Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1901 — SUBMARINE FIGHTERS FOR OUR NAVY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SUBMARINE FIGHTERS FOR OUR NAVY.

Washington dispatch: Ths United Staten Navy Department, like that of Franco and Great Britain, is expert* mentlng with submarine boats. A few weeks ago Simon Lake submitted to the Navy Department carefully worked out plans for submarine boats of three orders; a small kind that could be carried by a battleship and need as a picket boat, a larger type for coast defense work and a still larger order for cruising purposes, having a radius of action of thousands of miles. The result of Mr. Lake’s interview with the board of construction will be the building of a boat of the coast defense type to be tried in competition with the submarine boats now building for this government; and if this boat accomplish nothing more than Mr. Lake has already realized in his Argonaut, built two years ago, it will be a much more effective military instrument than the present boats of the Holland design, whose subaqueous work is substantially limited to a series of plunges of no Inconsiderable uncertainty. The Argonaut was designed to travel along on the bottom, the boat resting upon three massive wheels of cast iron, the single one at the stern acting as a rudder. It made numerous descents on Its way down the Chesapeake and traveled over all kinds of bottom, some of which was so soft that the divers would sink nearly up to -their waists when leaving the boat Other bottoms were found to consist of hard sand, on which the wheels made no impression. It was run up hill and down dale and across dredged channels, and at all times it was found that it could be readily maintained so nearly buoyant that these gradual ascents and descents made no perceptible difference in the power required to propel it. It was found .that it would mount over any obstacle over which it could get its bow, for the boat’s pressure upon the bottom could be regulated to the matter either of one pound or twice as many tons as the occasion and currents might require. • The feature about the boat that made the greatest appeal to the popular mind was the diving chamber, it was in there, air-locked off from the rest of the craft, that the air pressure was gradually Increased until it equaled the pressure of the water without Then Mr. Lake would unfasten the big iron door in the floor and let it drop outward, while the water would rise nearly to the flooring and then subside quietly to a level with the manhole rim. Out below the diver would pass, the

bottom, if the water were clear, plainly In sight, while big-eyed, inquisitive fish would look up into the brightly lighted chamber. It was all so much like Jules Verne’s famous story, and yet It was true. The bpat which Mr; Lake Is now contracting to build will have all of the desirable features of his earlier boat bettered, and with some additional ones of a decidedly unique order. For obvious reasons Mr. Lake won’t let the public know the details of most of these, but he gives them thus, for the first time, a general knowledge of the craft which promises to revolutionize the history of submarines for naval work. Mr. take has conceived a scheme by which his boats, when in a sdml-sub-merged condition similar to that ehown In the left hand corner of the •ketch, are rendered Invisible. Mr. Lake gives assurance of the absolute

practicability of this, although it is not free for publication. It is only necessary for any one who has been out to sea at all to recall the difficulty of “picking up,” that is, catching sight of, a good big can buoy, the position of which is known, to conceive of the task of sighting the armored hood of one of Mr. Lake’s boats even without its disguising feature. It would be a hard job to catch a fair glimpse of the boat with all Its deckhouse out of water; and that is the condition in which it would be able to do a large share of advance scout work. For scout work it is intended to have stations well off the coast to which the boats could repair, and by making connection with telegraphic cables sunk there communicate at once to the

■bore. It is not generally known, but it ia possible to keep within soundings of 150 feet, the maximum diving depth of,the boat, off our coast at distances of from fifteen to seventy-five miles. With an advance guard of pickets like these, it would be possible to establish the most effective of blockades with the minimum of expense and effort. To connect with the cable the boat by dose bearings would locate the spot, lower Ke two anchors, and slowly draw Itself down to the Junction box. The diver would then go out, complete the circuit, and communication could at once be held with the shore. By rising to the surface Just so the armored sighting-hood were clear, the boat could observe every movement of the enemy until well up, directing the station ashore as to the speed and compass bearing of the approaching foe, and then. If discovered, sink comletely out of sight in three seconds. Should

It wish to attack, all It need do would be to loose the sealed end of the cable, raise Its anchors, and have at the enemy. If the approaching foe be light craft or torpedo boats, this coast defense submarine could effectively use its two one-pounder guns on them, and that while presenting only tne target of its tower. At night, against such small craft, it would be better for it to do that than to waste its torpedoes;' and the boat is so designed that should this part if its hullbe damaged, it can be completely cut off from the body of the boat, while navigation could be carried on from below. Algeria has four sones in which petroleum occurs. One of them is 125 miles long.