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Show Britain Claims Mines Planted By Nazi Submarines British Mines Claimed Harmless After They Break From Their Moorings; Hundreds of Lives Lost in War On the Sea By WALLACE CAKHOL LONDON, Nov. 20 (U.R) Naval authorities today listed 14 ships sunk in the past nine days, most of them by mines in the North sea, during the week-end, 'with a heavy loss of life. They believed Germany's unrestricted sea warfare had begun. 'Collier Lost The loss of the British Collier Torchbearer and possibly nine of its crew of .13, was reported this morning. It was j The mine explosion had kiTTed five of the Grazia's crew outright 'and several more were , believed missing- Only four survivors of the Torchbearer reached port, and those were taken to a hospital injured. in-jured. Capt. Leonard Hotter, the master, had a fractured spine. The Overseas Navigation company com-pany announced the crew of 26 of the Jugoslav freighter Carica Milica all had reached an English port. The victims of North Sea mines were the Borjesson, from which seven were missing; the Simon Bolivar, 150 missing; the Black-hill, Black-hill, unknown number missing; the Grazia, five dead, unknown number missing; the Carica Milica; Mili-ca; the Kaunas, one dead; the Torchbearer, seven missing. British authorities believed the plague of mines meant that the U-boats had been having such a lean time raiding shipping that they had resorted to dumping mines indiscriminately. BERLIN, Nov. 20 (U.PI Newspapers News-papers said today that "without doubt," the Dutch steamship Simon Si-mon Bolivar struck a British mine. "In Holland it is known who is responsible for the new loss, said Der Montag. the seventh North Sea victim since ; ' Saturday. The list also included the 4,258-ton British ship Ven-silva, Ven-silva, "sunk since Saturday," and the 345ton British ship Wigmore, not previously reported. Naval authorities insisted the mines were German, because, they said, British mines are so equipped that they are harmless after they break from their moorings. A week-end gale apparently had scattered German mines, driving them in on the British Isles and the Danish and Belgian coasts, but British authorities said the mines in the shipping lanes were set deliberately, de-liberately, probably by German submarines, and had hot drifted there. (In Hamburg, the' newspaper Hamburger Tageblaft carried an article by A. Muerer, retired German Ger-man vice admiral, suggesting Germany Ger-many throw its surface naval craft into war against British convoys, to assist German airplanes air-planes and U-boats, "because it's no longer a battle but a ruthlessly ruthless-ly conducted commercial war which has become the chief naval task.") Ship Losses. Listed The ship ' losses were given as follows : For the week ended last Saturday, Satur-day, . the following British ships, Cresswell, 275 tons; Ponzano, 1,346 tons; Matro, 8,003 tons; Wood-town, Wood-town, 794 tons; Africa shell, 706 tons; Black hill, 2,492 tons; Roch-bearter, Roch-bearter, qnwyu tons; Wigmore, 345 tons. Since Saturday, the British Vensilva, 4,258 tons. Neutrals lost in the week ending Saturday: Norwegian tanker Arne Kjode, 11,019 tons; the 8,309-ton 8,309-ton Dutch liner Simon Bolivar, of which 150 of the passengers and crew were still missing; the Jugoslav Jugo-slav steamer Carica Hilcia, 6,370 tons. Since Saturday, the losses were the Swedish Borjessen, 1,586 1 tons; the Italian Grazia, 5,785 tons. (This list did not include the Lithuanian steamer Kaunas, 1,521 tons, sunk by a mine with the loss of one life). In addition to those sunk, it was announced two small British vessels, ves-sels, unnamed, had been damaged by mines off the East coast. Total merchant shipping lost during the war was now 121 ships, totaling 486,209 tonsg of which the Allies lost 69 ships of 315,849 tons; the Germans eight ships of 38990 tons; neutral countries, 44 ships totaling 131,880 tons. It was announced today that 11 more survivors of the Italian ship Grazia had been landed at a southeast British port, making the total number of survivors 26. |