The Destruction of Courageous'
It would be idle to deny that the sinking of the aircraft- carrier Courageous,' with the loss of about 50o men out of a crew of 1,200, is a blow to the British Navy and a signal achievement for the submarine which torpedoed her. Though no vessel, however attended, can be absolutely safe- guarded against such attacks, and aircraft-carriers, from the nature of their work, are likely to run greater risks than other capital ships, it will be a relief to have authoritative assurance that the seas are soon likely to be safer against attacks of this kind. It will be recalled that early in the last war, on September aand, 1914, three armoured cruisers, Hogue," Cressy ' and ' Aboukir,' were destroyed by enemy submarines off the Dutch coast. The public have been moved by the record of the coolness of officers and men in the presence of disaster and of the efforts which succeeded in rescuing close on 700 of them. The loss of the trained men is first in our thoughts, and reasonably so, for our superiority over Germany in naval vessels is overwhelming. In the last war Germany loped that she might succeed in gradually wearing down Britain's supremacy in capital ships. In the present war she has no such hope.
Previous page
