The Washington herald., 1907-08-31

mergences by going down at fun speed in
a forty-m!le gale and clipping the diving
record for twenty feet from eleven min
utes to four minutes and thirty seconds.
When the government ordered the Oc-
topus 10 go down and remain twenty-four
hours the naval world took notice, for the
French boat. Lutin, had recently been
wrecked 1S7 feet below the surface in the
harbor Of BizeTta, Tunis. Capt Frank
Cable and his crew carried out the order
as II ii had been routine business. The
hatch was battOned down and the Octo-
pus quietly slipped to the bottom at
o o'clock on May Is. Signals let the world
know that nothing was wrong, from time
to time, and the little boat rose to the
surface at the end of the test without a
single mishap having been recorded EX-
cept that the meals were cooked on an
electric stove, which gave out no fumes,
and the men were forbidden the use of
tobacco, life went on as il all hands had
been sailing on the .sdTface Of the water.
The crew played poker when on watch,
sailor who had a jewsharp enllvened the
tedium Of the day, and the men and Off
GERS read newspapers and chatted TO XIII
time The record of submergcnce was
changed from the seventeen hours made
by the iil-starred Lutin, and America was
triumphant. The Cuttlefish, one OF our
submarines, was put to a 200-fOOt sub
mergence test recently. without a crew,
and came through without the least dam
age. At this depth the pressure is about
ninety pounds 10 the square inch and the
pressure on >the whole boat about 1900
tons, yet not drop of water leaked In.
Another record was made by the Lake
FUnv rrslra 1frs A.
any other boat had ever gone with a crew.
Aside from crawling about on the bed
OF the ocean to prevent blockades, doing
picket duty about a squadron. searching
Tor cables. clearing channels of tor
pedoes. and doing other duties as engines
OF war. the submarines of the future are
expected TO be highly useful In recover
ing property from wrecks. An average
of 2172 vessels a year are lost in the
worlds commerce, with probably $780,
100000 worth of freight. Many kinds Of
merchandise keep as we'll under water as
above the surface. Bicycles brought up
from salt water months after submerg-
ence have been found as good as when
they were lost. Old wine recovered from
wrecks sunk fifty years ago has sold at
SO 4 bottle. Gold. precious stones. fine
woods. marbles, metals, canned goods,
and numerous other kinds of cargo keep
well at the bottom Of the ocean. and
mines of wealth are open to the navigator
who may some day do practical work
at great depths by using submarine craft
Inventors believe that within the next
century there viii be as great an evolu-
ton IN submarine navigation as there
has been in the last century, and that
Jules Vernes fiction may be in time
equalled by fact. At present the ''Nau-
illus" with its splendid dining-room, its
grand piano. its library. and its arrange
ments by which passengers wearing
armOr suits leave the boat and 60 hunting
on the ocean floor, Is still the dream OF
writer OF romance. Duty upon sub
marine boats is dangerous. while the ef-
fectiveness Of the boats themselves in
actual warfare is somewhat pToblemati-
cal.
TO-mOrrOw-Overai and Industry.