The copper era and Morenci leader., 1915-10-08
EARNEST 0F BRAVE.
Mine-SWeeper Risks Life Every
 Time He Puts to Sea.
Work Is Never Mentioned Because h. formation Would Be Valuable to Enemy-Always Engaged in
 Forlorn Hope.

Liverpool.-In comparison with its population, Liverpool has given more soldiers, sailors and war workers to the nation than any other part of the empire.
 The bravest of them all are the mine-sweepers. The mine-sweeper earns, but he does not get, Victoria cross every voyage. He is always engaged in a forlorn hope, work so dangerous that it is wonder he re- turns safely to his home so often. It is not alone in the Irish seas that he is risking his life so that ships may pass to and fro in safety; in the North sea, no longer the German ocean; in the Dardanelles, in the English chan nel and the Arabian rivers and Per sian gulf, you will find Liverpool sail Ors engaged in the perilous task of mine-sweeping, and so rendering cas- fer, one cannot say easy, the work of our submarines, destroyers, cruisers and battleships.
 At present the British grand fleet is resting in a spot unknown even to the censor, for strange as it may ap- pear, there are scores of telegrams which pass between the fleet and the admiralty, and messages from our armies, which reach Whitehall with out the censor passing line of it, or, for the matter of that, even seeing a word of it.
 These messages record in so many curt words the days doings of an arm of the fleet. Sometimes the ad- miralty and the military authorities consider that it is worth while send ing these messages to the press; more often than not they don't.
 One of the messages seldom pub lished is the work of the mine-sweep- CT. To announce that so many mines had been cleared on such a day in such an area would be valuable infor- nation to the enemy.
 Competent authorities estimate that Germany has scattered about ten thousand mines in various waters con- trolled by the British fleet. Although a large number of them have un- doubtedly been laid by trawlers flying neutral flags, many of them have been just thrown into the water at Helgo- land, at Ostend and at different points of the Baltic, and allowed to drift out with the tide, in the hope that they would sink one of the British ships of war or ships of commerce.
 In the Baltic alone Denmark, Nor way and Sweden have picked up hun dreds of these mines which have been washed on their shores unexploded. And yet for her vast expenditure of over five million dollars in sea-mines, Germany has little or nothing to show beyond the destruction of a few trawl- CTS and few neutral ships, as in rare cases where British trading ships have been sunk by drifting or sta tionary mines, the damage done has been of a more or less harmless char acter. The mine-sweeper, as one of the most valuable sections of the navy, can claim full credit for this.
 Most of the work in clearing the seas of mines is done by trawlers, which usually act in pairs. We have quite a large fleet of trawlers and drifters engaged in this work, which is one of the reasons why fish is so scarce, and dear. They set out at night, so as to be in their working area by daylight, then they fish for mines by a long rope stretched be- tween the two trawlers. Proceeding at very gentle pace. they lift the mine, which is usually about foot and half or two feet below the sur face.
 It is no uncommon thing to find half a dozen stationary mines brought to the surface by one rope. Once in sight well-aimed rife shot explodes them, then the trawlers proceed with their work until another shot is needed
 Apart from the number of mine. sweepers who have lost their lives through German submarine, many have been killed by the explosion of the mines they were gathering; and in other cases the authorities have lost track of trawlers, drifters, and their crews. They have gone to sea- never returned, and left no trace ot themselves. Still, this has not less ened the supply of volunteers for this dangerous work.
 Once the war is over, the mine sweeper will go back to his ordinary 1 vocation as fisherman, sailor or fire man.