The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1896-08-22
NEW BOAT MAY REvoLUTIONIzE
NAVAL WARFARE.
Government VIII Severely Test the
Craft Before Accepting 1t
Foreigners Alert.


to a formidable degree and moreover the
problem of defending 10000 miles of vul-
nerable sea coast will be solved. Naval
strategists agree that one efficient sub
marine boat could hold at bay a whole
fleet of attacking battleships and either
send them to the bottom one after the
other, or frighten them off. 1t would not
be considered good warfare to match a
$5,OOO0OO battleship against a $4,000 sub
marine boat when the chances of victory
were all in favor of the latter.
Last year a contract was awarded to a
Baltimore concern by the government
calling for the construction of a sub
marine torpedo boat. Work has been GO
ing on steadily on the boat for many
months and within a month or two the
craft will be launched. Then will come
the series of severe tests which will be
made under governmental supervision.
II the boat fails to fulfill the many stipu-
lations in the contract she will be re-
jected. If, on the other hand she meets
all the requirements, the United States
will have caused as great revolution
in naval warfare as was marked by the
Monitor more than a generation ago.
The naval experts of the great Euro
pean powers are awaiting with deep in
terest the completion of this submarine
boat They are all familiar with the
plans of the craft and the opinion las
been freely expressed in the various
leading continental and British papers
that the new boat promises to make sub
marine warfare a reality Although
Great Britain is the first naval power CT
the world she has never attempted 10
build submarine boat. France has
/. ~. L
them are regarded as a success. Rus
sia has four or five, Brazil has two
Greece has one, Turkey has two and
Italy has three. The four leading sub
marine boat architects of the world are
Tuck, Goubet Nordenfelt and Holland.
The latter is the designer and builder of
the American boat
Dimensions of the Boat
The governmental requirements of the
boat now building at Baltimore are in
part as follows: Length. 80 feet: diamet-
er, II feet; displacement light. 1855 tons;
displacement at load line or with super
structure awash. 1873 tons; total displace-
ment, 1885 tons; reserve buoyancy run
ming submerged or awash Sc ton; fe-
serve buOyancy when lying submerged
a5 pounds; power for propulsion when
afioat or awash, twin quadruple eXpan-
sion engines; weight Of engines two tons;
power for propulsion while submerged
20 horse power motor, and storage bat
terles; speed when floating light, 16
knots per hour: with superstructure
awash, three feet of water covering hull
10 knots per hour; submerged. eight knots
per hour; endurance on surface, Is hours
at Is knots speed; submerged six hours
at eight knots; armament, two expulsion
tubes and five automobile torpedoes An
these conditions are comparatively easy
to meet, with the exception of the one
which requires that the boat must be
capable of staying under water six hours
and covering a distance in that time of
4S nautical miles.
Method of Construction.
The construction of the submarine Is
unique The boat has a double steel she'll
the inner extending aft from the stem
about three-quarters of her length. The
space between the skins is taken up by
water ballast tanks fuel bunkers and
reservoirs for compressed air The upper
surface OF the hun, covering the part
which Will be exposed when the vessel is
running light ION the surface) is prote It
ed by plate armor one inch thick. Slightly
forward Of the center rises an armored
inches thick. Behind this, when the yes
sci is running under steam. there rises
an armored tube in which. arranged
concentrically. are the smoke stack ard
the air shaft, which can be housed by
electric power when the craft is to be
submerged The boat is designed to run
either light, awash or submerged. To
give her an easy passage through the
water when moving under any of these
conditions, a ship-shaped superstructure.
forming an entrance and run. incloses
her coming tower and stack
How IL Is Submerged.
The boat will submerge herself by
three means-by admitting water to her
tanks. by vertical propeners and by
horizontal rudders. Her ballast will be
so arranged that when she is running
submerged or awash she will have a re-
served buoyancy or constant tendency
to rise amounting to an effort equal to
sc of a ton. This will be overcome Ivy
the application Of force by means Of hor-
izontal rudders. When she is lying still
submerged she viii have a reserved
buoyancy OF 375 pounds, which will be
overcome by the application OF force
through vertical screws. When she is
submerged the crew Of u men which
viii operate the boat will receive a on
slant supply of pure air from manganese
bronze tubes, where it is to be kept stor-
ed at a pressure Of 1000 pounds to the
square inch. Air from these reservoirs
will also be used in the regulation Of the
ballast, since the water will be expelled
pneumatically.
Interior Described.
The interior Of the boat is simply ar