as the result of U-boat attacks, mine and other explosions. Of these 3,828 were passengers of all nationalities and 5,920 officers and seamen.

During the same period the following twenty-six American vessels were sunk by submarines:

This meant a loss of about 61,000 tons and of 177 lives.

Unrestricted submarine warfare was initiated by the Germans, it will be remembered, on February 1, 1917. During the first twelve months of it, February, 1917, to February, 1918, a total of sixty-nine American ships, representing about 170,000 tons, were sunk by submarines, mines, and raiders. Over 300 lives were lost with these boats.

Figures in regard to the French and Italian losses are incomplete. From available sources, however, it appears that during the six months' period, August, 1917, to February, 1918, the French merchant marine lost by U-boat attacks seventy-three steamers of over 1,600 tons, fifty-two steamers of under 1,600 tons and thirty fishing boats. In the same period U-boats sank sixty-one Italian steamers and forty-six Italian sailing vessels.

Regarding neutral losses figures are even less definite. Only Norway, which again is by far the heaviest loser amongst neutral nations, has published official statements covering her losses. For six months, July to December, 1917, her losses were 127 boats of 216,000 tons. For the entire year 1917, they amounted to 434 boats of 686,800 tons and involved the death of 401 sailors, while 258 more were missing or unaccounted for.

Holland, amongst other losses, reported the sinking by a mine off the Dutch coast on August 3, 1917, of the steamer Moordam of 12,531 tons. Mines in one case, and an explosion in the other, were responsible for the sinking of two British steamers: City of Athens, of Cape Town, of 5,600 tons, on August 10, 1917, with the loss of nineteen lives, of which five were Americans; and Port Kembla, of 4,700 tons, on September 18, 1917, off Cape Farewell.

Regarding the German losses in U-boats, practically no definite information is available. Only occasionally has any news managed to get by the censors of the Allies, and the Germans, of course, are entirely silent on the subject. On November 24, 1917, one U-boat was sunk by the United States destroyers, Fanning and Nicholson, while on patrol service in European waters. Her crew were captured with the exception of a few members who were drowned. Two other U-boats were reported to have been sunk during December in the Ionian Sea by a French destroyer. This, of course, does not represent the total losses inflicted by the Allies on the German U-boat forces. Indeed, it has been stated officially that the average loss amounts to thirty-eight U-boats per month.

Naval engagements between units of the various belligerents were comparatively few and unimportant. As a result the losses incurred by the different navies, at least as far as they became known, were likewise comparatively slight.

During August, 1917, British monitors cooperated with the Italian navy in bombarding successfully Austrian positions in the Gulf of Trieste. On August 16, 1917, there was also a slight engagement between British and German destroyers in the North Sea without result.

On September 1, 1917, British destroyers destroyed four German armed mine-sweeping vessels off the coast of Jutland. Three days later, September 4, 1917, a German submarine bombarded Scarborough, killing three persons, wounding five, and doing some material damage.

During the successful German attack against Riga in the early part of September, 1917, German submarines appeared in the Gulf of Riga and bombarded the city.

In October it also became known that the German raider Seeadler had run ashore on Lord Howe Island (Society Islands) in the Pacific Ocean, leaving forty-seven prisoners on the island in a state of destitution. The crew of the raider afterward seized a motor sloop and a French schooner on which they carried out some further raids. It was later reported that the motor boat had been captured by an unarmed merchantman in one of the outlying islands of the Fiji group.

The armored British cruiser Drake was torpedoed on the morning of October 2, 1917, off the north coast of Ireland. Though she was able to make harbor, she sank later in shallow water. One officer and eighteen men were killed by the explosion of the torpedo. The Drake was a ship of 14,100 tons with a speed of 24.11 knots and had been launched in 1902. She was a sister ship of the Good Hope sunk off Coronel in November, 1914, during the battle with the German Pacific fleet.

Strong German naval forces participated in the fighting in the Gulf of Riga which took place in the middle of October 1917. They were prominent in enabling German troops to land on Oesel and DagÖ Islands and later on Moon Island. It was reported that during an engagement between German and Russian naval forces the Germans lost two destroyers, not, however, before they had sunk a Russian destroyer. A few days later the Russian battleship Slava was also reported as having been sunk, while the balance of the Russian Baltic fleet was trapped in the Gulf of Riga.

