From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 6 March 1915:
The great German campaign against our shipping, under which we were to be cut off from all human aid and every merchant ship that dared to approach our ports torpedoed and sunk, has ended in what can only be called an amazing fiasco. In the first three days a little damage was done, but during the past week there have been no examples of the destruction of vessels by German submarines or even by mines. That no such losses are reported is not due, we are sure, to any economy of truth or holding back of news on the part of the authorities. It is the plain fact that the Germans have sunk none of our ships. To account for this failure is not an easy matter. It is possible, of course, that the Germans are gathering themselves together for a great coup, though we do not think this is likely. It is more probable that their submarines have been hampered by the vigilance of our watching craft, and also that our mer- chant captains have learnt their lesson. They keep so much better a watch and move so much faster than before that they are able to show a clean pair of heels to their assailants.
Occasionally a merchant ship can do a great deal better than escape, witness the plucky action of the Newcastle steamer ‘Thordis.’ Captain Bell when off Beachy Head last Sunday morning saw the periscope of a submarine. A torpedo was fired at his steamer, but owing largely to the heavy sea running, it missed its mark. “The vessels closed on one another, and then the ‘Thordis,’ lurching heavily and jumping in the seaway, smashed down on top of the submarine. There was a great crash and a noise of rending plates and a shock that was felt all over the ‘Thordis.’ The periscope disappeared and oil floated on the sea.” An examination of the ship’s bottom by Admiralty experts in dry dock at Devonport on Thursday is stated to bear out Captain Bell’s report. It seems highly probable that the ship will earn the reward of £500 offered by the Syren and Shipping to the first British merchant ship to sink a German submarine.
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