THE MENACE OF THE SUBMARINE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9647, 23 January 1903, Page 3

THE MENACE OF THE SUBMARINE

+ FRENCH ACTIVITY BENEATH THE WAVES. LONDON, Dec. 12. From lime to fckme-tbe occasional student of naval matters at home finds indications of the existence among my Lords of the Admiralty of a notion that thesubmarine may possibly play a serious part m naval warfare of the future. From time to time, also, he hears that which convinces him of the fact that the French naval authorities have really decided that tliis recent engine of war is a very valuable adjunct to the country's naval resources. The French Government is now building 70 of these submarines, and m the naval harbor of Cherbourg some of them are already to be seen daily darting about and energetically training their crews against the evil day when their teeth must be bared m earnest. Recently when the Russian fleet was visiting Cherbourg, demonstrations were made to show how easily a fleet could be attacked either while lying at anchor or patrolling the high seas, and at the l-e---cent French manoeuvres off Brest, full confirmation was given of the powers of these under-water gunboats. Four submarines of the "Francais" type were driven electrically. Tlu> ports of Cherbourg and Brest were watched during the six days' supposed war, by two different cruiser squadrons, yet these boats were able to leave the harbor of Cherbourg unobserved, torpedo the. battleships m the harbor of Brest, and return again to their port of departure, for all practica.l purposes unobserved, the distance travelled m all being 220 miles, over a period of 62 hours. A performance of so practical a nature is certainly an "eye-opener" to those who have looked upon the. submarine as only a. ratlwa* dangerous toy. The "Francais" type of eleotric submarine can dive, when "closed up," m 15 seconds, or, if notclosed up, m two minutes, over a. course of eight miles, the periscope (which is capable, by rotation, of giving a clear view all round) remaining constantly one foot out of water, showing the regularity m depth-keeping of the French boat. Moreover, torpedoes fired at moving targets, at a range of 600 metres, made direct hits, which shows the precision attained by the French at torpedo practice. Tv regard to signalling to submarine boats under water, successful experiments were recently carried out at Cherbourg with an instrument of the Marconi type, by which effective communication was carried out at a depth of 41 metres. The. manoeuvres, it seems, have decided the French naval authorities to considerably increase the size of the submarines. The latest boats laid down will have a displacement of 70 or 80 tons, but much larger ones have been l-ecmnmcnced, as the I'asult of the practical experiments earned out during the late manoeuvres. There can, it- seems, be little doubt that finding it impossible to compete numerically with England m the matter of battleships and cruisers, the French authorities have of late been concentrating their energies on the development of the submarine, which, whilst possessing defensive powers at least equal to mines and torpedoes for merely protective work, have a fairly wide range when used as weapons of attack. Jt is well known m naval tactics what it .would mean to approach a port guarded by torpedoes, either of a mechanical or stationary type. These means of defence are, however, likely only k> be encountered m close proximity* to important coaling stations, harbors or dockyards. In the near future, however, one navy will have to face a very different state of things, for some of the 70 French submarines are capable of cruising, under electricity . for 800 miles, and can operate successfully m the high seas.