The Portland daily press., 1899-11-17
SUBMARINE WARFARE.
Rsr ert ON Holland says Boat Is Prae-
tfcabIe.

tfcabIe.
New York, November 1s.-The teohnf-
cal reports upon the Holland submarine
torpedo boat were made public today.
The report OF John Lowe. captain United
States navy, who was on the Holland
boat ct the time OF the of1ciai test, gives
technical details Of the principal circum-
stances which took place within the boat
and then In part says:
report my belief that the Holland Is
q successful and veritabls submarine tor
pedo boat capable Of making veritsble
attack upon an enemy unseen and
undetectAbis, and that, therefore, she is an
engine of warfare Of terrible potency
which the government must necessarily
adopt into service.
Concerning the worse than worthless
ness OF the present above water torpedos
system, and the absolute need Of q real
torpedo system such as the submarine
system. have already reported.
In addition would like to give further
reasons why O submarine servics should
at once be organized as . matter Of pub
Ito necessity and security. We must con-
cede that the time has not yet arrived for
nations TO disarm. That nation which
IL not ready to fight, that ceases to use
the most frightful warlike appliances
when war is made. IL already In the POSI-
tion Of China, . prey to the weakest and
the most rapaciour.
II then. We propose to light. we must
fight with every lighting appliance, and
therefor, II there 10 any thing valuable In
submarine torpedo warfare, We must not
permit our hands to to tied behind our
backs. bv any Hague conferences or pusil-
Luminous humanitarianism forbidding
such appliance.
Against con n,sding war to be possible,
consider where the United States 10 weak
and how to resist attack. We have dis
tant dependencies, the Philippines.
Hawaii and the like. VIII an enemy seek
to bring us to terms by attacking thesef
We could afford to offer these as
gambit, upon which the enemy would
waste It's strensth, while we were develop
ing counter-moves. Any powerful enc
my would not play at war aft tsr that fash
ion. They would strike Us In the v't,ls.
An sight-day dash across the Atlantic
would bring their ships to Montsuk
Point, where they would sncountr the
American feet. which. being destroyed by
force Of numbers, the remainder OF the
snemy's ships could pass on and anchor
In Long Island sound in perfect security
and shortly Long island would become q
foreign possession. So many have spoken
Of this scheme t,at am satisfied 1t has
been considered and digest.d In foreign
councils and il part Of their programme.
In our last spanish war, We saw the
army diligently fortlfying against phan-
tom ships. In our next war 1t will not
be phantom ships, for there are at least
two nat ons which can do this thing sin
gle handed.
We need right on fifty submarine t,r-
pedo vessels In Long Island sound ID pre-
serve TIRE psaos and to give p5t,ncy to our
diplomacy.
The French In this matter are much
more alive to their needs than we are.
What We have left t, private company,
the French have taken up as nat ion al
affair.
1t seems to me quite o necessity that
this government should not allo W the
skill and knowledge possessed by the Hol.
land people to pass out Of Its own hands
from native u foreign lands, but should
at once purchase the Holland and put the
Holland psop'e under some ban whereby
they will be prevented from disclosing
secrets to the disadvantage Of the United
States.
l desire to add my opinion a. to what
the future policy Of the navy dep ,rtment
should Ie after mag gurating q submarine
service. Instead of doing too much with
one vessel each one should be distinct
vessel of its ind, and not have combined
two or more kinds in one vessel.
Thus, there shou Id be submarine torps-
do boats; submarine Runboats submarine
observation and despatch boats; subma-
riue countermines and submarine chan mel
draggers, etc.. each kind comp e to In IT.
self, but not combining more than one
office.
The object have In mind is to keep
the boats down to small dimensions for
the sake o. handiness and to keep each
boat as roomy and AS habitsble as possi-
BILE for the sake of the crew.
This class of vessel cannot possibly
have the comforts Of q roomy vessel.
There can only be limited cooking faoili-
ties They must. therefore. always be at
tachsd to some base. either on shore or
adoat.
Tho report of the board OF inspection
and survey signed by Fred Rodgers. rear
admiral U. 8. NJ. president ana others.
describes In detail the ofioial trial OF the
Holland substantially as reported In the
newspapers at the time. and concludes
with the observation that all of the OFF,
cial requirements were fulfilled by the
performance of the Holland on this trial.
1he report states that the performance of
the Holland during this trial showed =
marked improvement as comp ,red with
that Of November l2, 1888.