November 6, 1915. 
LAND AND WATER 
effect anxthing against the experienced destroyer 
squadrons of our Allies. 
Looking at these statements as a whole, it 
it impossible to say more than that a bombardment 
has apparently taken place, and as there would be 
little object in bombarding unless a subsequent 
landing were intended, that it is obviously possible 
that the Odessa expedition reported to us through 
Hungary may indeed have started. The fortunes 
of such an expedition will be watched here with 
the greatest possible interest. The number of 
landings successfully made on a defended coast is 
extraordinarily small. The Dardanelles landings 
are, of course, entirely witlujut precedent. It is 
not' likely that the Bulgarian coast is as well 
defended as was that of the Peninsula. On the other 
hand, it is even less likelj- that the combined 
resources of Odessa, Nikolaieff and Sevastopol can 
afford the equipment a\ailable to Admiral de 
Robeck and Sir Ian Hamilton. Manifestly the 
Russians must engage in the operation with not 
more than one-sixth of the purely naval support 
in the shape of big gunfire. But it does not at all 
follow that the chances of success would be less. 
In seamanship and gunnery, the Russian Navy 
has very little to learn from anyone, and the 
intensely individual and therefore vivid. Mr. 
Hurd is brilliantl}' descriptive, bringing into his 
narrative something of the speed and rush of the 
relentless striking force that he portrays so well. 
Mr. Cornford, more reserved in style and diction, 
marshals his facts with an art which brings each 
truth home to us like a succession of well-con- 
trolled salvoes, one straddling the target after the 
other. All three have this advantage over Mr. 
Palmer — that they are more personal. They write 
as men long since familiar with the thing they see. 
Mr. Palmer, one feels, is repeating in singularly 
picturesque phrases the information and explana- 
tions that are given to him. 
THE SUBMARINE CAMPAIGNS. 
The various submarine campaigns more than 
maintain their interest, and the interest varies 
with the character of each campaign. In the Sea 
of Marmora and in the Baltic the interest is, of 
course, purely military. In the first the Turkish 
transport Carmen has been sent to the bottom, 
and in the second five more German supply 
ships have been sunk, and a sixth was escorted 
by a submarine into Reval as a prize. On the 
other hand, in the ^Egean, where the enemy's 
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SHIPS BRITISH, NEUTRAL, (N), AND ALLIED (A), TORPEDOED AND MINED IN HOME WATERS IN THE 
MONTHS OF JULY (49), AUGUST (66), SEPTEMBER (40), AND OCTOBER (16). 
Russian infantry has proved itself indifferent to campaign is partly commercial and partly military, 
losses too often for any doubts to arise as to 
discipline and resolution necessary for carrying 
through so desperate an adventure. 
THE GRAND FLEET. 
If we have little authentic naval news this 
week, there has been no lack of admirable naval 
reading. Monday's papers were filled with the 
impressions that the Grand Fleet had made on 
three of the most experienced, capable and brilliant 
of our naval journalists. The fact that Mr. Palmer 
had been allowed to visit the Fleet and write his 
excellent series of articles for the Times made it ' 
we have lost the transport Marquette, fortunately 
with relatively small loss of fife for a disaster of this 
kind, and the Itahans a merchant vessel. The 
submarine blockade of these Islands has slackened 
very considerably. In the whole month of October 
only i6 ships, British, neutral and allied hive been 
sunk in home waters. I give this week diagram 
statements of the total attacks on trading ships 
for the months of July, August, September and 
October. And also a graph showing the varia- 
tions in the rate of destruction. Tl^e reader 
should note that these include ships mined, as well 
as torpedoed. They represent then something 
inevitable that the same opportunity should be more than the high water mark of submarine de- 
given to English experts. And certainly a better 
selection of experts could not have been made. 
One cannot, of course, but envy them their oppor- 
tunity ; but I envy them the use they have made 
of it still more. The three accounts, naturall\- 
enough, agree substantially in the information 
which they give us. But each is characteristic of the 
personality and attainments of its writer, and all 
three should be read for the varying light and 
colour they throw. Commander Robinson, whose 
sure literary touch gives distinction to everything 
he writes, has invested his article with a certain 
wistful reminiscence that makes his impressions 
struct! veness. From the last week in January, 
when the thing began, to the end of October is 39 
weeks. To construct the graph I have taken 
the centre of gravity of nine groups of four 
weeks each, and of the final group of three 
only. The average of the first four weeks was 
three attacks a week. The average of the last 
group is only two. In point of efficiency then the 
blockade has been reduced below what it was 
when it began, and we shall naturafly all be asking 
ourselves, does this mean that the thing is virtually 
over ? Will it revive or will it be maintained at 
this sort of level ? 
13 
