Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-18

''Narval." the original submergibls. that 4
TOOK her twenty-three minutes to pass
from from surface to submarine aaari navigation:
the Triton" and the "Silure' disappear III
ten minutes. and II is said that the "Es-
pandon' disappears in seven minutes after
the order to put out the fires is given.
No Great Disadvantage.
If this slowness In taking the plunge he
counted a disadvantage. it is Offset by the
advantages of steam navigation. Fur
nished with steam engines peculiarly econ
omical from the fuel standpoint the sub
mergibles can keep the sea for days and
days.
And is their slowness in plUnging suf-
ficently slow to prove serious disadvan-
tage? Take an example. Suppose that
destroyer making twenty knots perceiveS
a submergible navigating the surface at
the moment when the submergible per-
ceives the destroyer. This is an unfavor-
able hypothesis, because IL is evident that
the destroyer. trailing its smoke aud much
more conspicuous above the water, ought
to be seen first. Admitting also that the
suhmergihie Immediately sheers off at the
eight knots of her electric engines. puts out
her fires and begins sinking. at the end Of
ten minutes the destroyer will have gained
Just two miles on her Cs.1c9 neters), and
the submergible will have completely
disappeared. Note. also. that during the
five minutes previous to disappearing. the
submergible will have offered only a
minute mark to the leStrOEer-ler dome
and smokestack.
During the first vague English alarm over
these matters in ISg? an authoritative
writer in the Army and Navy Gazette
said:
The English View.
1T is granted that the 'Gustave Zede'
must come to the top of the water with at
least her cupola awash to see where she
is going. In fact, the attack upon a battle
shin firpr hafanlad ny ~
destroyers would, in measure. be a re-
production of some of the incidents of the
whale fishery. And for our part we think
it would end in the destruction of the
whale . -
This was four years ago. and in spite OF
the warning the French have continued
building who knows how many submarines
and submerSihles? According to the pro-
gram voted by the chambers in 1900 on
the earnest proposition of NJ. de Lanessan
there were to be constructed between 1870
and 1860 total of forty-four new sub
marines, the types not specified In addi-
ton to the fourteen existing prior to 1870
or IN course of construction. Do the
twenty-three small submarines appearing
in the estimates of 1901 and the fourteen
undescribed ones of 1902 belong to this
category? 1t is thought not.
Are the Franch naval engineers deliber-
ately building whales for the hardy fishers
of Great Britain? In the first place whales
proper do not launch torpedoes. In the
second place not even the "Gustave Zede''
was obliged to show herself to take bear
ings Though as a rule it-like the new
submergibles-worked with its cupola It
could work hiduen. Through the roof of
the cupola extended a brass tube fitted
with lenses and prisms. so as either to
project on a card in the maneuver cham
Der picture of objects above the surface
or permit the commander to observe them
directly. The top of this tube was about
the size of a mans fist. Has ii 3, device
been perfected? Or superseded by better
one? In view of the submarine activity
of the French, one is tempted to believe
the statement. STERLING HELLO.