Evening star., 1915-03-20
TURKS CLAIM TORPEDOES
SENT BOATS TO BOTTOM
British and French Blame Floating
Mines, Now Recognized as
New Peril.
MAY NEED HELP FROM LAND
Sinking of Irresistible, Ocean and
Bouvet Raises Doubt as to Sue
cess of the Naval
Operations.

| LO4NDoN, MarCn 20, II .O4
p.m.-With the Russian Black
sea feet reported knocking at the
door of the Bosporus and six al
lied battleships renewing the bonn
bardment Of the Turkish positions
on the Dardanelles, the fate OF
the straits is today hanging in the
balance, according to opinions
freely expressed in London.
Nevertheless reports from Turk
ish sources still profess supreme
confidence in the impregnability
of the defending forts which. it
is claimed. have successfully sus-
tanned a bombardment extending
over twenty-one days.
Loss of Three Battleships.
i The report of the British admiralty
giving news of the sinking Of three
battIeships. two British and one
French, is rather haZy as to the re-
suits achieved by this sacrifice, and IL
gives weight to the growing belief
that the straits will not be won until
the naval operations are supported by
effective land forces.
The bombardment Of Friday was in
terrupted by bad weather. but it is an
tciipated that the operations will be
| nrshed "a nidJx no~~itIo
| Second French Ship Crippled
The French admiralty, while express
ing the. hope that some members of
the crew Of the battleship Bouyet have
| been saved. confirms reports from neu-
trail sources that the French battleship
| Gaulois also suffered severely in the
! battle of March 1S
Although Turkish oniciaI reports
| minimize the effect of the bomrard-
| ment. and declare that ConstantinopIe
is not afraid, intelligence received
| from other near eastern points sets
forth that negotiations already have
been begun with the American en-
bassy to act as an intermediary to
guns of the allied warships.
Floating Mines or Torpedoes.
The British battleships Irresistible
and Ocean and the French battleship
Bouvet were blown up by floating
| mines. according to official British and
French statements a Constantinop.e
dispatch, by way of Berlin, however,
attributes their destruction to torpe-
does.
The crews of the two British ships
We're virtually all saved, having been
transferred to other ships under a hot
fire, but an internal explosion took
place on board the Bouvet after she
had fouled the mine, and most of her
crew were lost. The Bouvet sank with
in three minutes of the time that she
hit the mine
The waters in which the ships wcrs
lost had been swept of mines, but the
British admiralty asserts that tlie
Turks and the Germans set floating
containers of explosives adrift, and
these were carried down by the cur
rent onto the allied ships gathered in
side the entrance Of the straits.
Vessels Old, But Useful.
All the ships that were sunk were old
ones the Bouvet having been completed
nearly twenty years ago and the Ocean
and Irresistible in 1898. They were
very useful. however. for the work in
which they were engaged in the Oar
danelles.
The sunken British ships are being
replaced by the battleships Queen and
Lmplacable, vessels of a similar type.
They are said to have started some time
ago for near eastern waters in antici-
patton of just such losses as have now
occurred Two other ships engaged in
the fighting, the British battle cruiser
lnfexible and the French battlesnlp
Gaulois, were hit by shells and dam
aged.
The British casualties, according 10
the British official report. were not
heavy, considering the scale of the
operations.
Weather Prevents Engagement.
Six battleships re-entered the Dar-
danelles straits Friday, according to q
dispatch received here by the Reuter-
Telegram Company, from the Island
of Tenedos.
This resumption OF the action after
the loss Thursday of the three battle-
ships failed to accomplish anything.
for the reason that the unfavorable
weather conditions made operations
impossible.
"Advices from Tenedos say that the
allied fleet destroyed a powder maya
zine in the town of Dardanelles. which
resulted In the town being set on fire.,
saws the Athens correspondent OF lteu-
ter's Telegram Company Most OF the
forts were seriously damaged
"An artillery duel took place in the
Dardanelles from midnight to O'Clock
this (Friday) morning between mobile
batteries and allied ships engaged i'll COW
ering mine sweeping operations. Several