The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-10

Last year a contract was awarded
| to a Baltimore concern by the gov
eminent, calling for the construction
Of a submarine torpedo boat. Work
has been going 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
J tests which viii be made under gov
ernmental supervision. If the boat
| fails to fulfil the many stipulat1ons in
! the contract she will be rejected If,
On the other hand, she meets all the
requirements, the United States will
| have caused as great a revolution in
naval warfare as was marked by the
Monitor more than generation ago.
The naval experts of the great Eu-
ropean powers are awaiting with deep
interest the completion Of this sub
marine boat. They are all familiar
with the plans of the craft and the
opinion has been freely expressed in
the various leading continental and
British papers that the new boat prom
| ises to make submarine warfare a re-
atty. Although Great Britain is the
| first naval power in the world, she
has never attempted to build a, sub
marine boat France has three YES
sells Of this type but none of them are
regarded as a success. Russia has
four or five, Brazil has two, Greece
| d
/ three. The four leading submarine
| 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, so
feet; diameter, II feet; displacement
light, 1883 tons; displacement at load
! line or with superstructure awash, 1913
tons; total displacement, 1883 tons;
reserve buoyancy, running submerged
or aWash, &c tons; reserve buoyancy
when lying submerged, S75 pounds;
power for propulsion when afioat or
awash, twin quadruple expansion en-
| gines; weight Of engines, tons; power
/ for propulsion while submerged, 10
horse power motor, and storage batter
! les; speed when floating light 16 knots
per hour; with superstructure awdsh,
feet of water covering hull, Is knots
per hour; submerged, knots per hour;
! endurance on surface, Is hours at Is
knots speed; submerged, 6 hours at 8
! knots; armament. 2 expulsion tubes
and automobile torpedoes. All 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 CONSTRUCTORS.
! The construction of the submarine
\ is unique. The boat has a double steel
shell, 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 COM
! pressed air. The upper surface of the
/ hull, covering the part which will be
exposed when the vessel is running
light Con the surface is protected by
plate armor one inch thick Slightly
forward of the center rises an armored
coming tower, of Harveyized steel,
! eight inches thick Behind this, when
the vessel is running under steam,
/ there rises an armored tube, in which.
arranged concentrically, are the smoke
! stack and the air shaft, which can be
I housed by an 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 NOV
/ ing under any of these conditions,
ship-shaped superstructure, forming an
entrance and a run, incloses her con-
ming tower and stack
HOW IT IS SUBMERGED.
The boat viii submerge herself by
three means-by admitting water to her
tanks, by vertical propellers and by
horizontal rubbers. Her ballast will
be 50 arranged that when she is run
ming submerged or awash she viii have
"a reserved buoyancy or constant ten
dency to rise amounting to an effort
equal to sc of a ton. This will be over
come by the application of force by
means OF horizontal rudders. When she
is lying still submerged she will have
a reserved buoyancy of 375 pounds,
which will be overcome by the applica-
tion of force through vertical screws.
When she is submerged the crew. of
! twelve men which will operate the boat
will receive a constant supply of pure
air from mangan bronze tubes.
where it is to be kept stored at pres
sure of 1000 pounds to the square inch.
Air from these reservoirs will also be
used in the regulations of the ballast,
since the water will be expelled pneu-
matical,y.
INTERIOR DESCRIBED.
The interior of the boat is simply ar
ranged. The section between the stem
and the forward bulkhead contains a
pair of horizontal tubular spaces in
prolongation of the expulsion tubes,