Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1914-08-28

ieeper than 20 feet, and my main object in building
Ter was to show how a craft of that nature could
,e made to travel around on the bottom and, by
means of the diving compartment, make it possible
o recover things lying upon the waterbed. To make
! long story short, my performances were SO sue
,essful that l obtained money and we. organized a
company in November of 1895. But we did not
nave funds enough to build the big boat ] had
planned, and accordingly we had to curtail our am
oition and confine our efforts to a smaller craft for
the purpose of demonstration and as an induce
ment to additional capital. Fortunately | won the
confidence of the late William T. Master of Bal
timore, then president of the Columbian Iron
works and afterward mayor of the town.
~The Argonaut was a cigarshaped structure of
steel, SO feet long and 9 feet of beam, and was
fitted with an so h. p. gasoline engine, a dynan&,
an air compressor, a searchlight, water ballast
pumps-the apparatus necessary for successful
submarine navigation. She had accommodation
inside her for a crew of five, and during 1898 a
cruise Of more than 1000 miles was made in the
Chesapeake bay and on the Atlantic coast, travel
ing both on the surface and submerged, and over
all kinds of bottom. That boat. designed for COM
mercial purposes, was the pioneer of a larger
military underwater craft which we built in
Bridgeport some years later.
AS far back as 1901 l offered our navy depart
ment a boat that could carry guns in addition to
torpedoes. 1 was generally laughed at, as / was
for my bottom-trayeling wheels. AS you know,
most of the big British submarines now carry
guns and otner nations are Fronting by those eX-
amples. The big boats built by me in Russia for
the cars navy we're designed to have this very
feature.
in view of the actual advances, and knowing
the increasing destructive might of the torpedo, l
find no difficulty in subscribing to Admiral Sir
Percy SCOTS prediction. Yes. of course, the idea
is of revolutionary portent, but with the gun to
batter her above water and the torpedo to do even
greater damage below, what chance of surviving
has the accepted order of dreadnaughts?
THE Proctor was the first underwater craft to
provide comfortable quarters for her crew and to
be equipped with cooking facilities in order thai
they might live aboard of her. Even so, the ruling
spirit of our naval board of inspection in 1903
pooh-poohed this provision, declaring that a moth
er ship would always be necessary and that the
men would live aboard the larger craft. How far
that mistaken authority erred can be gathered
from the performance of a sister boat.
After that little vessel became part of the
cars feet she made a run from Kronstadt to
Libau in October of 1905. The official report of
the commander of the vessel best tells the story:
This trip confirms once more the good sea-
going qualities of boats of this particular type, as
several times we were out in cold weather and ex-
posed to high winds and heavy seas, yet, notwith-
standing these conditions, the submersible stood
the weather every time quite easily. At one time,
for "a hours, by reason of the violence of the wind
and the nature of the sea, it was not possible to
pass food from the conveying vessel. During that
period the deck was swept by heavy seas and the
crew were able to take the air only on top of the
coming tower; but notwithstanding this when l
proposed to them the next day that they might 81,
over to the convoy if they liked they again asked
permission to remain on the submersible.'
YES, the underwater craft are coming into their
own"