The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-12-26
THE NEW LADY
OF THE NAVY.
The Holland Submarine Boat Has at
Last Been Adopted by the Govern
ment and Will Soon be Ready to
do Work Underneath the
Water.

The Holland submarine boat has
passed inspection as a destroyer, after
government tests, and is now giving
final exhibition on the Potomac oppO-
site Washington The United States
Government has practically decided to
accept the boat and the Holland will
be the new lady Of the navy, eccentric,
yet very fascinating.
The new lady is also very powerful.
This death-dealing bit of animate
steel can put a Qufetus on the modern
irOnclad, just as EricssOn's Monitor
tolled the kneu of the Merrimac. and
OF all other battle-shipS then known
1t can sail under water like a great
whale, and while down in the depths
Of the sea can discharge its dynamite
guns with the same deadly effect as il
il rode on the surface.
1t contains three pieces Of ordnance,
two OF which were invented bV Mr.
Holland himself In the bow of the boat
is q torpedo tube for the regulation
Whitehead torpedo used in the navy.
Above and directly in line with the
Whitehead tube, but pointing up at a
higher angle, is the dynamite gun. In
the stern of the boat is a tube designed
TO discharge a submarine projectile with
great force at the hull of a war ship.
Mr. Holland built gun that would
throw an SG-pOund prOjectile, backing
it up with a powder charge sufficient to
carry 1t 100 yards under water. The
gun was placed in the stern of the sub
marine boat, pointing aft, for the rea-
son that it is easier 10 discharge a tor
same direction, than it is to eXpel the
torpedo from the bow and then back
off
To sink warshiD with a submarine
prO1ectile, the Holland would submerge
at Sare distance from the WarShip,
proceeding cautiously at d depth OF
from thirty to forty feet from the sur
face. The pilot in the coming tower
of the Holland could tell by the sudden
darkeninS of the water around him
when the submarine boat was directly
under the battle-ship. The order would
be given to slacken speed, water would
be pumped out of the stern waterloo
tom compartments to tilt the gun up
into range, and the executive officer
would complete the electric circuit Of
the 1gnltlng fuse There would be
sudden bounding forward of the sub
marine boat, as it recOiled from the
discharge, followed by a mad swirl of
water in the wake of the projectile.
Then would come a stihed report and
series of violent vibrations, telling that
the gun had not missed its mark, and
that the battle-shiD had gone to the
bottom
The aerial proJectf1e tube is the most
powerful of the three guns mounted by
the submarine boat 1t consists of two
parallel tubes joined at the breech end.
charge Between the powder and the
prOjectile is intervening air space
sion by cushioningt preventing the di-
rect force of the explosion from strain
ing the metal of the gun.
To fire the aerial projectile the sub
marine boat comes to the surface food
ing her after compartments to give the
desired upward tilt at the bows. The
recOl drives her back under water
stern foremost. where remaining tanks
are flooded and the boat awaits another
opportunity to rise and deliver a shot
The prOjeCtile used in the Holland aer-
ial gun is eight inches in diameter and
six feet long. It's cartridges contain 100
pounds of dynamite or blasting gela-
tine, exploding by either time fuse or