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Show BRITISH SUBSEA SHIPS ACTIVE li THE BALTIC Russian Submarines Also Engaged in Destroying-Enemy Destroying-Enemy Commerce; Vessels Ves-sels Torpedoed. I CREWS ALLOWED TIME TO ESCAPE French Steamer Mira Sent Down; Time and Place Not Given; Fishing Smack Shelled. LONDON, May 18, 7 p. m. A large number of British submarines are operating in the eastern and southern portions of the Baltic sea, which now is ice-free, says a dispatch dis-patch to the Exchange Telegraph company from Copenhagen. It was one of these submarines which sank the German steamer Hera, the dispatch dis-patch adds. LONDON, May 18, 0:04 p. m. The sinking of two German steamships by a submarine, beiieved to be Russian, is reported in a Renter dispatch from Stockholm. The steamships were the Kolga, Hamburg for Stockholm and the Bianca. The steamships were torpedoed yesterday yes-terday afternoon off the Swedish island of Landsort io the Baltic. The Kolga was shelled by the submarine for twenty minutes. Two of the crew were slightly injured. Torpedoed and Sunk. The Kolga was theu torpedoed and sunk. Thirteen of the crew were picked up by a Swedish steamer. Four others are missing. Half an hour later the Bianca was shelled and torpedoed in the same vicinity. vi-cinity. The crew was picked up by the vessel which rescued the men from the Kolga. Two were injured slightly. Last fall British submarines, which made their way into the Baltic through the Skagerack and Cattegat, carried on an energetic campaign against shipping between Scandinavian and German ports through Baltic waters. They particularly particu-larly appear to have worked havoc with the ore trade between Scandinavia and Germany, sinking a number of ore es-sels, es-sels, and, according to some reports, virtually paralyzing this traffic for weeks because of the peril tn shipping due to the known presence of the hostile hos-tile undersea craft. Many Ships Sent Down. Special dispatches from Scandinavian sources to British newspapers in mid-Oqtober mid-Oqtober declared that German commercial commer-cial traffic had virtually been cleared from the Baltic by the British submarine subma-rine activity, one list printed containing contain-ing the names of twenty German ships sunk during October. German accounts, however, deny that there was such stoppage stop-page of traffic as was claimed in British sources, citing the movements of hundreds hun-dreds of ships from various Baltic ports during the period of submarine operations opera-tions in those waters. In an effort to prevent the entry of more submarines, Germany, according to reports, laid additional ad-ditional mines to block the narrow entrance en-trance to the Baltic and placed obstructions obstruc-tions to trap incoming craft. The coming of winter put ah end to the British undersea artivitv in the Baltic. It was reported that the British craft had put up for the cold season in Russian Baltic ports, whence thev apparently ap-parently have emerged, with the Baltic now ice-free, again to engage iu operations opera-tions against German shipping. FRENCH STEAMER MIRA IS SUNK; NO DETAILS GIVEN LONDON', May IS. 4:47 p. m. The French steamer Mira has be?n sunk. Lloyd's announced today. The announcement announce-ment gives no details as to liar sinking. The Mira was 3n?.n ions srrosp, built at South Shields in 1S95 and owned in Marseilles. Mar-seilles. She was la?E. reported at I'en-arth. I'en-arth. Wales, on April 21, from Algiers. STOPS TRAFFIC OF THE GERMANS IN THE BALTIC STOCKHOLM. Wednesday, May 17. via London. May IS. G:'.7 p. m. The German strainer Hera was sunk this morning off Landsort in the Haiti.-. Sinking of the Kern marks thr first a.'tivitv of Brit is h submarines in the (Continued on Page Two.) i BRITISH SU3SEA SHIPS M ACTIVE (Continued from Page One.) Baltic this stason. The Hera left Stockholm Stock-holm on Tuesday to take on 2000 tons of iron ore at Oxloesund. -Her captain was ordered on board the submarine with the ship's papers and taken prisoner. pris-oner. Sufficient time was given the i tl10 chin All on board were saved. The report of the submarine activity has stopped the movement of numerous German vessels with 'cargoes of iron ore now at Oxloesund and other ports. According to the Dagens vheter, the Hera was torpedoed by a Russian submarine sub-marine southwest of landsort yesterday after having received a warning. The Kolga, 2088 gross tons, was built in 1903 and owned in Lubec. Tho Bianca, gros;s tonnage 10o4, was built in 19.07 and owned in Hamburg. The Hera, gross tonnage 4705, was owned in Hamburg and was built in 1912. |
