The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-05-07
MARINE TRAVEL
Value of the Submarine Boat
In Peace and War.
OBSERVATIONS OF ]. P. HOLLAND.

Of the British Channel Will Cease
to Have TerrOrs For Landsmen
When Submarine Boats Are Used.
Their Value In Warfare.
John P. Holland, the inventor Of the
submarine torpedo boat Holland, re-
Gently proclaimed his view in q lecture
at the Carnegie lyceum that in the
Of a few years submarine YES
sells would supplant surface craft for
short journeys by water, says the New
York Times. In the course Of his lee
ture Mr.. Holland said:
Submarine boats may be employed
for sponge or pearl fishing. wrecking,
chartmaking, as f%erryboats and as yes
sells of war. We have been SO busy up
to this time in getting a hearing, for
the submarine boat as an engine Of
war that we have overlooked almost
entirely her future usefulness in the
pursuits of peace.
LAS soon as men overcome their
fears and learn to go down beneath
the water as they now skim its sur
face the progress of the submarine
boat in will liz rapid. With.
in the next ten years we shall have
made more progress in submerged nav
igation than has been made in the 300
years that have just passed. Within
that period l expect to see submarine
boats engaged in regular passenger
traffic. 93s
For transatlantic travel submarine
boats will never be possible CONNER
cially. For short trips the submarine
boat offers commercial advantages
that will render it u dangerous rival Of
the surface sailing vessel. If indeed it
does not drive the latter entirely out
of competition in certain waters. Take.
for example. the trip across the British
channel. No other water journey
causes an equal amount of suffering.
The most hardened traveller becomes
seasick there. Fogs and heavy traffic
are constantly causing collisions. The
submarine boat will removc al these
objections.
There wiz be no s~easickness. be-
u in a submerged boat there is no
perceptible motion. There will he no
smells to create nausea. for the boats
will be propelled by electric power
taken from storage batteries. There
will be no collisions. because the boats
will travel coming and going at diff
ferent depths. say. one ut 40, the Qther
at SO feet. The water overhead may
be crowded with small craft. but the
submarine boat will have Il free. unoA-
structed course. She will be kept alb
solutely true to this course by means
of cables running from shore to shore.
On these cables will run automatic
| steering ear attached to the subma-
rine boat. Storms and fogs will have
no existence for the traveller, for
weather has little effect upon the wa
ter at the depth at which she moves.
1.-THE appointments on such a vessel
may be finer than anything OIL the sur
face. The passengers will enter a
handsomely fitted cabin at Dover. Elec-
trio lights will make it cozy and bright.
Neither the cold Of winter nor the x
IRENE heat of summer will be felt.
Almost without jar the boat will put
off from her dock on the English side.
Practically no vibration will be felt
from the smoothly running machinery.
Before the traveller fairly realizes that
a start has been made the BOAT willsbe
fast at her dock at Calais. This is no
dream. 1t is simply the forecast of a
trip that l expo to take myself some
day"
Mr.. Holland told of the perfection of
development of recent submarine YES
sells for the purpose of var and then
continued:
when the first submarine torpedo
boat goes into action. she will bring us
face to face with the most puzzling
problem ever met in warfare. She win
present the spectacle. when used in at
tack. OF a weapon against which there
is no defense. You a send nothing
against the submarine boat, not even
itself. You cannot fight submarines
with submarines. The fanciful descrip-
lions of the submarine battles of the
future have one defect-you cannot see
under water. Hence you cannot fight
under water. II you cannot run away.
you are doomed. Wharfs. shipping
at anchor, the buildings in seaport
towns. annot run away. The sending
of a submarine boat against them
means their Inevitable destruction.
Tomorrow. if we had a fleet of sub
marine boats big enough. they could
protect New York harbor against an
attack by the combined fleets of the
world. But our shipping and our city
would still be at the mercy of the enc
my II they had only one submarine
boat, manned by a fearless crew of ex-
perts. You could not mine against her.
for she would countermine. You could
not close the harbor against her even
with a network OF %torpedoes and
chains stretched across the Narrow