GERMAN COLONY OCCUPIED

The British Admiralty announced on September 12 that the Australian fleet had occupied Herbertshoehe, on Blanche Bay, the seat of government of the German Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands.

The Bismarck Archipelago, with an area of 18,000 square miles and a population of 200,000, is off the north coast of Australia and southwest of the Philippine Islands.  The group was assigned to the German sphere of influence by an agreement with Great Britain in 1885.  German New Guinea was included in the jurisdiction.

GERMANS SINK RUSS CRUISER

On October 11 German submarines in the Baltic torpedoed and sank the Russian armored cruiser Pallada with all its crew, numbering 568 men.  The Pallada had a displacement of 7,775 tons and was a sister ship of the Admiral Makarov and Bayan.  She was launched in November, 1906, and had a water-line length of 443 feet; beam, 57 feet; draft of 21-1/ feet, and a speed of 21 knots.  She carried two 8-inch, eight 6-inch, twenty-two 12-pounders, four 3-pounders, and two torpedo tubes.  Seven inches of Krupp armor protected the vessel amidships and four inches forward.

The Pallada was engaged in patrolling the Baltic with the Admiral Makarov when attacked by the submarines.  She opened a strong fire on them, but was blown up by a torpedo launched by one of the submerged craft, while the Makarov escaped.

BRITISH CRUISER HAWKE SUNK

On October 15th, while the British cruisers Hawke and Theseus were patrolling the northern waters of the North Sea, they were attacked by a German submarine.  The Hawke, a cruiser of 7,750 tons, commanded by Capt.  H.P.E.T.  Williams, was torpedoed and sank in eight minutes.  Only seventy-three of her crew of 400 officers and men were saved.

BRITISH AVENGE AMPHION’S LOSS

Capt.  Cecil H. Fox, who was in command of the British cruiser Amphion when she was destroyed by a German mine early in the war, had his revenge on October 17, when, in command of the cruiser Undaunted, he sank four German torpedo boat destroyers off the coast of Holland.  Only 31 of the combined crews of 400 men were saved and these were taken as prisoners of war.

CHAPTER XVI

SUBMARINES AND MINES

Battleships in Constant Danger from Submerged Craft—­Opinions of Admiral Sir Percy Scott—­Construction of Modern Torpedoes—­How Mines Are Laid and Exploded on Contact.

Sir Percy Scott, admiral in the British navy, who through his inventions made possible the advance in marksmanship with heavy guns and increased the possibilities of hitting at long range and of broadside firing, said recently that everything he has done to enhance the value of the gun is rendered useless by the advent of the latest type of submarine, a vessel which has for its principal weapon the torpedo.  Dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts are doomed, because they no longer can be safe at sea from the submarine nor find safety in harbors.