The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1908-10-15
INSIDE A SUBMARINE
You Are Greeted by a Deafenlng,
Ear Splitting Racket.
WORSE THAN A BOILER SHOP.
To Make Yourself Heard at All You
Must Shout Into the Ear Of q Com
panIOn-The Economy Of Space and
the Simplicity Of Arrangements.

Must Shout Into the Ear Of q Com
panion--The Economy Of Space and
the Simplicity Of Arrangements.
Climbing down ten rungs Of an
Iron ladder into the interior Of a sub
marine Is like going into a boiler shop
where there Is one continuous, deafen-
ing, ear splitting racket like a dozen
trip hammers chattering tattoo amid
a grind and rumble and thump Of ma
chinery as II especially designed to
burst your eardrums.
At first the noise in that narrowly
confined space is painful and bewllder-
ing. TO make yourself at all heard
you must shout into the ear OF COM
panlon. SO intense is the strain, says
a writer In st. Nicholas, that you mar
vel how day In and day out human
ears can withstand the ordeal.
You find yourself inside what seems
an enormous steel cigar painted a neat
pearl gray, a color which Is serviceable
and does not dazzle the eye. Light
comes to you partly through portfolios
and In part from incandescent lamps
placed fore and aft in the darker parts
Of the hull.
You have expected, Of course, to
land in a tangle Of whlrling machinery
that fils the inside Of the boat from
stem to stern, threatening with every
revolution to take an arm or leg or.
Instead the flrst thing you see is an
uninterrupted working space" or
deck, measuring Z by 25 or 80 feet.
At the stern, far In the background,
are the machines and engines, In fact,
this section OF the vessel Is nothing but
machinery, n rumblIpg mass Of silvery
steel and glittering brass revolving at
the rate OF 500 times minute, SO COM
pact that you wonder how the various
parts can turn without conflicting OF
how II is possible for human hands to
squeeze through the maze to oil the
machinery.
But this economy Of space is as moth
Ing to what you will see. The floor
you stand on Is cover for the cells OF
the storage batteries wherein Is pent
up the electricity with which your boat
will propel herself when she runs sub
merged The walls amidships and the
space In the bow are gigantic ballast
tanks to be filled with water that VIII
these are tool boxes and hinged hunks
for the crew to sleep In.
The four torpedoes, measuring six
teen feet three inches long, eighteen
inches In diameter and weighing 1000
pounds each, are dashed end for end in
pairs at either side, and directly over
these are tool boxes and hinged hunks
for the crew to sleep In.
The very air which Is taken along to
keep life In you In case the boat should
be detained beneath the surface longer
than usual is compressed In a steel cyl
lnder 1000 pounds per square inch, q
pressure so intense that were the cyl
inder to spring leak no larger than q
pin hole and were the tiny stream OF
escaping air to strike human being 1t
would penetrate him through and
through and drill hole through an
inch thick board behind him.
And yet everything about the inte-
rior arrangements of this boat is SO sim
pie that you can see at q glance Its
purpose. Away forward. where the
tip of the cigar comes to point, are
the two torpedo tubes out of which
the gunner will send his deadly pro.
jectiles seething beneath the waters Mt
the rate of 35 knots an hour against
an unsuspecting hull.
Directly under the coming tower Is
a platform. three feet square and ele-
waited three feet from the deck, upon
which, the captain stands, head and
shoulders extending into the tower, so
that while at his post he is visible to
the crew only from the waist line
down. and at the feet of the captain
and on a level with his platform is
stationed another Of the officers. In
charge of the wheel that controls the
diving rudders and the gauges that
register the angle Of ascent and de-
cline and show how deep the boat Is
down.
The two officers are In personal COM
municatlon, so that In case Of heart
disease or other mishap either can
jump to the other mans place.