The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-08-28
THE SUBMARINE BOATS
NAVY DEPARrMENT WATCHING
 THEIR DEVELOPMENT.
Undertaking to Equip Marine Arm of the Service With Every Fossil ble Means of Defense Against
 This Kind of Craft.

 taking to equip the navy with every pos sible means of defense against these for midable and terrifying craft. The giant Connecticut and its sister ship the Loulsi- ana, which will be the greatest fighting vessels in Uncle Sam's navy, will have an which is designed primarily as a means of defense against surface and submarine torpedo boats. These secondary batteries will consist of twenty 14-pouniers. twelve 3-pounders, six 1-pounders of an automat- ic type. two 1-pounders of a semi-auto- matic type. two 3-inch field pieces for landing parties and eight smaller machine guns.
 The guns from to IA pounders will be the most effective against submarine tor pedo boats." said Rear Admiral O'Neil, chief of the Bureau of Ordnance of the Navy Department, in discussing subma- rine warfare today. ''Of course these boats will appear on the surface for only a moment and 1t will be necessary to fire very rapidly in order to destroy them. The guns cannot be handled fast enough. but the others, being fired from the shouf- der can pour a string of shot after a submarine that will make 1t pretty warm for it whenever it comes to the surface. Fortunately for the protection of the batleships the hull of the submarine Is | very thin and can be pierced by anything down to a 3-pounder. The difficulty Is to hit 1t. Some of the officers anticipate guarding against submarines by means of swift moving surface torpedo boats which can down the Submarines and ram them whenever they come to the surface.
 When I was in the harbor of Cher burg, recently" he continued, T saw one of the French submarine torpedo boats darting around the harbor and ap- parently making very good speed. It | sat very low in the water and was very pointed and in fact you could not tell where it ended except for a little flag | whise rose above the surface. We know very little about the French type of boat as they are guarding it with the greatest of care. I understand, however, that it is run by storage batteries exclusively. The Holland. which Is as yet the only submarine boat our navy has in commits sion is propelled by gasoline on the sur face and storage batteries when running | below There was an explosion on board of the Holland the other day and 1t was thought at first it came from gasoline fumes, but the report of Lieu tenant Caldwell states that the gasoline tanks were entirely empty at the time the explosion occurred so that does away with the gasoline theory. The board of inquiry will probably, find out what caused the explosion. Lieutenant Cald- | well thinks 1t came from hydrogen gas generated by the storage batteries. which had just been charged, and ignited by a spark from pipe or cigar or some thing carried by the only man who was | present when the explosion occurred There may have ben many accident or the French torpedo boats from similar cause as they are run by storage bat teries, but of coruse they would not be made public.
 "The first submarine boat I ever saw, he said, Twas a boat called the Peace | maker, which I went to New York with General Sherman and some others years ago to see. Its motive power was fur | nished by superheated steam They | heated the steam to a very high tempera- ture and stored it in tanks and discharg- ed it into jacket of causitc soda. which got very hot and enabled them to use l boat ran along all right so far as could see and made a number of Sor- boise dives. It did not carry any tor pedo tubes and whatever became of it do not know At the present time gaso- line and storage batteries are used on all submarine crafts as far as I know. Il would be impossible in those close quart CTS to use steam on account of the heat
 "Of course it will never be necessary for the United States to maintain as many submarine boats as France at the same time we should have a reasonble supply. France realizes that it is impos- sible for to compete with England ir the matter of battleships and cruisers and has therefore turned its attention t. the development of the highest type oi submarine torpedo boats. They claim tc be able to run across the channel entire. ly under water and as they would prob ably have them ready for sailing imme. diately on the declaration of war they expect to be able to launch fleet oi forty or fifty or more of these vessels and have them cross the channel and ir the principal ports of England in a very few hours. The consternation 1t would CT cate amongst the English shipping car be imagined. However I do not believe that England's naval operations should it go to war with France, would be con ducted along the French coast. but woult more likely take place in the West Indies and elsewhere. The French, are. there fore, designing their craft with offensive as well as defensive work
 In discussing the means employed bS submarine boats of locating an enemy Admiral O'Neil said he understood iron Admiral Bradford, who had made a triI in one of the American submarine boats that by means of a prism which was ele vated above the surface of the water ht could see the surrounding vessels ant other objects very well. although some distance below the surface.
 Tt is impossible to see under the wa ter" he said. and I do not think the device invented to detect the presence o submarine vessels will work satisfacto rily. You can not tell whether the move ment in the water is from a submarine boat or from some other boat.
 There are a great many matters to b, taken into consideration in connection with the equipping of the navy with sub marine boats. If we are to have a larg, number of these crafts we must have some place to keep them and must have quarters for ther crews. They can no go far out to sea and must necessarily operate about the harbors. It Is scarce | ly possible to keep a crew in action or one of the boats of the Holland type fol more than eight hours as the crampeC position in which the men are compellel to sit would tire them out so they coulf hardly do their best work after being il there six or eight hours"
 Then you are opposed to submarine boat sof this type?" was asked the Ad miral who has often been referred to a: | .rl,. f,