New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 5, August, 1915 — John Shaqi
New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 5, August, 1915Various
History
New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 5, August, 1915
Various
World War, 1914-1918
In the period of three months since the 18th of February, a day
memorable for history, our submarines have inflicted on the enemy
merchant shipping, in the first place the English merchant marine, a
total loss of 111 ships with a displacement of 234,239 tons. The
figures may, perhaps, not seem especially large in comparison with the
gigantic number of merchant ships flying the flag of the enemy. But in
this method of warfare the percentage loss of ships of our opponent as
compared with his total does not count, but rather the fact that
through the regularity and inevitableness of the marine catastrophes
the enemy shipping shall be disturbed as poignantly as possible, and
that there should as a result of this disturbance appear in the
economic life of England phenomena similar to those which the English
plan of the isolation of Germany aims at without, however, having
succeeded in getting any nearer to its goal, owing to the inherent
strength and power of adaptation of German business.
The rise of prices now prevalent in England, and the paralyzing of
great branches of trade which could not occur in an England that
really ruled the sea, may be attributed in chief part to this war of
the submarines. The advantage of the insular position of England has
been greatly lessened, thanks to this excellent German weapon, even if
it cannot be completely eliminated. But if one compares with the total
voyages of the English merchant shipping the losses of the English
merchant marine, amounting to more than 100 ships in a period of
exactly ninety days, and a tonnage of 216,000 tons, (from the totals
mentioned above there must be deducted the shares of France and
Russia,) then we must consider only that part of the British merchant
marine that entered ports of the island kingdom in this period or left
them; and one must bear in mind further that a large number of those
ships is contained several times in the English statistics, since they
do coast service.
But as valuable booty for our submarines particularly those ships are
to be regarded that import any kinds of commodities to England. And
statistics will later be able to show on the basis of these figures
the great success of the German submarine warfare, as indicated by
figures.
A glance at the map that accompanies the list of losses suffices to
show that mine fields as little as great distances are factors of
decisive importance in the activities of our submarines. The closing
of the English Channel and of the North Channel (between Ireland and
Scotland) has not prevented our boats from penetrating wherever there
was booty. Even on the northwest coast of Scotland and out in the west
of Ireland the German submarines have carried on a successful hunt.
The numbers in the little circles on the map represent the successive
ships on the list.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account