NAVAL RECORD.
April 1—German submarines sink British steamer Seven Seas and French steamer Emma, thirty men going down with the vessels; British squadron shells Zeebrugge where Germans have established a submarine base, by moonlight; Hamburg-American liner Macedonia, which had been interned at Las Palmas, Canary Islands, but recently escaped, has now eluded British cruisers and sailed for South American waters.
April 2—It is learned that Chile has made representations to the British Government regarding the sinking of the German cruiser Dresden; Chile says she was blown up by her own crew in Chilean waters after bombardment by British squadron, and when the Chilean Government was on the point of interning her; three British trawlers are sunk by the German submarine U-10, whose Captain, the fishermen state, told them he has "orders to sink everything"; Norwegian sailing ship Nor is burned by a German submarine, the submarine Captain giving the Nor's Captain a document saying she was destroyed for carrying contraband; Dutch steamer Schieland is blown up off the English coast, presumably by a mine; British steamer Lockwood is sunk by a German submarine off Devonshire coast, the crew escaping.
April 3—Forts at entrance to the Gulf of Smyrna are bombarded by allied fleet; French fishing vessel is sunk by a German submarine, her crew escaping; Berlin estimates state that from Aug. 1 to March 1 a tonnage of 437,879 in British merchant ships and auxiliary cruisers has been destroyed.
April 4—German submarine sinks British steamer City of Bremen in the English Channel, four of the crew being drowned; German submarine sinks a Russian bark in the English Channel; three German steamers are sunk by mines in the Baltic, 25 men being drowned; Turkish armored cruiser Medjidieh is sunk by a Russian mine; it is learned that an Austrian steamer with 600 tons of ammunition aboard was blown up by a mine in the Danube on March 30, 35 of the crew being drowned; it is learned that the American steamer Greenbriar, lost in the North Sea a few days ago, was sunk by a mine.
April 5—A Turkish squadron sinks two Russian ships; Turkish batteries off Kum Kale sink an allied mine sweeper; an Athens report says that the British battleship Lord Nelson, recently stranded in the Dardanelles, has been destroyed by the fire of the Turkish shore guns; British trawler Agantha is sunk by a German submarine off Longstone, the crew being subjected to rifle fire from the submarine while taking to the boats; German submarine U-31 sinks British steamer Olivine and Russian bark Hermes, the crews being saved; German Baltic fleet, returning from bombardment of Libau, is cut off from its base by German mines, which have gone adrift in large numbers because of a storm.
April 6—A German submarine is entangled in at net off Dover specially designed for the catching of submarines; Stockholm reports that the Swedish steamer England has been seized by the Germans in the Baltic and taken to a German port.
April 7—United States Government, at request of Commander Thierichens, takes over for internment the German converted cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich, to hold her until the end of the war; German Admiralty admits loss of submarine U-9, already reported by the British as being sunk.
April 8—French sailing ship Chateaubriand is sunk by a German submarine off the Isle of Wight, the crew being saved.
April 9—British and French cruisers have taken from Italian mail steamers 2,300 bags of outgoing German mail, and it is planned to seize bags from abroad intended for Germany.
April 10—British steamer Harpalyce, which made one voyage as a relief ship with supplies for the Belgians donated by residents of New York State, is sunk in the North Sea by a submarine; some of her crew are missing.
April 11—German auxiliary cruiser Kronprinz Wilhelm anchors at Newport News, needing coal and provisions; Captain Thierfelder reports that his ship has sunk fourteen ships of the Allies and one Norwegian ship; allied fleet is bombarding Dardanelles forts from the Gulf of Saros; French steamer Frederic Franck, after being torpedoed by a German submarine in the English Channel, is towed to Plymouth.
April 12—United States State Department is notified by Ambassador Page that the British Government will settle the case of the American steamship Wilhelmina in accordance with the contentions of the owners of the cargo; the British state that they will requisition and pay for the cargo, and the owners of both ship and cargo will be reimbursed for the delay caused in sending the case before a prize court; Captains of the American steamers Navajo, Joseph W. Fordney, and Llama appeal to American Embassy at London to procure their release from British marine authorities at Kirkwall; British collier Newlyn is damaged by an unexplained explosion off the Scilly Islands, but makes port; a French battleship, assisted by French aeroplanes, bombards the Turkish encampment near Gaza.
April 13—British torpedo boat destroyer Renard dashes up the Dardanelles over ten miles at high speed on a scouting expedition.
April 14—Allied patrol ships bombard Dardanelles forts; a cruiser and a destroyer are struck by shells from the forts; Dutch steamer Katwyk, from Baltimore to Rotterdam with a cargo of corn consigned to the Netherlands Government, is blown up and sunk while at anchor seven miles west of the North Hinder Lightship in the North Sea; crew is saved; indignation expressed in Holland; Swedish steamer Folke is sunk by a mine or torpedo off Peterhead; thirty-one new cases of beri-beri have developed among the crew of the Kronprinz Wilhelm since her arrival at Newport News.
