The Submarine.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13691, 5 September 1908, Page 3 (Supplement)

The Submarine.

A DREAM OF CEXTUBIES. I Although it has never been tried in actual warfare, still the modern submarine would seem to have taken up a permanent place among the implements of -war. The accuracy of marksmanship in navel gunnery assures this as the submarine is the only vessel upon the sea that can "take cov*r" at will. She seems to destined to be the only craft that can steam within the. range of a battleship and yet. laugh at the gaping guns of the monster. It is a sneaky business at best, this creeping about below the surface of the ocean, and hitting an adversary in the dark, as it were. It doesn't'exactly - con?' form to Anglo-Saxon traditions. bi»t* ,->fter all is said and done, where is the difference in ambushing a man in the dark of the air and ambushing him in the dark of the eea? Both are mighty successful when they, succeed, and, as success is the .one aim of war, it is not to be wondered at that submarine navigation has exercised the mind of man ever since that bellicoset animal took to fighting upon the sea. TTk old, old writers even tell us that primitive forms of the submarine were used at the seiga of Troy, and also at Syracuse.

FRANCE AHEAD. Right down through the eenturk6 since those heroic days nation after nation has attempted to perfect a craft, which would be propelled beneath the surface of tbe water, but it remained for, the. French imagination and inventive genius of our own generation to accomplish the first practical 6tep in regard to a reliable craft of the kind aimed at. In 1891 M. Zede designed a surprising little craft which, n't once brought the submarine within the range of practical discussion in regard to existing naval conditions. With this lead the French engineers went straight ahead with the approval of the Ministry of Marine at their back, and, never doubting she was on the right irack France lias to-day the biggest flotilla of submarines in the world. Other nations moved more slowly, most looking askance at the results claimed for the French craft, but one by'one they were convinced by their own students in this branch of naval construction, and as a result all the big Powers to-day include submarines in their navies. Britain and Germany lagged behind the others, but the former soon made up her leeway to a great extent. It was to be expected' from our Admiralty—that wonderful thing, which according to some writers bad proposed ironclads, breech-loading guns, quick-firing weapons, and many other modern developments—that it should fiist adopt a supercilious at titude towards the new engine of war; bnt tbe backwardness of Germany, hitherto, so quick to eeize upon all that makes for increased effectiveness in war, is lees easy of comprehension. To-day Britain is second only to France as regards the number of submarines, bnt Germany .stand*; at the bottom rf the list of great Powers in this respect. How-