The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1886-12-30
SUBMARINE TORPEDO BOATS.

The latest step in the submarine tor
pedo boat is novelty. Lieut.. Zalins-
/ Xxi, who has divided his studies and ex-
perimcnts at Fort Hamilton between
submarine torpedo boats and the dyna-
mite shell-throwing guns, proposes to
| SO arrange matters in his under water
! boat that in case il should from any ac-
C dent get permanently sunk in reason
| ably shallow water-say ten or fifteen
| fathoms crew could escape to the
surface with their lives. The details
| of his plan he is not yet ready to dis
close. but in general he proposes that
| in case he finds that the boat can not
be raised to the surface the men will
dress themselves in some sort of div
err suit, which of course will be as
| light and contain as much air us posi-
ble. Then they will open valve in
the side of the boat and let it till with
water. This done the manhole on the
top of the boat can be opened, and the
men will crawl out and rise to the sur
face. Divers say that this is practicable.
| for in diving in the ordinary diving
suits it is necessary for divers to weight
themselves heavily before they can
reach the bottom. To prove the effica-
cy of his devices Lieut.. Zalinski pro-
poses to run his boat into a dry-dock,
and there submerge it with the men
| (himself included), after which he will
ill it up and come to the surface. That
the men might save their lives even if
in battle the boat should be sunk is ap-
parent, provided the new devices should
work az fbou ovnaotad n do Rr1t
the ch eff value of the proposed improve
ment Is the influence it will have on the
crew in working their vessel. Feeling
confident of escape in case of accident,
they will have less hesitation in max
ing experiments. and in time of battle
would attack the enemy with greater
bravery.
Lieut.. Zalinski thinks, however, that
the influence of the submarine torpedo
boat, in its present state of develop
ment, in time of battle has been greatly
overestimated. The speed of the boat
limited, three or four knots being all
that the best boats can continuously
attain. Even with a speed of ten or
twelve knots their efficiency would not
be SO great as the uniformed believe
IL "otio OC. >IhSC uLoCl "dlCt. CS-
pecially IN such water as flows in New
York harbor, the navigators are in
darkness compared with which the
| blacklist of foos on the darkest night at
sea is daylight 1t is easy work to
light the interior of the boat with the
electric light, but that does not aid the
pilot in finding the enemy; in fact, it
might hurt the chances of finding her,
] fC,. 1nrc RI 1,n~ht, ~
pilot house Only such lights as would
enable the men to work the machinery
would be wanted. The power of out
around the boat, and thus enable her
to find the enemy, is so limited as to be
scarce worth mentioning. Besides a
light powerful enough to illuminate
water would disclose the location of
the submarine boat to the enemy, and
thus enable him to drop dynamite bomb
on it and entirely destroy it. The sub
marine boat must get the bearings of
the enemy before it goes below the
water. If the enemF happened to be
at anchor, something not likely to hap
pen in the case of fleet blocading New
York, for instance, the submarine boat
might work with fair success. The
tide, however, might upset the calcrl-
| lations by drifting the boat out of it's
course, particularly as the tidal cur
rents usually run in one direction on
the surface while running in the oppo-
site below. To find the exact position of
a body, at most 60x400 large. even when
at rest in slack water, would be matter
of no little difficulty for the submarine
navigators. who would have to take
their departure from q point several
miles distant. 1t would require several
trips to the surface to renew their bear
ings, and at such times they would
have to rely on the smallest of the
pilot-house to escape observation. In
case the enemy was steaming about,
especially if the ship had a modern
speed of say eighteen knots an hour,
the submarine boat would be of no
more value than torpedo at anchor,
if the submarine navigators proposed
to blow the enemy out of water by at
taching torpedo to his keel.
Lieut. Zalinski thinks that the sub
marine boat must use some sort of a
torpedo throwing gun like the ones
used by the ordinary torpedo-boat.
Very naturally, he thinks that the
pneumatic gun which he has developed
will answer the purpose, throwing, as
it does, an immense charge of the ex-
plosive for two miles through the air
better than the Whitehead method with
a range of six hundred yards. Besides.
the recent British experiments in Ports
mouth harbor on condemned IRON
clad showed that steel netting at
thirty feet from the ship effectually
stopped Whitehead torpedo. 1t is
apparent that the chief value of SUBJ
marine boat is in its ability to sink un-
observed within easy range of the
enemy, and then rise to the surface
and discharge the projectile. 1t can
then sink out of sight, if necessary, and
either escape or prepare for another
attack.
The pneumatic gun which Lieut..
Zalinski is building for the new torpedo
cruiser ordered by the navy depart
ment will throw projectle with four
hundred pounds of nitro-gelatine in it.
The contract calls for a two-hundred-
pound projectile, but the larger one is
furnished in order to more effectually
demonstrate the efficiency of this
method of discharging large quantities
of high explosives.-New York Sun.