Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-08-29

best are about 800 feet long, 80 feet
beam, draw feet, have a displace-
ment of 1000 tons. burn Oil fuel, have a
speed of 80 knots, have a ships COM
pany Of a hundred men and officers and
carry two more 18-inch tubes for
Whitehead torpedoes. The Oldest of
these boats were completed in 1900. Six
new ones to be little larger and
rather more speedy. than any of the
others will soon be under construction.
'Bushnelrs torpedo. the first Ameri-
can submarine, in 1777 failed to destroy
the flagship of the British squadron in
New York harbor only because his tor.
pedo could not be properly discharged
But submerged, he sailed under the
fleet and demonstrated the possibility
of this type of boat. His invention was,
through the aid of Thomas Jefferson,
American minister to France. made
known to the French. About 1896 Hol-
land, in this country. constructed his
submarine. somewhat similar to the
Bushnell. with engines added Laubeuf,
in France, completed his design about
the same time. Later the Italian
laurent designed a tyne of subma-
rine. These are the three leading de-
signs in use.
In 1883, III years after Bushnelrs at
tack, the. French built the first modern
submarine for their navy. Other ma
lions soon followed, Germany being
about the last of the great nations to
adopt them
one can do no more than guess at
the present numbers of these boats.
Just before the war. according to Dom
ville-Fife, an English engineer. the
leading nations We're supplied about as
follows: England had So built and %
building--nearly all of the Holland
type. They ranged, their A class with
{: length of $50 feet. Il speed of II knots
on the surface and I knots submerged.
to their e class, with a length of 176
feet, a displacement of 500 tons and
speed of 1910 knots. and a cruising
range of 5000 miles. Two of these
boats sailed from England to Sydney,
Australia. without convoy. 1900 miles.
OF the twenty-five new boats then
building some were of the laurent,
some of the Iaubeuf and some of a
new, the Vicker's, type. Some of these
are of 1,50O tons displacement and have
a designed speed of 2o.12 knots.
II y.
When war was declared France had
ninety-two submarines in active serv-
ice with nine large ones under con-
struction Russia had thirty seven
submarines in service and nineteen I'M
der construction.
At this time >Germany was said to
have thirty submarines. all of which
had been put in perfect condition, their
older boats mOdernized and six new
ones nearly completed. A large per-
sonnet had been trained and their sub
marine fleet was ready. Their speed
is supposed to run from twelve to eight
knots in their early boats to the u 20
class of 900 tons and n speed of eight
cen to ten knots. The German heavy
oil engines have stood the hardest tests
and probably stand up" better than
any others.
The Austrian navy had six subma-
rines and the Italian nineteen when
war was declared. The latter also hav-
ing eight of nearly 1000 tons under
construction. More than 10000 espe-
cially trained enlisted men and officers
are manning the submarines now op-
posed to each other in war. Officers
and men of peculiar fitness and thor
ough training are required, otherwise
a mishap puts the boat out of commits
sion
Other authorities make all these num-
bers rather lower. but the difference
arises because they have disreSarded