HOW SUBMARINES ARE SAVED.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 144351, 16 March 1914, Page 5

HOW SUBMARINES ARE SAVED.

RESCUE EXPERIENCES, The touching funeral service over the bodies of the crew of submarine A 7, encased in their coffin ship in the mud deep below, of which we had a cabled account recently, makes particularly interesting this account by the naval expert of the Daily Mail apropos of her: —

A 7 is one of tho earliest submarines now in service in the British Navy, as the experimental Holland boats, the first submarines built for the Admiralty, have been discarded. She was built by Messrs. Vickers at Barrow in 1904, being one of a class of thirteen boats four of which have now been discarded. She has a displacement of 210 tons under water and 180 tons on the surface. When on the surfare she is driven by petrol engines of 500 h.p. at a speed of eleven and a half knots. Under water she uses electric motors of 150 h.p., propelling her at a speed of eight knots, and supplied with current from accumulators.

SAFETY APPLIANCES. To enable a submarine to sink or rise she is fitted with ballast tanks. Water is admitted into these to sink her. though she also uses horizontal rudders to govern her movements upwards and downwards. If her commander wishes to rise suddenly'to the surface he gives the order-to blow the ballast tanks, when compressed air is driven into them, expelling the water with greaz speed. In some foreign submarines, notably tho French, a heavy detachable weight is carried, which can be released in any emergency, hut this appliance is not regarded with favour by tho British Navy. In the case of the French submarine Soufflenr, damaged and sent to the bottom by a collision in November, 1907, tho releasing of this weight saved IV- vessel and her crew.

Various safety appliances to enable the crow to escape in the event of pji accident to tho boat are carried by the more recent British submarines—those of the C and later classes. There is a supply of -helmets, fitted with a chemical apparatus which renews the quality of the air, giving oxygen. Each of the crew puts on one of these helmets, and then the manholes are opened, and. in theory, the crew escape through the conning tower. The contrivance works excellently in favourable circumstances.

POISONOUS GAS PERIL. Such helmets are of groat value in enabling the crew to resist tho poisonous fumes given off if the sea water enters the boat and comes into contact with tho acid in the accumulators. In such conditions chlorine gas is evolved in small quantities, producing such fits of coughing that work is impossible. In larger quantities-it is fatal. If a submarine has gone to tho bottom and cannot bo raised by the efforts of her crew and her own buoyancy, salvage appliances are brought into play. The depth at which she lies is of enormous importance for quick salvage, because a largo part of the work has to be done by divers, who cannot exert themselves at levels below T2oft. or 150 ft., and even at 100 ft. labour with extreme difficulty owing to tho pressure of water.

Tho usual procedure is to bring a lighter or floating crane or specially equipped vessel for raising submarines to the spot, which can often be located bv tho bubbles rising from tho boat. Tho British Navy has one ship complete. built specially for raising submarines, but at the time the AT sank she was reported near Portsmouth, so that she could not reach the place where the A 7 is in time to save life. THE LIFTING SHIP. In the case of the German submarine U 3, which sank in Kiel Harbour in 1911, the special vessel for lifting submarines attached to the German Navy happened not to have steam up, but was towed to the place and employed with such effect that twenty-seven men were rescued alive, only three officers and men perishing. When the lighter, crane, or lifting ship has arrived hawsers have to be ■placed under the submarine by divers. This is a very difficult and exhausting task, as tho hawsers must necessarily be of great strength and corresponding weight. When they have been got under each end of the boat the lifting begins, but the hawsers arc always hablo to slip. Where' a floating crane is available and the sea is not too rough to permit ■if its use the task of raising the boat is simplified. Otherwise it is a .slow and tedious process, agonising in its anxiety when human lives are in peril.

The British submarines of the A class have not been fortunate. Three have been sunk at various dates with heavy loss of life, two of them by collision. Those wore; Al. lost in 1904 with 11 dead; A 3, lost in 1913. with 14 dead; and AB, lost in 1905 with 14 dead. Al and A 8 were subsequently raised. A 4 had a narrow escape in 1905, as a quantity of water found its way into the boat and an explosion followed. She rose instantly to the surface stern first and was taken in tow by a tug, which dragged her level, thus saving tho lives of all on board.

ALIVE AFTER XTXE HOURS. As for the lime during which the crew of a submerged boaf can support life, in April of last .year a Russian submarine, the Minoga, was raised with her crew of twenty alive after nine hours’ submersion. When the hatch was opened throe men were able to crawl out. Sixteen were removed unconscious, but the coxswain, who was in the conning tower and the last to be reached, was found to be in the best condition of all. The unconscious men woro speedily revived and recovered completely. They suffered most from the poisonous gas generated by the inrush of water. A COOL CREW. AS had as great an escape in 1908, when an escape of petrol gas rendered her crew of cloven insensible. This same boat, AS, sank in 1910, and refused to rise. She had on board a supply of oxygen sufficient to last seven hours. The pressure of the water upon her started a serious leak, and the first task of the crew, who remained perfectly cool, was to stop it. They got the leak under control, pumped out the water in the boat, and cleared the motors, and _ then at last managed to make her rise, after she had been below for more than an hour. In the words of one of her crew; — _ “The officer in command soon realised what had happened, and told us wo should be all right in a little while. He’ directed the ballast tanks to be blown, but before this could be done the pres-

sure of water opened certain of the rivets where the conning tower joins the hull.

STOPPING A LEAK,

“This gave us a shock, but nobody showed it. The captain ordered us to fetch up red lead, and while some of us held the plate with numbed hands, others pushed red lead and oakum into the leak. We suffered nothing from want of air; our one fear was that we might not be able to stop the leak. “When the indicator showed that the vessel’s nose was up, and that she was lifting, we gave a cheer, and well we might, for it was not a pleasant experience.” Yet another submarine of the class, A 9, had a narrow escape in 1906. She was struck by a coasting steamer when just under the surface and her conning tower was injured. The boat was knocked half over and water rushed in, but the crew displayed splendid coolness, the ballast tanks were instantly blown, and she rose to safety.

DYING OFPICEE’S MESSAGE. One of the most touching documents ever written was penned by the Japanese Lieutenant Sakuma, commander of the Japanese submarine No. 6, which foundered in 1910 with the loss of all on board. The closing passage was as follow's:— “The water began rushing in;- the switchboard was drowned; all electric lights went out; the electric fuses blew; the boat filled with poisonous gas, so that we could only,' breathe with extreme difficulty. We worked our hardest to empty the main ballast tank with hand pumps, and I believe we succeeded, though being in darkness we could not read the gauges. “I Write this in the dim light from the conning tower. 11.45 a.m. "I earnestly beseech his Majesty to forgive me and aid the families of my comrades, my men, who must lose their lives with mo in this boat now being lost. This is my last wish. 12.30 p.m. “It is only with extreme difficulty that I can breathe. I cannot continue any more.”