New Britain herald., 1915-05-28

1OPROBE bRE ARDOVnS
 IN J. s. SUBMARINES
Secretary Daniels Announces 1heI-
 euQh Investigation VIII Be Made.

] Washington, May 2S.-With unon- c;al reports indicating that half of I the twelve submarines assigned to participate In tho war game with the Atlantic fleet were at least partly in- effective, Secretary Daniels yesterday announced his determination to make
 a thorough investigation to find the cause of. and, if possible. remedy for. too frequent breakdowns of the navy's underwater craft
 With the growing importance of the submarine as an instrument of warfare" said the secretary. T feel
 that too much attention cannot be paid to this branch of the service and every effort of the department will be directed to improving the records made by the submarines during the recent n1aneuvers. Tho submarine IS still in an experimental stage and the boat of two years ago, as compared with those now in active service abroad, Is probably even more com-s paratively obsolete than an autorao- bile of three years ago. or the twelve submarines which came to New Y York. for the rnaneuvers, one was ur,- able to proceed, the various others suffered from breakdowns f1ecessita ting repairs of greater or less impor- tance which took them out of the game for varying lengths of time. Re ports, unoficial. give number varying from i've to seven as the total submarines effective during certain period of tho n1aneuvers.
 Machinery Very Delicate.
 'The machinery of submarine is very delicate. The battery trouble, aE already announced, we hope tos have eliminated in our newer, boats. if the Edison battery lives up to it's preliminary tests. The other troubles are being eliminated with each new design as the defects of the old de- signs become apparent.
 What I am most interested in is in finding out whether these break downs were such as must be ex- pected or whether they were due to faults of construction that should have been refnedied, or to defects in our system of reporting and making repairs. It is my intention imrae- 6iately to investigate this matter and to- spare no effort to remedy anything which is possible Of being remedied.
 Due to Imperfect Design. z aIn some cases the breakdowns are 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 E-1 I and E-2, which have been mentioned as breaking down, as they were the first boats built after the change from gasoline to hHavy oil engines. One Of the K boats appears to have been in trouble, also, but none of this class has been finally accepted by the de- rartment.
 Tn the meanwhile the plans for the twenty-six new submarines authorized by the 63rd congress are being pushed with all possible speed and am greatly pleased with the rapid and efficient work of the bureaus of con- struction and repair and steam en- gineering in this matter Bids will be Invited for their actual construction next week. These boats include two more of the seagoing submarines, which are going to try to make the last word in such craft.
 Designed Before 1912.
 Tt must not be forgotten that all of the submarines which have. been In trouble recently were designed, be- fore I 912. The newer boats, both nearing completion and about to be begun. are believed to be vast inn provemerts upon the old models, and it is thought that the greater part of previous weaknesses have been eiirni- nAted.' N .