Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1914-10-08
SUBMARINES
ARE EFFECTIVE
May Sound DeathkneII Of Mod
ern Batt|eShipS.
RECENT SUCCESS A SURPRISE
Much of the Attacking Power of the
strated Efficiency Of Underwater
Craft of British and German Navies.
Expect Other Attacks.

strated Efficiency of Underwater
Craft of British and German Navies.
Expect Other Attacks.
London.-The submarine has demon
strated its power as a naval weapon.
The 9th of September, 1914 will long
be remembered as the day when this
modern underwater craft first proved
its efficiency. for on that day one of
the German t1otilla sent the British
scout cruiser Pathfinder to her doom.
But success was not one sided, and
before that day closed boat OF the y
class of submarine incautiously ex-
posed her coming tower in the midst
of seven British warships and ere she
could dive again her body was shat
tered and down she plunged like
broken bottle. However, to the
strategist the sacrifice of the sub
marine was a bagatelle compared with
the cruiser which one of her COM
panions had previously destroyed
Seven days later the British scored
in kind by way of retaliation when
the big submarine E-9 caught the Ger
man cruiser Hela unawares and sank
her off Wilhelmshaven. But the Ger
man commanders of these new
weapons of naval warfare were APP
parently inspired to still greater deeds
of daring In one-two-three order the
kaiser's submarines nine days later
sent three of England's armored
cruisers to the bottom, and while the
ships themselves were nearly obsolete
as battle craft, the toll of life. amount
ing to more than / 800 men, is blow
that must long be felt in the British
navy, while it may gravely affect the
morale of the entire service at1Oat.
The German submarines have &C
complished in fact the very thing for
which they have been zealously and
secretly practicing for a long time. Ac-
cording to the news accounts, the three
cruisers Aboullir, Cressy and Hogue
We're sunk at a point north and west
of the Hook of Holland, and if is true
it has great significance for the British
fleet.
Undoubtedly these German subma-
rines have operated from a base at
Helgoland. Now. Helgoland is approx
mately 20O miles north of the Hook of
Holland, and this gives an idea of the
working radius Of the German boats,
which must have fuel enough in store
to carry them that distance and take
them back to their base again. Some
of these boats have q cruising radius at
reduced surface speed of possibly 1000
miles. but it must be remembered that
in time of war they would probably
make stretches of a run like that to the
neighborhood of the coast of Holland
below the surface of the sea. To do
this they must have recourse to cleo
trical propulsion. and that means that
they must come to the surface again
and recharge their batteries while
using their oil motors.
All of the German submarine totilla
are so called high sea boats, and most
of them are of the latest design and
thoroughly up to date. For them to
escape the watchful eyes of the Brit
ish destroyers and scouts and to get
more than 200 miles away from Helgo-
land and right into the cruising field
of the English fleet is evidence of the
capacity of the kaiser's submarines
and the quality of the men in charge
of them. If they can cover such n sea
stretch what is to prevent their ventur
ing further in mood of desperate de-
termination to deal their prime mari
time foe still heavier blow?
The British public generally, not to
mention most of his naval brethren,
derided Sir Percy Scott recently when
he said that the submarine had sound
ed the deathknell of the nreadnought.
And yet today some measure of the
truth OF his prophecy is apparent
True. the British submarines are
probably quite the equal of the rival
German boats, and England actually
has n greater number OF them. Already
the kings navy has shown what its
own boats of this sort can do, because
it was by means of submarines that
the British lured the Germans out from
their refuge However. the English
have done little to obstruct their navi-
gable waters IN order that the nations
commerce and source of food supplies
might not be interfered with Accord,
ingly Engand's defense is mobile
one and the burden falls upon her bat
tie fleet. and ii is this very force for
which the German submarines are ly-
meet.