Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-12-10
THE NEW LADY Of TIE navy.
Tho Holland Submarine Boat Has
at Last Been Adopted by the
Government and Will Soon be
Ready to Do Work Under
meath the Water.

passed inspection as a destroyer, aIter
government tests, and is now giving a
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 quietus on the modern
irouclad. just as Ericsson's Monitor
toiled the knell 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 if
it rode on the surface.
1t contains three pieces of ordnance,
lwo of which were inverted by Mr..
Holland himself In the bow of the boat
is a torpedo tube for the regulation
Whitehead torpedo used in the navy.
Above and directly in line with the
Whitehead tube, but pointing up at
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 war
ship.
Mr.. Holland built a gun that would
throw an S0-pound projectile, backing
it up with powder charge sufficient to
carry it 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 to discharge tor
pedo and keep the beat running in the
same direction, than it IS to expel the
torpedo from the bow and then back
Off
To sink warship with submarine
projectile, the Holland would submerge
at a safe distance from the warshlp,
proceeding cautiously at depth OF
from thirty to forty feet from the sur
face. The pilot in the coming tower
of the Holland could tell in the sudden
darkening of the water around him
when the submarine boat was directly
under the battleship. The order would
be given to slacken speed, water would
be pumped out OF the stern water-bot-
tom compartments to tilt the gun up
into range, and the executive officer
would complete the electric circuit Of
the igniting fuse. There would be
sudden bounding forward of the sub
marine boat, as it recoiled from the
discharge, followed by mad swirl of
water in the wake Of the projectile.
Then would come stified report and
series OF violent vibrations, telling that
the gun had not missed its mark, and
that the battleship had gone to the
bottom.
The aerial projectile tube is the most
powerful of the three guns mounted by
the submarine boat. 1t consits OF two
parallel tubes Joined at the breech end.
Into the smaller it put the powder
charge. Between the powder and the
projectile is an intervening air space
which takes up the force Of the explo-
sion by cushioning, preventing the di-
rect force of the explosion from strain
ing the metal Of the gun.
To fire the aerial projectile the SUBJ
marine boat comes to the surface,
flooding her after compartments to give
the desired upward tilt at the bows. The
recoil drives her back under water
stern foremost where remaining tanks
are flooded and the boat awaits an
other opportunity to rise and deliver
shot The projectile used in the Hol-
land aerial gun is eight inches in dia-
meter and six feet long. Its cartridges
contain 100 pounds of dynamite or
blasting gelatine, exploding by either
a time fuse or on contact. The force
OF an explosive charge containing this
quantity of blasting gelatine is so great
that human life cannot e-ist within $50
yards Of where the explosion takes
place.
The Holland is SO feet long and 10
feet inches in diameter at the widest
part of the hull She carries a crew Of
five men; has no galley, no berths, and
no living Accommodations. Inside she
is a marvel of mechanical ingenuity,
every inch Of available space being TAX
en- up by some piece of intricate mech
anism. The hull is built in the strong
est possible manner IT is made of,
plates Of half-inch milled steel bolted
on over frames in longitudinal sections,
and is braced to resist the crushing
power of water. When awash the dis
placement is 65 tons; the addition OF
10 tons of water in the compartments
sinks the boat so feet, and she cannot
so below that depth
The lady of the navy, when she is
submerged, breathes through an air
supply contained in cylindrical reser-
voirs, each tube holding an equivalent
of 80 cubic feet, at a pressure of 5000
pounds 10 the square inch. The reser-
voirs are placed along the sides Of the
boat, and the air passas from them into
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