The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1897-01-23
A NEW TORPEDO BOAT
SUBMARINE boat WHICH ATTACKS
FROM BELOW.
An American Invention Realizing
jules Nerne's Most Fantas-
tic Conception.

the new torpedo boat built FOR Uncle Sam
by John p. Holland will naugurate a new
era in naval warfare. II successful. the
new craft WIN practically put the largest
battleships and cruisers at the mercy of
the torpedo terror. The word terror"
properly describes the vessel, for she is
an Invisible zoe, and striking in the dark
becomes doubly fear-nspiring. She Is
shaped exactly like a cigar having a sin
gle four-bladed propeller. which is sur
rounded by four rudders that work I'm
pairs, two vertical and two horizontal.
She will do her travelling under water,
realizing the conception of Capt. Nemos
boat in Jules Verne's tale of Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea-" She
is so feet long, with a moulded diameter
of 10 feet, constructed of double steel
plating arranged into four outer and four
inner strakes. the plate to be SEVENTH
teenths Of an inch in thickness at the
forward end and amidships, tapering aft
to five-ffteenths of an inch at the stern
most plates, all double riveted. Her
frames will be Of merchants steel
three and a half by three inches, and
placed Is inches apart, and her motive
power will be electricity and gas, Sither
of which may be used separately or
coupled in order to attain greater speed.
Unlike all former submarine craft, she
will have no superstructure except a tele
scopic coming tower about one foot high
and three feet in diameter. and her dis
placement will be &C tons Her armament
will consist of guns for throwing aerial
torpedoes containing 200-pound charges of
high explosives, and her magazine will
contain, in addition six or seven White
head torpedoes. Her speed below the sur
face will be nine knots for u hours, or 70
knots for four hours, while being oper-
ated by electric current, and when awash
she will develop eight knots under gas
pressure. She will be fitted at first with
a 50-horse power gas engine, but at a later
date a 300-horse power motor will be used,
which is expected to generate a speed of
16 knots. This will be a test boat The
cost of construction will be about $4,000.
Coming Tower.
The coming tower will telescope and
can be drawn into the boat. it's place be-
ing covered over in less than a minute,
making her ready to plunge. The two
expulsion tubes, where Whitehead tor
pedoes of the largest size are carried for
explosion under a hostile man-of-war, are
plainly visible from the front. These
tubes run aft along the axis of the boat
and fill up a large part of the forward
compartment. The tubes can be opened
from the inside when the boat is running
20 or 30 feet below the surface of the wa
ter. She can carry three additional tor
pedoes making total of five big White
heads, sufficient to destroy the five larg-
est warships afloat There are three sea-
cocks on either side of the boat BY
means of these the sea water can be let
into her when the time to submerge has
arrived and she rapidly sinks under the
surface. where the fire of the heaviest
guns can not damage her. When her
commander wishes to come to the sur
face the water is either pumped out from
her tanks through these sea cocks or is
forced out by connecting the tanks with
the compressed air reservoirs.
Horizontal Screws.
Another remarkable feature of this boat
is that she carries two horizontal screws.
These two horizontal screws can be in
stanuy connected with her engines and the
boat can sink out Of sight in less than 4
minute by their action alone \ curious
feature of the exterior of the boat is the
pocket for the anchor. This il under the
boat six feet aft from her bow and a
mushroom anchor has been made thac it's
snugly into 1t. the cable leading up to the
top through well and over the sheave aft
This will enable the craft TO 20 to the bot
tom Of the sea AMI anchor there. The mo-
tors and storage batteries Will give 20
horsepower for six hours and the boat
Will have a radius of action of 60 niles
when totally submerged. Under the water
she can make six knots an hour for 10
hours, but on pinch this speed can be
raised 10 10 knots for a short distance
The inventor claims that the boat can
easily run 40 miles beneath the sea with
out Inconvenience to the crew. a large
quantity OF compressed air will always be
carried in the boat when she IS running on
the surface.
Method of Attack.
The captain or TINS remarkable craft
takes his place over the boiler with his
head in the armored coming tower. From
this position he can see through glass
covered Sits and holes and by means Of a
compass can get the exact bearing of the
batteship he means TO attack in less than
a minute. As soon as the smokestack is
pulled in, telescoping on itself the opening
is covered by a water-tight hatch, and the
boat IS ready to sink TO any desired level.
This she can do either by means Of her
horizontal screws. by taking water ,nto
her tanks through the sea cocks. or by
plunging downward beneath the surface,
retaining her forward motion. From this
point on 1T is all submarine work.
Through heavy plate-glass panes, the
light can DE seen on the surface Of she
sea, and one Of the crew win watch this
until She passes under the shadaw of the
man-of-war. The presence Of the latter
win at The same time be disclosed by a