MINI 



417 



MINE-LAYING 



Mine. < IMIV of explosive in a 



CAM, used in naval, and soim-tiim - 



in Ian. I. warfare. They were first 



< mployed by the Americans in 1776, 



hut muucoessfully. They were 



i tin' < i HIM MII War and the 



ivil War, in which last 



w. u ships were 



destroyed and four damaged by 



I I., -III. ' 111 tin- Kll-io .lap llie-e \\'.ir. 



they caused the loss of the 



i hat tie, hip Petropavlosk 



mid the Japanese battleships 



and Yashima. In the 



(Jreat War tiny were used on an 



enormous scale by both sides. 



Th.- ( ;. i man mines were metal 

 cnorti containing from 50 to 450 

 Id. of lii^h explosive, anchored on 

 the bottom and moored to the 

 anchor by a cable so adjusted that 

 tin- mine automatically " took up " 

 the int. Muled depth, of from 20 to 

 :;nft In-low thesurface. Themines 

 in a field were laid at distances 

 of about 40 or 60 ft. apart. De- 

 tnnution of the mine was caused by 

 t he ship's hull striking a horn in the 

 mine. Mines of this type, laid by a 

 German surface-ship, caused the 

 t he Audacious, Oct. 27, 1914. 

 Similar mines, laid by a German 

 .-ulimarine, caused the loss of the 

 Hampshire, June 5, 1916, and of 

 numerous other British vessels, 

 until the introduction of the 

 paravane (q.v.) gave British vessels 

 immunity against serious damage 

 liy tliis weapon. 



In the British Navy the mines at 

 the outset were defective, often 

 failed to " take up " proper depth 

 or to explode, and contained too 

 small a charge. In the later period 

 of the war they were transformed 

 and so improved that they became 

 most deadly, indicting on the Ger- 

 mans a loss during 1917-18 of 

 about 100 vessels in the Bight of 

 Heligoland alone. Certain types of 

 Uritish and American mines were 

 confidential, but they contained 

 charges of 300 lb., and were fitted 

 with " antennae," or thin cables of 

 copper wire reaching to within a 

 lew feet of the surface, contact with 

 which, even when the mine was 

 laid very deep, produced instant ex- 

 plosion. There were other and even 

 deadlier devices which remained 

 I'fh'eial secrets. In Germany, 

 the maximum output of mines was 

 2,000 per month ; in Great Britain, 

 a figure of 5,000 per month was 

 reached in 1917 ; and in the U.S.A. 

 at the close of the war the output 

 was 1,000 per day. .Barrages of 

 mines were used extensively by 

 the Allies in the later stage of the 

 war to shut in the U boats. For 

 destruction of submarines, mines 

 require to be laid very deep. 



I-and mines were employed to 

 some extent in the Great War 



P ;n i n nlarly for defence against 

 tanks. nuwtod of heavy 



charges of high explosives buried 

 in i he in omul, and so arranged that 

 the passage of a heavy weight over 

 them would cause an explosion. 

 In the attack on the llind.nhiir-.' 

 Line, Sept. L"., l!18, ten American 

 tanks were destroyed by passing 

 over an old and forgotten tank 

 mine-field. See. Explosives. 



Mine Field. Area of navigable 

 water, strewn with mines to pre- 

 vent the passage of vessels not pro- 

 vided with a plan of the safe chan- 

 nels. Mine fields may be laid to 

 operate against surface vessels or 

 against submarines submerged. 

 Some of the mine fields laid during 

 the Great War covered hundreds 

 of square miles and contained tens 

 of thousands of mines. For the 

 protection of neutral shipping, the 

 British admiralty from time to 

 time published notices defining 

 new mined areas. Thus in April, 

 1917, they announced that from 

 April the dangerous area was 3 m. 

 instead of 4 m. from the coast of 

 Jutland. Similarly instead of an 

 area extending to a point 7 m. from 

 the coast of Holland, the new 

 area included the limits of Nether- 

 lands territorial waters. The 

 British-laid mine fields were chiefly 

 in the North Sea, and in the area 

 extending from the N. of Scotland 

 to the territorial waters of Norway. 

 See Dogger Bank. 



Minehead. Urban dist. and 

 market town of Somerset. It 

 stands on the S. side of the Bristol 

 Channel, 25m. 

 from Taunt on, 

 and 188 m. from 

 London, with a 

 station on the 

 G. W. Ely. S. 

 Michael's church 

 is a fine 14th cen- 

 tury building, 

 with a beautiful 

 rood loft and other features of 

 interest. The older part of the 

 town is built on the side of North 

 Hill, a bold eminence which pro- 

 tects the lower and newer part. At 



Minebead arms 



Minehead, Somerset Promenade and n 

 frit* 



Quay Town, near the harbour, 

 are some old houses. Minehead is * 

 popular watering-place, from which 

 Kxmoor, Lynton, and other beauty 

 spots in Somerset and Devon can 

 easily be reached. It was a flourish- 

 ing port in the Middle Ages, and 

 for a short time was a corporate 

 town. From 1558 to 1832 it sent 

 two members to Parliament, and it 

 had fairs and markets. Market day, 

 third Mon. Pop. 3,450. 



Mine - laying. Operation in 

 naval warfare. Submarine mine- 

 are of two classes : observation 

 mines are used merely for local 

 defence and detonated electrically 

 when a ship is seen passing over the 

 mined area ;and con tact mines which 

 are anchored in minefields. The 

 second Hague Convention forbade 

 the setting adrift of contact mines, 

 but the Germans ignored this 

 prohibition in the Great War, and 

 there is no method by which mines 

 breaking adrift from their moor- 

 ings, as they often will, can with 

 certainty be made innocuous. 



Mines can be laid by almost 

 every class of vessel ; converted 

 cargo ships have been largely em- 

 ployed, and special mine-laying 

 ships have been built. Two of" the 

 German cruisers which were brought 

 to Scapa Flow after the armistice in 

 1918 had been specially fitted as 

 mine-layers, and each carried about 

 360 mines. Italian scouting cruisers 

 were provided with mine-laying 

 equipment, and each carried about 

 100 mines. Caution is required 

 in laying mines, but the safety gear 

 has been brought to such per- 

 fection that few disasters occur. 



The mine-layer is fitted with 

 rotary gear, and an endless chain 

 equipment, which engages mine 

 after mine, each with its sinker and 

 line, on the deck of the vessel, where 

 they are drawn aft on trolleys 

 along a special track, and dropped 

 over the stern in succession. The 

 operation is partly automatic, but 

 skilled men are required to con- 

 duct the feeding of the mine-laying 

 gear. Difficulties arise from strong 

 currents, great rise and fall of 

 tide, heavy seas, 

 i bad weather, and 

 the character of the 

 bottom. This was 

 the case in the 

 Straits of Dover 

 from 1914 on- 

 ward, where the 

 barrage was a com- 

 bination of sub- 

 surface mining 

 and an intensive 

 patrol. The ac- 

 tivity of the 

 U.S. mining ser- 

 vice in the North 

 Channel mine 



