The Year 1915 Illustrated/Naval Activities in the Gulf of Riga

EWS trickled through during the third week of August of German naval activities in the Baltic. It was generally inferred that these were connected with the advance of von Büllow's army on Riga, and it was suggested by some that there was a possibility of a serious landing of troops on the shores of the Gulf of Riga. It was with some surprise, however, that the public read on August 23rd of a serious rebuff to the German naval menace in those waters. It appears from the Russian statement that when the German vessels entered the Gulf the Russian Admiral withdrew his ships to the North-East. The preliminary object of the Germans was to destroy the Russian mines, and this work cost them some vessels, including a cruiser.

On the night of August 17th, the enemy sent into the Gulf of Riga two of his best destroyers to attack the Slava, which was impeding operations. At dawn the destroyers, having failed to discover the Slava, were rejoining the enemy fleet when they met the destroyer Novik, which immediately gave battle. After twenty minutes' desperate fighting one of the German vessels apparently went down. It is also stated that in addition to the ships already reported the Germans lost an auxiliary cruiser.

The only Russian loss was that of the Gunboat Sivoutch, which after making a most gallant fight against great odds, engaging for an hour and a half a German cruiser and two torpedo boats, went down with the guns firing. It was estimated that the Germans lost, as a result of their rash enterprise, the Dreadnought cruiser, Moltke, torpedoed by a British submarine in the Baltic; light cruiser, Thetis, 2,600 tons; an auxiliary cruiser; three destroyers; whilst five other destroyers were said to have been seriously damaged. Other reports also mentioned the sinking of the cruiser Augsburg by a Russian submarine and the destruction of some sloops full of German troops by shore batteries.