THE SUBMARINE

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 3001, 24 July 1916, Page 3

THE SUBMARINE

"THE SUPER SUBMERSIBLE." ARML'D FOR DEFENCE. PASSENGER FARE £1000. The German paper in New York, the Evening Mad, published ou May 24 the llamburg-Amerika line's preliminary announcement of a submarine: cargo and passenger service. I This announcement stated that the "merchant super-submersible" would bo built on a scale, large enough for it to carry 25 torpedoes, and this space was to be used for cargo, mails, ami passengers. Tho vessels, for there would be a line of them, would be armed "for defensive purposes" with a 3hi gun similar to those mounted in British, French, and Italian liners. "It is expected," continued the announcement, "that by August 8 five of these submarines will be operating regularly. They will leave Hamburg and go north of Scotland or through the Channel, as conditions warrant, and will make the voyage in about 10 days (the Deutschland took 17 days), a sustained surface speed of 14 knots being guaranteed."

Each vessel wa.s to bo 450 ft long, with 45ft beam, and would carry a crew of 60 men (the Deutschland carried 23). The navigating surface, when the boat was running on the surface, would- be 30ft above the water line. Above the main hull would bo a superimposed deck, and above this a third deck and the bridge. The second deck was to have portholes like an ordinary vessel, and here the passengers would be accommodated. A single fare would cost £1000. (There wero no passengers reported on the Deutschland —perhaps this tyas the reason.)

Fuel would be carried for a voyage of 6200 miles. The cargo would be chemicals, drugs, and jewels. The Evening Mail ended the announcement with the assurance that the "Transatlantic Submarine Service" would render absolutely ineffective British interference with German mails.