The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-03-14
SUBMARINE BOATS.
USED IN MODERN
WARFARE.
Test Of New Torpedo Boats
Being Made By Uncle Sam
To Build More.
By e.. c. Snyder.

/ Washington, D. O., March l4.-Now
that the government Us testing the two
new torpedo boats, the Shark and the
PSrpOise. renewed interest is mani
tested in this supposedly modern
method of defending the coasts Of a
country. It is only within th last &c
years that submarine boats have been
regarded as in any way valuable de-
fences to naval fleets and within that
period England has made greater
strides towards the upbuilding OF
foatillas of these small vessels than
any other nation, and the reason for
this is that the British admiralty have
uniformly extended their submarine
fleets in units of five or six each, that
Is to say, they have picked out a type.
have constructed five vessels U! that
type, and one of an advanced design,
and ther the mex, year tlisY CONTINUE
tie same .'olicy, so that today, While
France has more submarine boats
than Great Britain, the British vessels
are far better suited for the PURPOSE
and. in addition, ar, built in such
Numbers as to make them valuable and
perfect aids to coast .lefeqse.
The general supposition is that Jules
Verne in his story, Twenty thousand
leagues under the sea-" first conceiv-
ed the idea of submarine navigation,
but Admiral Philip Hichborn, now On
the retired list Of the navy, who was
for many years chief constructor, i'm
an article prepared for the Engineer
ing magazine some years ago, showed
that long before Jules Verne was even
born, submarine navigation was sue
cessfully attempted. 1t seems that
William Bourne, an Englishman, was
the first naval constructor of this type,
and his boat was built more than three
hundred years ago; then in 1924 Ven
Drebbel, a Hollander. operated a SUBJ
marine boat capable of carrying 12
persons, but this boat was propelled
by sculls or oars, and SO on for the
next hundred years there were desal-
tory attempts made to contru: sub
marine navigation.
1t will surprise great hany people
to know that George Washington, in a
letter written to Thomas Jefferson,
expressed the opinion that the prob
lenE of successfully navigating water
beneath the surface had been solved
And what will perhaps be more aston
fishing to the student of this science IS
the fact that Fulton, the inventor of
the steam boat, built a submarine
boat before he attempted to navigate
the waters of the Hudson with the
aid of his old-fashioned, queerly con-
structed, double head steamer, and,
further than that, Fulton gave the
same name to his submarine boat as
that chosen by Jules Verne, namely,
the Nautilus.
Napoleon also had his attention at
tracted to this method of navigation
beneath the surface, but Napoleon also
endorsed breech loading fire arms, and
It was fifty years after that great.
Cirsican died on the little island of st.
Helena before breech loading fire
arms came into general use, and It,
wassnearly a hundred years after his
death before submarine navigation re-
ceiyed any serious attention in this
country. at least, but now It seems
that the committee on naval affairs
has awakened to the Importance Of the
bill. and It 10 probable that five or six
boats Of this design will be authorized
In the coming naval appropriation bill.
81. q ~ y - y Il