The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1908-12-04
INSIDE A SUBMARINE.
i.y.D "rhs Under-seas Sailor and His Boat,
IN st. NichoiaA


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Climbing down ten rungs OF ar
Iron ladder into the interior OF a sub.
marine is like going into boiler shor
where there Is one continuous, deaf
ening, ear-splitting racket. like a doz.
en- triphammers Gathering a tattoo
amid grind and rumble and thump
OF machinery as II especially de.
signed TO burst your ear drums. Al
first the noise In that narrowly con.
fined space is painful and bewilder.
ing. To make yourself at all heard
you must shout into the ear of a com.
paDion. So intense is the strain that
you marvel how day in and day out
human ears can withstand the or.
deal.
You find yourself inside what seems
an enormous steel cigar, painted a
neat pearl gray, color which Is ser.
viceable and does not dazzle the eye.
Light comes to you partly through
portfolios and In part from incan-
descent lamps placed fore and aft In
the darker parts Of the hull You
have expected, OF course, to land in
r tangle OF whirling machinery that
fills the inside OF the boat from stem
to stern threatening with every rev.
olution to take an arm or a leg of.
Instead. the first thing you see Is an
uninterrupted working space" or
deck, measuring seven feet by twen-
ty-fve or thirty feet. At the stern,
far in the background. are the ma
chimes and engines: in fact, this Sec
tion Of the vessel is nothing but ma
chinery, a rumbling mass OF silvery
steel and glittering brass revolving
at the rate of 500 times a minute,
so compact that you wonder how the
various parts can turn without con-
ficting, or how 1t is possible for hu-
man hands to squeeze through the
maze to oil the machinery.
But this economy OF space Is as
nothing to what you will see. The
floor you stand on Is a cover for the
cells OF the storage batteries wherein
la pent up the electricity with which
your boat will propel herself when
she runs submerged. The walls amid
ships and the space in the bow are
gigantic ballast tanks to be filled with
water that will play part shortly
when you get ready to dive. The
four torpedoes, measuring sixteen
feet three inches long, eighteen in
ches in diameter, and weighing fifteen
hundred pounds each, are lashed 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 taxi
en- along to keep life in you in case
the boat should be detained beneath
the surface longer than usual, is COM
pressed I'm steel cylinder to two
thousand pounCs per square inch
pressure so intense that were the
cylinder to spring a leak no larger
than a pin hole, and were the tiny
stream of escaping air to strike q
human being, it would penetrate him
through and through and drill hole
through an inch thick board behind
him.
And yet everything about the in
terror arrangements of this boat is
so simple that you can see at glance
Its purpose. Away forward, where
the tip OF the cigar comes to a point.
are the two torpedo tubes out of
which the gunner will send his dead
ly projectiles seething beneath the
waters at the rate of thirty-five
knots an hour against an unsuspect-
ing hull. Directly under the con-
ming tower is platform three feet
square and elevated 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 the station OF
the second in command. in charge OF
the wheel that controls the diving
rudders and the cages that register
the angle of ascent and ecline, and
show how deep the boat is down. The
two officers are in personal commu-
nication so that in case of heart dis
ease or other mishap either can jun,r
to the other mans place.
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