Norwich bulletin., 1915-05-28
BreakdOWnS of
Our Submarines
TO BE THOROUGHLY INVEsTE
GATED BY sEc'Y DANIELS.
IS TO REMEDY DEFECTS
Of Twelve Assigned to Participate II
the War Game Six Were PartiaII,
neffective-PIans for &c of an I'm.
proved Model Are in the Works,

washington, May 27.-With unof1,
cIa4 reports indicating that half a
the twelve submarines assigned r.
partlclpate in the war game with tn,
Atantlc fleet were at least partially
Inenect1ye, Secretary Daniels todaI
announced his determination to maxi
d thorough investigation to find tn,
cduse OF, and, If possible a. remed,
Tor the too frequent breakdowns O.
the naVy's underwater craft.
Importance of Submarines.
With the growing Importance NJ
tne submarine as an instrument ol
warfare, said the secretary, 'T fee
that too much attention cannot be maid
TO this branch of the service and eI,aI-1
effort of the department will he 5i'
rected to improving the records mads
by the submarines during the recent
manoeuvres. The submarine is sill
In an experimental stage and the boai
OF TWO years ago, as compared with
those now in active service abroad is
probably even more comparatively OH
solete than an automobile of three
years ago. OF the twelve submarines
which came to New York for the
manoeuVres, one was unable to pro-
ceed, the various others suffered from
oreakdowns necessitating repairs OF
greater or less importance which took
them out OF the game for varying
lengths of time. Report, unofficial
gave number varying from five tc
seven as the total submarines effective
during a certain period Of the manoeu-
vres.
Machinery Is Delicate.
''The machinery of a submarine is
very delicate. The batferv "
trouble, as already announced, we hope
TO have eliminated in our newer, boats,
If the Edison battery lives up to its
preliminary tests. The other troubles
being 6IiT7ir
design as the defects of the old de-
signs become apparent
To Remedy Defects.
What am most interested in is in
finding out whether these nreakdowns
were such as must be expected in
more or less experimental boats or
whether they were due to faults Of
construction that should have been
remed1ed or to defects in our system
of reporting and making repairs. It
is my intention Immediately to in
vesugate this matter and to spare no
effort to remedy anything which is
possible of being remedied
Imperfect Design.
I'm some cases the breakdowns ara
probably due to imperfect design ow-
ing to the lack of data at the time at
which the boats were built. This would
be particularly true of the Ell and
E-2 which have been mentioned as
breaking down, as they were the first
boats built after the change from gas
| oline to heavy oil engines. One of the
K boats appears to have been in trou-
BILE also, but none of this class has
been finally accepted by the depart
ment.
Plans for 26 New Submarines.
In the meanwhile, the plans for the
| &c new submarines authorized by the
| 63rd congress are being pushed with
all possible speed and I am greatly
pleased with the rapid and efficient
work of the bureaus of construction
and repair and steam engineering in
this matter. Bids will be invited for
their actual construction next week.
| These boats include two more of the
new sea-going submarines, which we
| are going to try to make the last
word in such craft.
New Models Are Superior.
at must not be forgotten that all
| of the submarines which have been
| in trouble recently were designed be-
fore 1912. The newer boats, both
nearing completion and about to be
begun, are believed to be vast i'm
provements upon the old models and it
is thought that the greater part of
previous weaknesses have been elini-
| mated"