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• n  the activity of detecting and disposing of marine mines

• Such mines greatly increase the dangers of minesweeping, since the sweeper may be the fatal tenth vessel.
• The minesweeping will require at least two months; it could take another year to detonate all the explosives in the canal and along its banks and to clear it of wreckage.
• The British have 42 minesweeping vessels, the Dutch 13 and West Germany 25.