German submarines destroyed in air raid on Belgian shipyard
Antwerp, 26 March 1915 - Two German submarines have been destroyed as the battle for control of the seas intensified this week. British planes bombed the port of Antwerp where the Germans are building submarines completely destroying one and badly damaging another.
Further to this, the Admiralty announced yesterday that U29, the largest and most recently built of the the German submarines, was sunk with all hands. It is thought that this vessel had been responsible for sinking a number of merchant ships as part of the ongoing German blockade of the British Isles.
A cartoon from the Evening Standard poking fun at what it deems to be the unsuccessful attempts of the Germans to blockade the British Isles. (Image: Irish Life, 9 April 1915. Full collection of Irish Life available from the National Library of Ireland)
Two more liners sunk
Meanwhile, two more British liners - the Flaminian and the Crown of Castile - have been torpedoed and sunk by a submarine off the Scilly Islands.
The Flaminian had left Glasgow bound for South Africa when its crew noticed they were being trailed by a submarine. The ship put on full steam to attempt to escape and followed a zig-zag course, but the submarine kept gaining. Three shots were fired from the submarine and the Flaminian then stopped her engines. The crew of the ship were given seven minutes to leave. They took to their lifeboats and their ship was sunk.
The Crown of Castile was sailing from Newfoundland to Le Havre when it was hunted down by the same submarine that sunk the Flaminian. In similar fashion, the crew of the Crown of Castile were ordered off the ship by their German captors, were given cigars and then were left watching as three bombs were exploded on their vessel.
Both liners were sunk without the loss of any crew members.
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
