The Collaborative International Dictionary
marine mine \ma*rine" mine`\, n. (Mil.) A military explosive device designed to be placed on or under the surface of a body of water, and to explode when ships pass nearby or come in contact with it. Its function is to destroy enemy ships or deny hostile naval forces access to certain areas of the sea, usually near the shoreline. Also called underwater mine and floating mine, and previously referred to as a torpedo (See torpedo[2] (a) ).
WordNet
n. an explosive mine designed to destroy ships that bump into it [syn: marine mine]
Usage examples of "floating mine".
Collision with a floating mine might explain explosion, but seems fanciful, besides highly unlikely as sinking started at stern, which in all likelihood would mean that hull breach was at stern too.
These were the first to be interviewed, and their conflicting stories blamed the explosion on everything from a floating mine of World War Two, to a cargo of weapons and munitions being smuggled by the Russians into Central America.
He sat on a floating mine (if you know what I mean) a year or two ago, right on one of the buttons!
Either the ship had exploded from a spontaneous combustion in the coal-bins, or a floating mine had accidentally hit a bulkhead, or—.
Either the ship had exploded from a spontaneous combustion in the coal-bins, or a floating mine had accidentally hit a bulkhead, or -- and this was currently being whispered up and down Printing House Square -- Hearst himself had caused the Maine to be blown up so that he could increase the Journal's circulation with his exciting, on-the-spot coverage of the war.
Why, I read just the other day how some ship was blown up by a floating mine!