Shipping War Losses of

Losses by Mine.

The chief centres in which mines were laid by the enemy were the East Coast and the English Channel.

During the 21 months of unrestricted campaign, 119 vessels over 500 tons (of all countries) were lost, of which 88 were in home waters. There was a steady fall in losses after the first quarter, when 22 were lost in home waters and 8 in other areas. Nearly Io,000 mines were swept up in home waters. Usually the half yearly yield by sweeping was between i,000 and 1,35o, but in 1917 the yields were 2,452 and 1,835. The improvement in dealing with new minefields is best indicated by the fact that the number of mines swept up was about 9 times the number of vessels struck in each of the half years up to June 1916, after which the proportion went up to 14, 16 and 23 times in the subsequent half years until it was 35 times in Jan. 1918.

Marine Losses.

The British tonnage lost during the war owing to marine risk was i,ioo,000 tons, or rather more than half the world's losses from this cause. The next largest losses were those of the United States-3o2,000—and Norway 132,000 tons. During 1918 the British losses totalled 256,00o tons exclu sive of 3,784,000 tons damaged. For allies and neutrals during the same period the figures were 330,00o sunk and 2,262,000 tons damaged. Detailed information relating to all tonnage lost by marine risks during the last 6 months of the war shows that of 191 vessels (368,00o tons) sunk, 54 were lost by collisions, 22 by fire or explosion, and 6o ran ashore. The remaining 55 foundered, capsized or were lost from unknown causes. Taking British ves sels only, the pre-war monthly loss from marine risks was 18,000 tons, but during the war years it showed a continuous increase, namely, 21,000, 22,000, 24,000 and 26,00o.

Damaged Tonnage.

It has been estimated that the quantity of shipping continuously out of service undergoing or waiting repair averaged i,000,000 tons, half of which was damaged by enemy action and half by marine risk. The British and foreign tonnage damaged by enemy action during the 6 quarterly periods from Feb. 1917 varied between 253,00o tons and 378,00o tons; 8o% of the total was British (1,55o,000 tons), the rate of damage showing a marked decline during the later months of the war. The

average time that this tonnage was out of service was 5 months. As regards shipping damaged by marine risks, the average monthly tonnage during the io months of 1918 was 378,00o tons of British and 226,000 of foreign vessels, but these figures include quite minor damage. Nearly 40% was due to collision and nearly 24% to machinery breakdown. About one-third of the casualties occurred in the English Channel and the East Coast.

The total tonnage of the monthly sailings of British vessels for overseas destinations other than near continental ports increased from about 5 million Cons in 1917 to 6 million in 1918, while the percentage of losses fell from about 4+ in the first two quarters of the unrestricted campaign to 3 in the October quarter, II in Jan. 1918, and to 1, 1 and 1% in April, July and Oct. 1918. Taking British and foreign vessels leaving U.K. ports for over seas destinations the tonnage of the sailings increased from 61. million in April to nearly 8 million in Oct. 1918, and the per centage losses during 1918 were highest in the April quarter at and lowest in October at just over Losses Under the Convoy System—During the spring of 1917, the system of special routes for independent sailings was gradually superseded by that of convoy. In the French coal trade, which occupied nearly 38,000 sailings during the war with an average loss of only 0-14%, the losses during the heaviest period of the "sink-at-sight" campaign were 0.16%, while during 1918 they were reduced to 0.07%. The success of the convoys to Scandinavia was marred by two costly surface attacks, the per centage of losses being i•i6%, which was afterwards reduced to 0.39%. Overseas shipping that was convoyed increased from 2,700 vessels in April–Oct. 1917 to 7,700 for the same period in 1918, while the losses—including those by marine risks arising out of convoy conditions—fell from i.oi% to o.66%. The grand total of vessels convoyed during the war under the British organization was nearly 90,000, the losses being 436 or approximately 1%.