Raising the Submarine "Pluviose."

Progress, Volume VI, Issue 4, 1 February 1911, Page 543

Raising the Submarine "Pluviose."

The raising of the submarine "Pluviose" has substantiated the —sometimes forgotten—that our French seafaring brethren know how to die. The scenes inside the raised submarine were cheek-blanching in the extreme, and it is good to know that the French public are alive to the fact that, in death, at least, it will be creditable to them to honour their seagoing heroes. The submarine sailor carries his life in his hand, in the full acceptance of the term, and the pity is, that a perverted ingenuity ever gave birth to Kuch monstrosities, as these underwater freaks undoubtedly are. So far in their careers, they have killed more of their friends than, in Avar time, they will ever kill foes. Still, as long as one nation is asinine enough to patronise the beastly little abortions, then, other nations must follow suit. No sailorman believes that they will be worth anything in actual war, no, not even as a demoralising influence. They have been too long in existence to demoralise anything to speak of; and their weaknesses —even in peace time—are too well understood. In all probability, it will be mutually agreed between nations, at no distant date, to scrap the filthy crawlers, and purchase something that might be useful for killing purposes when the war really begins. Maritime Review.