April 15—"White Paper" made public in London shows that Great Britain has made "a full and ample apology" to the Government of Chile for the sinking in Chilean territorial waters last month of the German cruiser Dresden, the internment of which had already been ordered by the Maritime Governor of Cumberland Bay when the British squadron attacked her; two allied battleships enter the bay at Enos and with shells destroy the Turkish camp there; Russian squadron bombards Kara-Burum, inside the Tchatalja lines; British steamer Ptarmigan is sunk by a German submarine in the North Sea, eight of the crew being lost; tabulation made in London of statistics of maritime losses shows that England and her allies have sunk, captured, or detained 543 ships belonging to Germany and her allies, while Germany and her allies have sunk, captured, or detained 265 ships belonging to England, France, Belgium, and Russia.
April 16—French cruiser bombards fortifications of El-Arish, near the boundary of Egypt and Palestine, as well as detachments of Turkish troops concentrated near that place; one cruiser bombards the Dardanelles forts; Russian squadron bombards Eregli and Sunguldaik, in Asia Minor, on the Black Sea.
April 17—Two British ships drive ashore and destroy a Turkish torpedo boat which attacked a British transport in the Aegean Sea; it is reported that 100 men on the transport were drowned; Greek steamer Ellispontis, en route for Montevidio from Holland, is torpedoed in the North Sea, the crew being saved.
April 18—British submarine E-15 runs ashore in the Dardanelles, the crew being captured by Turks; two British picket boats, under a heavy fire, then torpedo and destroy the stranded vessel to prevent her being used by the Turks.
April 19—Russian Black Sea torpedo boat squadron bombards the coast of Turkey in Asia, between Archav and Artaschin; provision stores and barracks are destroyed; many Turkish coastwise vessels laden with ammunition and supplies are sunk; six allied torpedo boats fail in an attempt to penetrate the Dardanelles.
April 20—Two Turkish torpedo boat destroyers are blown up while passing through a mine belt laid by the Russians across the entrance to the Bosporus.
April 21—British freighter Ruth is sunk by a German submarine in the North Sea, crew being rescued.
April 22—M. Augagneur, French Minister of Marine, and Winston Spencer Churchill, First Lord of the British Admiralty, hold a conference in the north of France as to the best means of forcing the Dardanelles; an Anglo-French fleet is sighted off the lower coast of Norway; German Admiralty gives out a statement that British submarines have been repeatedly sighted lately in Heligoland Bay and that one of these submarines was sunk on April 17; all steamship communication between the British Isles and Holland is suspended; allied fleet bombards Dardanelles forts and points on the west coast of Gallipoli; British trawler St. Lawrence is sunk in the North Sea by a German submarine, two of the crew being lost; a German submarine has taken the British steam trawler Glancarse into a German port from a point off Aberdeen; British trawler Fuschia brings into Aberdeen the crew of the trawler Envoy, which was shelled by a German submarine.
April 23—German Admiralty announces that the German high seas fleet has recently cruised repeated in the North Sea, advancing into English waters without meeting British ships; the British Official Gazette announces a blockade, beginning at midnight, of Kamerun, German West Africa; Norwegian steamer Caprivi is sunk by a mine off the Irish coast.
April 24—Finnish steamer Frack is sunk in the Baltic by a German submarine; Norwegian barks Oscar and Eva are sunk by a German submarine, the crews being saved.
April 25—Russian Black Sea fleet bombards the Bosporus forts.
April 26—French armored cruiser Leon Gambetta is torpedoed by the Austrian submarine U-5 in the Strait of Otranto; 552 of her men, including Admiral Senes and all her commissioned officers, perish; Italian vessels rescue 162 men; the cruiser was attacked while on patrol duty in the waterway leading to the Adriatic Sea, and sank in ten minutes after the torpedo hit; England stops all English Channel and North Sea shipping, experts believing that the Admiralty order is connected with the desperate fighting now going on at Ypres; German converted cruiser Kronprinz Wilhelm, lying at Newport News, interns until the end of the war.
April 27—Sixteen battleships and armored cruisers of the Allies attack advance batteries at the Dardanelles, but do little damage; British battleships Majestic and Triumph, damaged, have to withdraw from the fighting line; the fleet is operating in conjunction with the land forces.
April 28—Bombardment of the Dardanelles is continued by the Allies; French armored cruiser Jeanne d'Arc is damaged by fort fire; Captain of a Swedish steamer reports the presence in the North Sea of a German fleet of sixty-eight vessels of all classes.
April 29—British steamer Mobile is sunk by a German submarine off the north coast of Scotland, the crew being saved.
April 30—Allied fleet is co-operating with the troops in their advance on the Gallipoli Peninsula; British battleship Queen Elizabeth directs the fire of her fifteen-inch guns upon the Peninsula under guidance of aviators; a Turkish troopship is sunk; Zeebrugge is bombarded from the sea; British trawler Lily Dale is sunk by a German submarine in the North Sea; British Admiralty announces that the German steamship Macedonia, which escaped from Las Palmas, Canary Islands, a few weeks ago, has been captured by a British cruiser.