Perfecting Submarines.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 14, 30 September 1908, Page 38

Perfecting Submarines.

A very remarkable performance is reported by Our Correspondent, who is watching the developments in the Firth of Forth in connection with the naval manoeuvres, says the Ijondon "Daily Telegraph.” The Great Fleet was joined by a Hot ilia of seventeen submarines, after a non stop run from Dover all up the East coast. During this unparalleled cruise these little craft were under war conditions, each with a crew of sixteen otlieers and men, and for forty hours, as they travelled up the eastern shoies of Great Britain, a distance of 31M1 miles, they remained under water, except for their conning-towers. The performance was not only a supreme

test of the mechanical efficiency of this new type of man-of-war, of which there are about seventy built or building, but bears signal testimony to the endurance of the officers and men. These submarines are the British development of the original Holland design, which was obtained from the United States eight years ago. The early boats of 120 tons displacement were useful practically only for coast defence, owing to their limited radius of action, ami were very slow, but under the direction of Captain R. 11. S. Bacon, D. 5.0., who was for a long period inspecting captain of submarines, and h.s successors, a new and more useful type of vessel, has been evolved. The capabilities of these newer ships have been effectively illustrated by this long nonstop cruise; they are shown to be tit to go anywhere and do anything, and the otlieers familiar with their powers claim that they could even steam for a

very much longer distance than 400 miles. The flotilla of seventeen submarines belong to the “B” and “C” classes, with a displacement, submerged, of 313 tons, and are fitted with two torpedo tubes. A great degree of habitability has been obtained in these later craft, vWliieh cruise on the surface, with gasoline engines, and. as this trial indicates, can travel at an average speed of ten knots for a very long period, in an awash

condition, without developing mechanical defects or having to put into any port for fresh stores. When completely submerged—with no part observable on the surface—they are propelled by electrical energy, at a speed of about eight knots. The cruise from Dover to the Firth of Forth definitely asserts the usefulness of British submarines as offensive inen-of-war of high value, and not merely as weapons for local defence.