DEVELOPMENT OF THE SUBMARINE.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15777, 19 December 1916, Page 8

DEVELOPMENT OF THE SUBMARINE.

"WAR-TIME CHANGES. RANGE AND SPEED. (Bv the Naval Correspondent of "The Times.") The return of 1" 53 to Germany, and the reported arrival in America of the Deutsehland on her second trip across the Atlantic, are events of great interest. hut of 110 new significance, in the enemy's submarine operations. Both ■\vere expected, nnd both rather overdue. It -»>!! I>." noticed that Commander Rose took nearly a week longer to come home than to make the outward passage, which suggests a cautious voyage, and possibly a deliberate delay in order to pai" the benelifc of the dark nights Avhieh prevailed towards the end oMast week. He will certainly be credited by his compatriots with the accomplishment, of a delicatc and difficult piece' of work in bringing the. TJ 53 through the Allied cordon of cruisers and patrol boats, but for a submarine manned with » picked crew the task is not &o hard as it might seem. Anyway, one swallow docs not make a summer. The late captain of the Mowe had a double success at the beginning of this year in running tho blockade both out and homo, but he has had 110 imitators, although, as the destruction of the Greif showed, thero havo been attempts in this direction. The new feature' about U o3's cruise id that we have tho dates of its beginning and end, and the exploit of sinking the fix steamers off the Nantucket lightship on October Sth appears in a somewhat different light when it is seen that the .submarine had to make a sixweeks' voyage to do it. Add other two or three weeks in which the boat must remain ;it her base for refit and repair and to rest her crew, and it will be- realised how impossible is the hope of sustaining a submarine blockade of the American coast, especially -when it is i\wsmbered that no other boats will have the benefit of the element of surprise with which U -53 was favoured. The problems presented by a submarine campaign on the other side of the Atlantic seem rather to be political and legal than naval. The of accounting for the submarines which have proved effective in home •waters and in the Mediterranean may not be adapted to localities in proximity to tho coast of the United States. At tho same time, it can hardly be expected that tho Allied Powers will stand idly looking on if merchant ships continue to be sunk in the "trade planes approximate to American waters." AX INSTRUCTIVE CONTRAST. It is instructive to compare the particulars, said to be official, which havo been telegraphed from America concorning the dimensions, etc., of the 17 53 with those of the British "E" class submarines, tho latest in commission when the war £roke out. The respective details arc as follows: — "E" Boats. IT 53. Torpedo tubes .. •• 4-° *.. „. One -tin. Guns .. •• •• ir.Ooin. oue3ill . Peiiscope.3 .. •• Three 11.P.. oil engines .. 1,750 2,4C0 Spe-otl (e-.macel .. .. 16 knots 18 knot 3 Speed (submerged) .. 10 14 knots Submerged radius .. — 5,000 knots There is shown here the progress in construction made in- two years. Not that, the development indicated in the German figures comes as any surprise. It was not only anticipated by many, but plainly evident to, our naval authorities', whose replj' cannot yet bo disclosed. On more than one occasion I have referred in these columns to tho entry into service, actual or pending, of improved German submarines, the designs for which had been prepared some inontiis before the war began. Boats of from 1,700 to 2,000 tons displacement. carrying four 4in. or Gin. guns, with engines of 4,000 horsepower, and a speed on the surface of 16J knots, had been planned, and there was admittedly no mechanical difficulty in constructing boats of this size. Indeed. vessels of even larger types., with 6,000 h.p., were in sight. FEWER GUNS AND GREATER . SPEED. The experience of the war would seem to indicate an interesting modification of these designs. Tho..demand for guns has been reduced, as in most, at any rate, of the boats of which we have had information not more than two weapons were carried. On the other lmnd. the speed lias gone up. Vessels of 20 knots made their appearance. at quite an early stage of the submarine blockade. The U53, so far as her speed and armament are concerned, roprosentg a compromise between the designs of 1914 and moat of the German boats completed during the war. She is neither exceptionally well armed nor particularly fast, hut her remarkable feature is her .radius of action. "Where she might have carried four guns she has onlv two; her torpedo tubes number only four, and lierj surface speed of 18 knots represents the medium between the 14-knot boats finished before the war and those of 20 knots which have been employed around these islands. The interesting development of the range of action of submarines, which, though confidently expected, has been hastened considerably under the stress of war, is one of the features of tho sea warfare, from both, the naval and engineering standpoints. When hostilities wrre declared it was thought to be as much as the U boats could do to reach tho shores of these, islands. One recalls the sensation experienced by the public when it was found that tho U9 had been able to travel as far south as the Hook of Holland and torpedo tho three ' Cressys." In December. 1914. Grand Admiral von Tirpitz, in the historic interview in which he foreshadowed a submarine "blockade," said:— "The successes achieved (by the submarines) do not justify the conclusion that large ships arc piayed out. It is still a question whether submarines could have behaved 60 splendidly in other waters. In this_ war We have learnt a great deal. We believed that they could scarcely remain longer than three davs from their base, as after that time their crews would be exhausted. Wc soon discovered that tho larger tvpes of these boats could go round England and remain out for as much as 14 days at a time." Two months later the first U boats reached the waters of the Irish Channel, and two months later still they were busy off the south coast of Ireland. lii May, 1915. helped bv 6upplies en route, the first of them had reached tho Dardanelles. Tim following September saw a regular campaign against merchant shipping instituted in Mediterranean waters, which became specially virulent in December, 1915, and April, 1916. Simultaneously the boats, as things became, too hot for them in. the Mediterranean, began to operate in the Atlantic. Tho extension of their depredations to tho American coast conld not come, therefore, as a surprise.