LIFE IN A SUBMARINE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1687, 29 June 1904, Page 20

LIFE IN A SUBMARINE.

British submarine boats are like large, fiat cigars, with a ridge at the top, to serve as a deck when running afloat, and inside is one “room,” in which officers and men have to make themselves as comfortable as may be during the hours of duty. Even the Admiralty, recognises that, apart from the danger attending such service, existence must be fraught with much discomfort, and the crew receive what is styled “hard lying money” as some compensation. Yet every man who serves in a submarine is a volunteer. The same remark applies to the officers, and in spite' of all the-close confinement and disadvantages attaching to this work the supply of officers and men always exceeds the number of vacancies in the flotilla. It speaks well for the survival of the old spirit of the British fleet,which made it mistress of the seas, that there is this keenness for a job which, regarded through the rosiest coloured spectacles, is risky, uncomfortable, and entails close confinement. Submarines are not boats in which men have to live in the same sense as they remain for a !>ng period in torpedo craft. In their present state of development they are boats in which the men stay only during tne actual hours of duty, but in war time there is no saying that®!hey would not be called upon to spend several days on board. But in face of a foe men will make great sacrifices which are uncalled for in ordinary peace operations. During recent manoeuvres at Home the crews of the submarines were confined in their tiny amphibious homes for long periods, and the excitement occasioned by tne duels with big ships proved ample compensation for the discomforts. In the British Navy, at least, it can bo said that there is me keenest desire to experiment with submarine (craft vji tlibufc reservations, so complete is the confidence of officers anti men in their war value and their safety. Men have become inured to the conditions on board these craft. When first they are submerged they suffer from smging in the ears, and have a feeling of nausea just as divers fresh to the work do, but this wears off, and the sphere of duty comes to be attractive in many oases from its very unique character. When the boat is set to diye like a porpoise the inclination naturally-Us to fear that sue is going. to- take a header to the bottom of the sea, and at first this led to the man controlling the horizontal rudders nervously bringing the boat to the surface at once with a jump. But this anxiety soon gave way to confidence. So long as tne boat is not far submerged a certain amount of light straggles through the glass scuttles,, castling a weird greenish hue on everything. But in lower depths the electric light is switched on, and the whole of the interior is lighted up. There is a feeling of safety in numbers when you can see your companions, and men soon become accustomed to the strange, cramped, unnatural conditions under which they live,

and every care is taken to regulate tins pressure of air.