FIFTY YEARS AGO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23619, 1 April 1940, Page 12

FIFTY YEARS AGO

INVENTION OF SUBMARINE The submarine, which lias now become one of tlie. most potent weapons of sen warfare, was still in its earliest, experimental stages 50 years ago. The following comment, which does not realise I lie full destructive force of the new development, is taken from the Xkw /dai,an l) 11 Kit a r.i) of .April 1, 1890: — '

"It is not often wo have to record an attempt to realise in actual work a dream of fiction, but such is the now submarine boat, Lo Goubet, which Prince Waldemar of Denmark is staying at Cherbourg to test. The idea of this boat was taken from a novel of Jules Verne's. The vessel is to he eqnallv capable of sailing on tho surface of the water and diving below it. It is like a fish in form, and can go below the submerged chains in harbours, can run around buoys and can cut cables and wires with shears at its keel. It is not hard to transport, by land. It is its easy to hang on to the davits of a vessel as a lifeboat,. The Paris correspondent of the Daily News states that the other day the two men who work this curious little vessel stayed several hours under water without feeling inconvenience. They take with them a supply of oxygen which enables them to breathe freely when below the surface, and they can eat their meals quite comfortably. The inventor is M. Goubet, after whom the boat is called. If ho succeeds as he expects, he will receive a large order from Russia."