Amongst the French losses during September, 1917, was the steamer Media of 4,770 tons, which was torpedoed late that month in the western Mediterranean in spite of the fact that she was being convoyed while in use as a transport. Of her crew of sixty-seven and of 559 soldiers on board 250 were reported missing.

Two fast German cruisers on October 17, 1917, attacked a convoy of merchantmen, escorted by two British destroyers, at a point about midway between the Shetland Islands and Norway. The two destroyers as well as nine of the merchantmen were sunk with a total loss of about 250 lives.

On November 1, 1917, a German warship was reported to have been sunk by a mine off the coast of Sweden. British naval forces, operating in the Cattegat, on November 3, 1917, sank a German auxiliary cruiser and ten German patrol vessels. On November 17, 1917, during an engagement off Helgoland one German light cruiser was sunk and another damaged.

A German submarine, during November, 1917, attacked British naval forces, cooperating with the British expeditionary force in Palestine and sank one destroyer and one monitor.

On November 22, 1917, it was announced that the German Government had included in its "barred zone" waters around the Azores and the channel hitherto left open in the Mediterranean to reach Greece, and had extended the limits of the zone around England.

On November 29, 1917, a German torpedo boat struck a mine off the coast of Belgium and sank, all of her crew with the exception of two being lost. During the night of December 9-10, 1917, Italian naval forces entered the harbor of Trieste and successfully torpedoed the Austrian battleship Wien, which sank almost immediately.

A German submarine bombarded on December 12, 1917, for about twenty minutes Funchal on the island of Madeira, destroying many houses and killing and wounding many people.

On the same day German destroyers attacked a convoy of merchantmen in the North Sea and sank six of them as well as a British destroyer and four armed trawlers.

Two days later, December 14, 1917, the French cruiser ChÂteau Renault was sunk in the Mediterranean by a submarine which itself was destroyed later on.

During the night of December 22-23, 1917, three British destroyers were lost off the Dutch coast with a total loss of lives of 193 officers and men. On December 30, 1917, the British transport Aragon and a British destroyer, coming to her assistance, were torpedoed and sunk. The following day, December 31, 1917, the auxiliary Osmanieh struck a mine and sank. The total loss involved in these three sinkings was 809 lives, of which forty-three were members of the crew and officers, and 766 military officers and soldiers.

During the night of January 12, 1918, two British destroyers ran ashore off the coast of Scotland. All hands were lost. Yarmouth was bombarded on January 14, 1918, for five minutes by German naval forces and four persons were killed and eight injured.

British naval forces fought an action at the entrance to the Dardanelles on January 20, 1918. As a result the Turkish cruiser Midullu, formerly the German cruiser Breslau, was sunk and the battle cruiser Sultan Selim, formerly the Goeben, damaged and beached. The British lost two monitors and, a week later, a submarine which attempted to enter the Dardanelles in order to complete the destruction of the Goeben.

On January 28, 1918, the British torpedo gunboat Hazard was lost as the result of a collision. The day before the big Cunard liner Andania of 13,405 tons was attacked off the Ulster coast. Her passengers and crew were saved, the boat, however, sank a few days later. Another severe loss was the sinking of the British armed boarding steamer Louvain in the Mediterranean with a loss of 224 lives on January 21, 1918.

Two German destroyers sank off the coast of Jutland during the same week.

The United States Navy, during the six months' period covered in this chapter, fared comparatively well, in spite of the fact that large forces were engaged in patrol duty in European waters and many transports crossed from the States to Europe and vice versa. Of the latter only one was lost. On October 17, 1917, the Antilles while returning to the United States was torpedoed and sunk. Of those on board sixty-seven were drowned, including sixteen soldiers.

The United States destroyer Cassin had an encounter with a German submarine on October 16, 1917. Though struck by a torpedo, she was not seriously damaged and made port safely, after having first attempted, until night broke, to discover her attacker, without succeeding, however.

The patrol boat Alcedo, formerly a steam yacht, belonging to G. W. C. Drexel of Philadelphia, was torpedoed and sunk on November 5, 1917. She was the first fighting unit of the United States Navy to be lost since the war begun. Two weeks later, on November 19, 1917, the United States destroyer Chancey was sunk as a result of a collision, twenty-one lives being lost.

On December 6, 1917, the United States destroyer Jacob Jones was sunk by a U-boat and 60 lives were lost.