The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-19
NJ COMFORT IN
 THE SUBMARINES Under Water Life Trying to the
 Men and Officers THEY WELCOME SPRING
Have Been Freezing All Winter In Cramped rpoise-DiVlne Drills Are Spectacular-An
 Officers Supreme Test.
y Case in New York Evening

1 To the crews of the submarines on the
 north Atlantic stations the appearance of
 spring is a glad occasion. For all around l joy it beats even the coming of shore i leave and a pay envelope on the same day.
 For be it known these modern engines
 of destruction are ice boxes in winter, 1 and while 1t is almost the other extreme
 in the open months officers and men say they prefer summer submerged to
 witer ditto. They would rather work
 "at the bottom of the sea- stripped to the buff than swaddled in woollens. In winter, with little room to move about,
 the men of the crews are subjected to
 cold storage temperature in the hulls
 of the submarine. They get all the chills of a sleigh ride party with the ther- mometer at zero, but none of the eXhil- aration.
 When the first snow appears the crews of the submarines on the northern board of the Atlantic become the butt of many jokes from the other men on the station Practice goes on just the same. The boats are usually out three hours in the morn l ing and three in the afternoon, and some- times longer. At Newport they were held at this work well into winter last year, and it wasn't until ice cakes were seen in the harbors that the submarines were sent south. When the notilla reached | New York ice held them all the way to | the Delaware breakwater. Nevertheless 1 the men in the little craft kept on buck l ing the tide and lodging ice cakes, and | though forced once to come back to the | yard for repairs, finally got clear off the 1 pack and reached their destination-the | Virginia Capes, and thence to Annapolis Not Murmur of Complaint. | Not murmur of complaint came from | the men who drove these boats on their I 400-mile journey. If there was any pro- | test it related to facilities for propulsion l rather than to personal comfort. For l hours at stretch the submarines kept | their course, their decks aWash most of 1 the time. At night the little boat rode at anchor, and the stiff and cramped crews were taken aboard the tender, to thaw out and to get a stretch, a bite of food and a l few hours sleep.
 No living accommodations, fortunately, l are squeezed into these submarines. Every I bit of space available is utilized for oper- 1 ating the boat or the torpedoes, and the | crew takes what room is left. Such is l the trim of the submarine, moreover, that | there is very little moving about when one | Is under way. When the coming tower | is closed and the boat submerged every | man in the crew practically keeps one | position. On a cruise, if there is any | seaway at all, the conditions below deck become those of the boat submerged. To counteract the cold in winter there | is only the heat from the gasolene en- l zine. and the air becomes stuffy and | damp. Opening the coming tower for a l fresh supply means taking chance of | shipping a grayback and the flooding of the whole inner compartment. Anything h,tf lto Cn thn t1a hoe can in the close, stuffy quarters, chilled 10 the bone and cramped to a degree of dumbness.
 While submarines were not built for cruising, and are expected to operate close to some base of supplies, modern warfare compels them to make long runs before they can be used effectively against a blockading fleet. If New York were ever made the object of an attack from the sea, the enemys base, naval officers assert would be at least 50 miles from Sandy Hook, and if submarines were to be utilized to put any of his ships out of action they would have to navigate this distance under their own power, and be expected at least to return again. There fore the practice of the submarine Is not all harbor work and submerging, and this is why the navy department keeps the crews constantly on the move, both in summer and winter.
 The Two FlotiIlas.
 At Newport the submarines lie in the dock at the naval station. Last summer they were divided into two fiotillas-the older boats comprising the first and the three more modern ones-the Tarantula, Viper and Cuttlefish-the second. Rarely if ever did the fiotillas leave their moor ings without their tenders. When the first went out the tug Nina followed, and the converted yacht Hist always accom- psnied the second. The crews live aboard these tenders, for it is only in tue later designs that there are any sleeping ac- commodations whatsoever and these are not intended for use except in emergen- cies. The tenders, moreover, are expected to stand by in case of accident and are supposed to be supplied with derrick and
 tackle sufficiently strong to raise "a sub
 marine to the surface if its own lifting
 power failed.
 But how would those on the surface
 know submarine was in distress at the bottom? Naval contractors have pro- vided for just this emergency. Some Of the newer models have a ball buoy with
 a flag attached to the top of their deck, which in case of accident is released and immediately comes to the surface, bring ing cable with it. That buoy and It's length of cable tell which submarine is .n
 distress and how deep she lies in the water.
 Naval officers who are experienced in torpedo and submarine practice declare that nothing but utter carelessness or
 an enemy's torpedo would render sub- marine helpless while submerged. Long and steady drills and instructions have
 made the crews thoroughly at home in the boats, and they handle them as skillfully as any other crew navigates ship on the surface.
 | At Newport last summer most of the | drills were held in Narragansett Bay l with occasional runs out to Brentons | Reef and the ocean. It depended upon | the depths of water wanted. One of the submarines has been down as deep as l 146 feet, but this was an accident and is not generally known. Ordinarily the | craft runs submerged at a depth of sonly about 15 feet, or just far enough Under water to be- concealed, and yet be able 1 to use it's periscope--that mast-like ap- | pliance near the coming tower. By aid Of this periscope the commanding officer l can see above the surface and operate his boat accordingly, but if it is neces- | sary to put the mast under complete 1 ly. he must run by judgment, coming l to the surface at intervals to sight and | then quickly sinking again.
 This operation Is called porpoise diving, i and is most spectacular as seen from the | surface. Lying inert upon the surface. | A sumbarine looks fishlike enough but to | see the craft rise and dive on long slantA l ing runs, its dull green steel sides glis- | tening in the salf spray, one has every !, impression of some sea monster at play. | A fiotilla of battleships and cruisers at | -.-.4 IL IL