The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-01
Sub Surfaced Boat SurpaSses
Anything in Navy.
CONSTRUCTIONVERY
Has Vision and Also Has In
vuInerabiiity.

must keep our eyes open to that fact. =
Rear Admiral Melville.
If you can imagine perpendicular
'S;amese Twin boat. one-half running
deep under water and the other on the
surface. you have in your minds eye the
latest sub-surface coast defender ordered
by the government
Very strange to the eye is this new
marine monster with its steam launch
over body and its deep sea sting. As it
rests on the stocks it looks like dumb
bell with fat handle.
Although its capacities are as yet an
unknown quantity the naval board of
construction has reported favorably on
the plans.
1t is expected to run sixteen knots an
hour, where the submarine boats can
only run eight. 1t has the advantage
of an upper body which constitutes the
eyes, whereas the submarine boat must
breach blindly like a whale before it can
get its bearings.
The theory of the two boats is essen
TALLY different The claim is made that
the sub-surface boat has vision with in
vulnerability. The submarine boat cam
not see under the water and is very vul-
nerable on the surface.
The sub-surface boat can attack openly.
The submarine boat must catch the enc
my mapping.
The plan of the new boat to the nauti-
cal mind is. simple 1t consists of a cigar
shaped steel underwater hull, holding
the machinery, torpedoes toISredo tubes
and protecting the crew from gun-fire.
This hull is suspended by hollow fin
like structure from the steel surface hull
filled with cellulose. acting as a mere
Goat 20 give vision, ventilation, buoyancy
and seaworthiness fike an ordinary boat.
BY the separation of the two hulls, not
only are the lower hull and vitals placed
well out of reach of shells, but the dis
placement is halved. so that the neces-
sary speed can be obtained. The upper
hull is made low and is almost invisible
at a distance.
A heavily armored coming tower rises
from the lower huh through the hollow
fin slightly above the surface hull. This
armored coming tower. in which the
navigator stands and steers the boat, is
proof against all small guns and is too
small a target, in motion, for large guns
20 hit
Air is continually supplied to the lower
hull through the armored coming tower
by means of an ordinary blower so that
the ventilation is ample Gas engines
furnish the requisite power to drive the
boat at sixteen knots an hour.
The low upper hull and fin being divided
into compartments, which are, in war
time, completely filled with water-exclud-
ing celulose. retain their buoyancy no
matter how often they are perforated
with shot; and as only a small part OF
the upper hull suffices to sustain the
lower hull, 1t is evident that a great por-
ton OF the upper hull could be shot away
without disabling the boat.
In compartments in the middle of the
upper hull. surrounded by cellulose. are
located stateroom for the commander,
q galley and quarters for the crew. hav-
ing natural light and ventilation. and
hatchways leading TO the lower hull. In
war time these compartments may also
in the lower hull alone used the coming
tower serving as the hatchway. Rapid
fire guns can also be mounted on the
upper deck for use against other torpedo
boats
In ordinary weather the upper deck can
be used for exercise like an ordinary
torpedo boat as the model tests showed
that the sub-surface boat acted in all
respects like an ordinary surface boat
of the same length and displacement.
The inventors of the sub-surface torpe-
do boat claim that being thus barely WISH
BILE and almost invulnerable TO gun-fire,
and having a tested speed so much in ex-
cess Of the ordinary maneuvering speed
OF fighting ships in battle or on blockade
fl could. under cover Of darkness or fog.
or even in daylight. get within torpedo
range-5e0 10 1000 yards-and torpedo an
attacking or blockading squadron and
get away again without being put out ~
action
The sub-surface boat is designed espe-
cially for coast defense. thus enabling
the armored ships to mobilize where they
may fight with most effect
Those who have studied and expert
mented with powerful explosives and who
affect 20 see the doom of the great ar
mored ship sounded in the development
Of enormously powerful explosives, pre-
dict that the submerged or semi-submerg-
ed destroyers are the fighting machines
of the future. That. however. is as yet
mere conjecture.
The inventor OF the sub-surface torpedo
boat is Clarence L. Burger, a New York
patent lawyer, a graduate of Princeton
University. a civil engineer by training
and naval architect for the love of IL
he is thirty-seven years old and was
graduated from Princeton in 1855.
The idea of the sub-surface boat was an
outgrowth of the events of the Spanish
war. The inventor thought that the old
fashioned torpedo boat had failed Of its
purpose and that 1t was proved to be too
vulnerable to be effective in action.
It occurred 20 him that by suspending
a submarine boat from. as i; were. an
unsinkable float or surface hull filed
with cellu,ose or cork. enough buoyancy
could be obtained 10 carry heavily ar
nored coming tower for vision ard u
afford continuous supply Of air fer he
use of the combustion engines ecsssary
TO insure a high rate Of speed.
He obtained through Assistant Sec7eta-
~ OF the Navy McAdoo. from Lewis
Nixon report that the idea was feasible
and that the semi-submerged boat was
the coming weapon for offensive work
with the automobile torpedo" Mean
while he patented the invention of tn
double hull in all the countries OF the
world. From high officials in the navy
department. TO whom he submitted the