May 1--Four British torpedo boat destroyers sink two German torpedo
boats in the North Sea, after a fifth British destroyer is sunk by a
German submarine; Russian Black Sea fleet bombards Bosporus forts;
allied fleet bombards Nagara, on the Dardanelles.
May 3--The ships of the allied fleet are now working in shifts at the
bombardment of the Dardanelles, which is maintained twenty-four hours
a day; French battleship Henri IV. and British battleship Vengeance
are damaged by fire of the forts.
May 4--Bombardment of Turkish forts on the Gulf of Smyrna is resumed
by an allied squadron; British warship Agamemnon is damaged by forts
at the Dardanelles.
May 6--Heavy bombardment of the Dardanelles is continued by the
allied fleet; during the last three days a number of villages and
forts have been set on fire by shells; British superdreadnought Queen
Elizabeth is taking a prominent part in the bombardment.
May 8--British torpedo boat destroyer Crusader is sunk by a mine off
Zeebrugge and the crew taken prisoners by the Germans.
May 9--Russians sink six Turkish transports off the Bosporus and two
in the Sea of Marmora.
May 12--Turkish destroyers in the Dardanelles torpedo and sink the
British pre-dreadnought Goliath, 500 men being lost; allied fleet
bombards the forts at Kilid Bahr, Chanak Kalessi, and Nagara; Italian
steamer Astrea sinks near Taranto, it being believed that she hit a
mine.
May 15--Russian Black Sea fleet destroys four Turkish steamers and
twenty sailing vessels; the fleet bombards Keffen, Eregli, and
Kilimali.
May 16--For three days the allied fleet has been bombarding Turkish
troop positions on the Dardanelles; shell fire is stated to have
smashed whole trenches filled with Turkish soldiers.
May 17--Parliamentary Secretary of the British Admiralty announces in
House of Commons that 460,628 tons of British shipping, other than
warships, have been sunk or captured by the German Navy since the
beginning of the war; that the number of persons killed in connection
with the sinkings is 1,556; that the tonnage of German shipping, not
warships, sunk or captured by the British Navy is 314,465, no lives
being lost, so far as is known.
May 20--Bombardment of Nagara by the allied fleet continues night and
day; British battleship Queen Elizabeth is supporting the allied
troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula with the fire of her big guns from
the Gulf of Saros; a new bombardment of the Turkish encampments on the
Gulf of Smyrna is under way by ships of Allies.
May 24--Small naval units of Austria, especially destroyers and
torpedo boats, bombard the Italian portions of the Adriatic coast;
they are attacked by Italian torpedo boats and withdraw after a brief
cannonade; the value of German and Austrian ships now in Italian
ports, which have become prizes of war, is estimated at $20,000,000.
May 25--American steamer Nebraskan, en route from Liverpool to
Delaware Breakwater, without cargo, is struck by either a torpedo or a
mine forty miles off the south coast of Ireland; the ship is not
seriously damaged and starts for Liverpool at reduced speed; Italy
declares a blockade of the Austrian and Albanian coasts; allied
warships bombard Adalia, Makri, Kakava, and other places along the
coast of Asia Minor, destroying Government buildings and public works;
Austrian ships sink an Italian destroyer near Barletta.
May 27--Captain Greene of the Nebraskan, which arrives at Liverpool,
states that he thinks his ship was hit by a torpedo; the American flag
had been hauled down shortly before she was struck, but the ship's
name and nationality were plainly painted on her sides; British
auxiliary ship Princess Irene is blown to pieces off Sheerness, 321
men being killed; it is presumed that careless handling of explosives
caused the disaster.
May 28--Austrians sink an Italian torpedo boat destroyer, while the
Italians sink an Austrian submarine. Danish steamer Ely is sunk by a
mine off Stockholm, crew being saved.
May 29--Statement from the German Foreign Office is transmitted to
Washington through Ambassador Gerard, urging that American shipping
circles be again warned against traversing the waters around the
British Isles incautiously, and especially that they make their
neutral markings on the vessels very plain, and that they light them
promptly and sufficiently at night: American naval experts find the
facts to indicate that the Nebraskan was torpedoed and not struck by a
mine, so Ambassador Page reports to Washington; British Admiralty puts
stricter rules in force for navigation in the war zone.
May 30--British Legation at Athens issues a notice that, beginning on
June 2, a blockade will be established off the coast of Asia Minor
between the Dardanelles and the Strait of Samos.
May 31--An Admiralty statement shows that since the beginning of the
war 130 British merchant ships and fishing vessels, with a tonnage of
471,000, have been sunk.
June 2--Two Italian torpedo boats sink two Austrian merchant vessels
in the Gulf of Trieste and damage an auxiliary cruiser.
June 4--German transports, torpedo boats, and submarines seek to enter
the Gulf of Riga, but sheer off on perceiving the Russian fleet; three
German transports are sunk by mines.
June 5--A strong German fleet has appeared in the middle Baltic and
has exchanged shots with the Russian fleet near the Gulf of Riga;
Winston Churchill, in a speech at Dundee, declares that the British
Navy is growing at an amazing rate, and is much stronger, both
actually and relatively, than at the beginning of the war; Greek
steamer Virginia is blown up by a floating mine while heading for the
Gulf of Trieste, her crew being killed.
June 6--Italian warships are destroying cables and lighthouses on the
Adriatic; Italian warships bombard the railway between Cattaro and
Ragusa, and shell Monfalcone.
June 11--Turkish cruiser Midullu sinks a Russian torpedo boat
destroyer in the Black Sea.
June 14--British steamship Arndale sinks from striking a mine in the
White Sea.
June 15--Official announcement states that the total loss from all
causes in the British Navy up to May 31 was 13,547 officers and men.