Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-08
NEW SUBMARINE BOAT
The Protector Was Launched
a Few Days Ago.
A PRACTICAL CRAFT
PLANNED TO ACCOMPLISH GREAT
THINGS UNDER WATER.
A Big Improvement Over the Nautilus
Many Radical
Changes.
A PRACTICAL CRAFT

Written fer The Evening Star by R. G. Skerrett.
Simon Lake, in his submarine torpedo
boat Protector, launched few days ago at
| bridgeport, Conn, has gone further toward
the naturalization Of Jules verne's famous
Nautilus than any other builder Of that
type of boat. The Protector Is not only a
practical craft-so proved by her predeces-
scr. the Argonaut. also designed and built
by Mr.. Lake-but she Is a very wide de-
parture from anything heretofore developed
by others in any country and possesses a
scope Of service that makes her at one and
the same time naval and military agent.
All of this may sound somewhat excessive,
| but the performance OF the Argonaut stands
| sponsor for practical achievement on the
| lines of surface navigation in the severa,
| stages of semi-submergence and for the
| actual travel, for hours at time along the
bottom of Chesapeake bay and the sandy
ocean floor Of the neighboring Atlantic. The
Argonaut was not torpedo boat-she was
designed primarily for subaqueous eXplora-
| ton, for the recovery OF valuable cargoes
from sunken craft, for the building of sub
marine foundations, and incidentally. to
prove her military value for either mining
or counterminfng work. During the early
| days Of our war with Spain the Argonaut
was in the waters of the Chesapeake, and.
to prove her practical usefulness for mining
work, asked permission to countermine or
d1sconnect, by stealth, the mine fields
abreast Of Fortress Monroe Va Permis-
sion was refused for obvious reasons but
MI Lake Established his record neverthe-
less. one late afternoon while coming in
from the capes whittier he had taken the
Argonaut for a sea turn he conceived the
ldea or running right up upon the mina
held and anchoring In the midst of the
large Meet OF coasting vessels moored be-
yond. Accordingly he submerged the boat
Until the sighting hood m her
was just above the water. Twilight was
still glowing in the west when he started In
upon the guarded waters. The flash OF
watchful searchlights from the fort swent
necessarily across the whole range of an
proach. and every craft, from rowboat to
towering coasting schooner, was picked
up by the tireless eyes of those electric
peans. NOT once, however. was the Argo-
maui detected, even though her towering
air pipes stood boldly up some thirty feet
OF more; and. after an hours run she an.
chored amid the gathered feet and rose full
upon tne surface at her ordinary trim The
sur prise OF the military authorities can well
be imagined. ~ "o''
Working Under Water.
A Gay or two after she submerged and
stayed Deiow FOR some hours. and in that
condition her diver went out upon the bot
'tofh ana gathered clans enough to cook
there below for supper. He could as easiIv
oHy VI Inc NEARBY mines
without the least fear of discovery-in fact
there was nothing to indicate where the
Arsonaut was, and until she rose again
fnr eoo was G9mmon fear that she had gone
lol sood. Ihat Argonaut Of '9S and Areo-
maui No. Greatly the old boat enIara.S So
oettered-crufsed hundreds of miles V-itbout
convoy along the. Atlantic coast.and COW
e enhn long distances on the sea bed totally
Submerged Since 1900 Argonaut No .
has paid for herself several times over bv
Ine wrecking work which she has done in
Long Island sound. where she recovered
valuable eargoes long since deemed 49,
both financially and in point of Loo to-,
IN the very treacherous waters of Hell Cato
aione sne has recovered no fewer tban
e,gnt rich cargoes of coal Large parties
have been taken down below the s,,rfaca
In the craft and have been feasted tbere
upon the fish and bivalves taken in fbair
presence through the open doorway lea d;ne
rTI,o ehs sea from the diving compartment.
Ihere mas never once been a mishap and
the boat mas functioned safely in weather
tnat would have sent to the bottom for
good any other submarine now extant
Ihe protector is the Argonaut No . var,,
much improved and ampIifed nv tba e.
lures OF a submarine torpedo boat des;onad
not only for surface and bottom rms INT
I'M 1ntehded as vel. for intermediate travel
nat t!ie boat will be able to run TINS he
tween the sea bed and the surface is nroro-
lsed by her Designer. and 1t is upon the CIV
perience gained while travelling upon the
Bottom that hs based most of fhe soa+,,
action; The Protector is covered bv more
tnan 2oo patents. the majority of which a re
essentially basic. the best proof of the
originality lavished upon the boat ci
dents and explosions that have been cow
mon to pretty nearly every other suhna
rine are provided against here, and vet
MI. Mr. lake IS modest man, asking only at
the expense of the present company. that
ne may prove by competitive trials the
worth OF his wares 'i-e
On a Different Model
To begin, the Protector is not sbaped like
any other submarine boat Her hill ia
substantially shipshaped instead of cigar
formed, like most every other boat of her
class. The primary object of this is, first.
to give her big reserve of buoyancy in
every condition save that of total submerg-
ence upon the bottom. When lying semi
submerged upon the surface her buoyancy
as proved by the Argonaut, will be such
that she can ride safely through any sea
With the cigar form the buoyancy rapidly
decreases as the water piles upon the upper
half of the rounded body, and there is a
very dangerous tendency to bury even in
very moderate weather, while the form is
not easy of propulsion. Again, the cigar
form has little or no horizontal stability
when submerged. A strong current or
sudden shifting of weights within would
either cause the vessel to plunge or rise
without time for correction. With the ship
shaped hull it is possible TO secure absolute
horiZonta1 StdDlllty, ana that without i'm
posing anything other than a reasonable
movement of weights within. It is possible
as 1t is not in the cigar FORM for the crew
to move about to a considerable extent
when running between surface and sea
bed.
This was proved in the original Argonaut,
for on going from the river floor into a
suddenly deepened channel the boat set
tied upon the lower bed without fractional
dip of the head, and, because of it's modest
weight when so submerged, rose like fish
up the other side of the channel and back
upon the general bottom without jar of any
sort. Where there are strong currents the
boats hold upon the bottom is increased
simply by adding to it's water ballast, and
It has been found possible to run through
light mud. with a modest burying of the
wheels of only six inches, where a diver
would sink up to his waist. In these cruises
upon the bottom Mr.. Lake found the action
Of storm disturbances to be much deeper
than commonly supposed. and the currents
and eddies so set up would make Ii impos-
sbie for the average so-called subsurface
torpedo boat to work. 1t would be tmpos-
sible for them to maintain their stability,
and, should they hazard an attack at any
speed, they would find themselves not only
OF their course. but either preaching like a
gamboling whale in plain sight of an enc
my's gunners or plunging disastrously to-
ward the bottom of the sea The sub
marines heretofore built in this country, Of
other designs have at best proyed Them