The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-08-29
NAVY'S SUBMARINES
FIND DEFENDERS
Capt. Grant Says Chief Fault
Is Incxperience Of Of
ficers in Charge.
"REGISTER" APPLAUDS

The American submarine has come in
for more abuse of late than any other
arm Of the service. Many critics have
declared tina the submarines now in the
United States navy are worthless. Capt.
A. W. Grant, u. $. ~. who Is now In
charge of the submarine service, has
been investigating things generally. In
a report made recently he said that he
found that more han so per cent. or
the difficulties experienced with the sub
marines was due TO the ~inexperlence OF
the officers in charge of the boats.
This report has been attracting much
attention in navy circles and the sup
porters Of the American submarine are
very pleased with the findings OF Capt.
Grant. because they have maintained
for a long time that there has been a
disposition to belittle the submarine in
the service. and it has been very easy
to blame the BOATS and their motors for
accidents ra;ler than those In charge.
Capt. Grant in his report said that the
boats were we'll built and were turned
| over TO the Government In perfect con-
dition. but that those In charge were not
as familiar with their workings as they
should have been and consequently ac-
cidents have happened which have been
blamed to the boats themselves. h
army and Navy Register. commenting
on Capt. Grants report says
"Probably no arm of Our naval or
| military service has been more stupidity
maligned than our submarine boats.
Everybody will agree that when the
officers OF our navy have had sufficient
experience in Il particular brdhch OF
their profession they are not excelled
by those OF any navy IN the world. The
Navy Department has. however. prac-
tised the anomaly OF placing JUNIOR
officers in charge Of boats containing
highly complicated machinery necessary
for carrying cut the varied functions
OF these vessels and il would require
little less than native genius on the
part OF these inexperienced officers to
enable them to keep the boats up to the
high standard in which they are delN-
cred to the Government.
'Those acquainted with the contract
provisions covering the building ana
I trials OF submarines know that the ac-
cept.lucc trials are extraordinarily rslu'
1t has been estimated that corresponding
trials suitable for a bdttleship, II eNacted
for vessels OF TINS larger type "ouiu 'oSe
the contractors at least a million dollars
The submarines are necessarily turned
over to the Government III perfect con-
dltion, but experience has shown mat IN
( very many cases, wins to the unia-
miliarity of the young officers IN charge
the intricate machinery is soon out or
order. the boats have to bc withdrawn
from active service for repairs.
These critics have declared mat our
ubmarine are junk. Such statements
do a serious injustice to a most eff
, iicicnt branch Of our naval service. II
is true that there are n few experimental
boats IN our navy. which have not been
brilliant in their performances, but the
department is probably not to lie criti-
c.s.d for having tried out such types
Of vessels with a view OF learning the
possibilities they possess. Unfortunately,
the present Secretary OF the Navy has
fallen into the same error that the CT rites
have laborcd under. ana capt
| Grants findings will probably come as "A
surprise to him. Both the engines and
the batteries OF the United States boats
have been condemned by tho Secretary
Of the Navy, Yet II * a fact that the type
OF Diesel heavy oil engines used aboard
our navy standard submarines is a Ger
man type, with American improvements,
and everything points to the fact that
the German L boats are using engines
OF this general type