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Show BHfTISH WUP SUNK BfSUBfylARi Gunboat Niger Torpedoed in Downs Off the Kentish Coast ; No Loss o f Life. , (Gpial Cibie 'T ArriigTiMDt With London Ifciily T'leraph and International Nec Srrie. ) EONLKN, Nov. 11. The official press bureau announced tonight that H. M. S. Niger was torpedoed by a German submarine sub-marine in the Powns this morning and foundered. Al her officers and crew were saved, but four men were injured. There is thought to have been no loss of lilt whatever. The Niger was a comparatively unimportant unim-portant unit In the British fleet. Classified Class-ified as a torpeco pur.lat, she was used with her sister ships Circe, Hbe. Jasoh. l.eda. Speedy and Antelope in mine sweeping sweep-ing and fisheries protection. She was oi Sly tons register, feet long and drew onlv twelve and a half feet. She carried two 4.7 inch guns and four three-pounders and was fitted with three 3S-inch torpedo tor-pedo tubes. The sinking of the Niger, however, marks a real invasion of the British coast by German submarines. The Downs is a section of the Kentish coast just south of the headlands tluit guard the entrance to the River Thames. It Is a protected harbor, made so by the Good- i win sands, and is the nearest point on the British coast line to the French port of Calais. j EON DON. Nov! 12, 2:05 a. m. A dis- j 1 patch to the Exchange Telegraph com- t panv from Deal says: "The 'Niger was sunk off Deal pier.. An explosion was heard and the vessel 1 disappeared within fifteen minutes. , Boats immediately went out to search for the crew, one reaching the spot in time to rescue forty men while the Niger was sinking. Other boats rescued the remainder of the crew and landed them on Deal beach." 1 |