The Admiralty's return of losses by mine or submarines for
last week is again less unfavourable than we had feared. Thirteen largo merchantmen and three small ships were sunk, while thirteen boat off the assailants and escaped. These are the lowest figures recorded since March. As in the previous week we lost fifteen large and five small vessels, or less than the average number, and as both in June and May we suffered far less than in April, we may perhaps begin to hope that the Allied Navies have taken the measure of the submarines, for the volume of shipping in and out of our porta remains much the same from week to week. We shall continue to lose merchantmen to the very end of the war, as we did in the struggle with Napoleon. But we may fairly expect to keep the submarine menace within, narrowing limits, and to avert its ill effects by harder work in the shipyards as well as by strict economy in the house.
