UNDER THE SEA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7189, 6 January 1902, Page 4

UNDER THE SEA.

TESTING AN AMERICAN

SUBMARINE.

At the end of last month a successful experiment was made with America's new Holland submarine torpedo boat Fulton, the crew remaining in the wsscl under tho sea for fifteen hours.

Writing ot the test, a New York piper says: —"In the teeth of the Jierccst gale that has been known on the north-east coast of Long Island in t.vcnty-three years the fifteen-hour submarine test of the Holland torpedo boat Fulton was completed in the waters of Peccnic Bay, and was so successful as <o remain as a marvel. It demonstrated that one of these vessels can remain submerged for weeks, and the crew suffer no inconvenience. Six men, led by Rear- Admiral John Lowo and Capt. Charles T. Cable, slept peaeoEully on the bottom of the bay, while above them the waters rushed to fury by a north-easter that blew seventy-six miles an hour, foamed and fretted, tossing the ships as if they had been toys, and casting them shattered wrecks along the shore.

Unexpected as fi Jlsh coming to the surface, the Fulton leaped above water. Immediately a man sprang atop of her ami set the signal "All well." Captain Cable soon had his head above the turret hatch, and his greeting was the remark, "If I had known you wore having this Mud of weather wo would mt have come up. We didn't know there was a storm."

" Never felt better in my life," was Admiral Lowe's announcement as he came out. "I had a good sleep, and not the least bit of discomfort. We did not have to use any of our reserve air. That boat could stay down eight months if it had food and fuel. I really hardly realised that I was bottled up in the bottom of the bay. It was so comfortable. The test is marvellous, and of untold value to our Navy Department. I did not know there was a storm."

'"The test," said Captain Cable, "was not what I expected it to bo, for it surprised even me. We did not have to use our reserve air. What was iv the boat when we entered was sufficient for the fifteen hours we stayed there, and was still pure when we left.

"One of the air flasks leaked slightly, but not enough to count. I used that flask to blow- out the fifteen tons of water ballast we use iv sinking her. I turned on tho air, and in thirty seconds we shot up like a car iv an elevator.

"I used the air in preference to tho pumps, because I thought our grout depth meant that we had suuk into the mud. I did not know that the waters of (be sound were piled above us by tho wind.

"I am satisfied that we could stay under for weeks. Air supply is no longer a question. The only things to be figured on are food and fuel. Aud there were no bad effects. I felt as comfortable as i£ I had been in my own library. Tiic only toticeable inconvenience was a slight tingling of tho ears as I came outside. • I had not observed it while below."

There were four who missed the trip. They were little white mice, who were to have been placed in the bottom of the ship to detect the presence of dangerous gases. As a white mouse dies twenty times sooner than a nuia they were to be offered as sacrifices to science if such gases existed; but they did not arrive until the crew had been sealed up, and the problem of the gases is still unsolved. Most interesting are the llasks which contain the compressed air. There wcce four of them in all, coil, taining tweiity-aine cubic feet at a pres. sure of 2000 pounds to the square inch.