_In a Berlin dispatch of July 14, by wireless to Sayville, Long
Island, the following was given out by the Overseas News Agency:_
During the month of June twenty-nine British, three French, one
Belgian, and nine Russian merchantmen were sunk by German submarines.
The total loss of the Entente Allies by submarines, including fishing
steamers, which mostly were armed patrol boats, aggregated 125,000
tons.
The loss of human life was remarkably small, the submarines using
every precaution and giving ample warning and time for crews to leave
their ships if no resistance was attempted.
_The total of losses in ships of the Allies' merchant marine around
the English coast in the period between February 18 (the beginning of
the German submarine war zone) and May 18, as compiled from German
data, was published in the Frankfurter Zeitung of June 6. This
publication, the first issue from German quarters, contains also a
list of the various allied ships sunk, totaling 111, together with the
nationality and tonnage of each, and a charted map of the British
Isles showing where each ship was sunk._
_In describing the achievements of the German submarine against their
foes--the neutral ships sunk are not included--the Frankfurter
Zeitung's article says:_
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.
_The Frankfurter Zeitung adds figures given by the British Admiralty
on the same subject. These, it says, total 130 merchant ships with a
registered tonnage of 457,000 tons, from the beginning of the war to
May 26. Added to these, it says, are 83 fishing vessels with a tonnage
of 13,585 tons, making a total of 213 ships with 470,585 tons. It
says:_
These figures, however, are certainly incomplete, inasmuch as up to
March 16 there had already been announced 145 ships with a total
tonnage of 500,000 as lost, and the figures published by us above,
based upon authentic material, concerning the victims of our
submarines in three months, contradict beyond any power of dispute the
euphemistic presentation of the British Admiralty. Even so, however,
the English list still shows that since the beginning of the submarine
warfare, although in that period there was little to speak of in the
way of activities of the German cruisers abroad, the damage done to
the English fleet has risen according to the confession of the
Admiralty itself. Since Feb. 18, that is to say, since scarcely more
than a quarter of a year, according to the English figures, no less
than 56 British merchant ships with a tonnage of 187,000 tons (that is
to say, more than 40 per cent. of the total number of merchant ships
designated as lost) have been sunk. But if instead of these English
figures the German compilation, which is indubitably correct, be
accepted, then the entire picture changes considerably in our favor.
In Memoriam: