The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1917-06-02


destroyers are now operating with
the allied fleet and that Rear Ad-
miral William 5. Sims, u. 5. N,
is in command of this cxpeditfonary
force of hornets, is welcome news
to all who know the energy and
skill of this officer and the effective
ness of the vessels which he COM
mands.
After bringing about that extraor-
binary revision in our naval target
practice which changed the 8 per
cent. of hits scored at Santiago to
the 8 per cen of misses which were
later made on the target ranges
this officer was placed in command
of our destroyer flotilla and later
in command of III submarines. In
the service he is therefore regarded
as prominently equipped for the
work of hunting down submarines
with d~estroyers, as there is no one
more familiar with the capacities of
both types.
The views of Admiral Sims on the
limitations of submarines must be
of intense interest.
1t was preceding the declaration
of war that Admiral Sims was called
to testify before the House Naval
committee. At that time he was
commanding the new s~uperdread-
naught Nevada. He said to the
committee:
Upon the invitation of clubs I
have spoken before many audiences
on the characteristics of the sub
marine, and l have found an almost
complete Misrepresentation of what
a submarine is and what it can do.
They were not aware, for example,
that a submarine can only steam
for a short distance underneath the
water, depending upon it's size. from
say, forty to fifty or sixty miles,
and that, having steamed that dis
lance, it must come to the surface
and stay three or four or five hours,
according to the size, to recharge
it's batteries.
A submarine cannot operate safe
ly at all in the presence of surface
boats of the enemy in less than a
certain depth of water. The sub
marine itself, practically i%ndepond-
ent of size, whether it is of 500 tons
or 1000 tons, draws about the same
amount of water, from the bottom
of it's keel to the top of the peris-
cope, usually about forty-odd feet
~they do not differ more than two
NJ three feet-and the consequence
y that in the presence of enemy
surface boats the submarine must
operate in water deep enough to en-
able her to go down to a consider
able distance without striking the
bottom; that is. she must have
water of from sixty to seventy feet
depth. The speed of a submarine
under the water is slow-anywhere
from eight to ten knots for the
average submarine.
The consequence is that a naval
force that commands the surface
of the sea "a %counteract almost
entirely the attack of submarines,
because the submarine cannot go
very far llder the sGrIarc Sue
must do most of her travelling on
the surface. She can be seen from
a very considerable distance from
the high decks of ships, and if
she is seer and there are a con-
siderable number of surface craft
of the enemy in her neiCl5orhooi
she is Immediately in very great
danger.
For example, a submarine is seen
in a certain position at 6 o'clock in
is flashed out on the wireless, CIV
ing her latitude and longitude. Then
ii is known that by Z o'clock in
the morning she cannot be outside
of a certain radius of eight to ten
miles from that point, and at 8
O'Clock in the morning she cannot
be outside of a certain other larger
circle, so hat vessels stationed in
the neighborhood, that can be call
ed in by wireless. form themselves
in a line and sweep cross the cir
Gle, and that submarine has to pro-
coed under water, for having been
seen she must Immediately go down
to avoid the g%unfire from the YES
sci which first sighted her, and
must either move under the water
or else go down to the bottom and
rest there, which she cal do only if
the water is not over 200 feet
deep. with the hope that they will
not find her.
If she travels along under the
water with periscope submerged,
she disturbs the surface Of the
water. the regular form of the
waves on the surface, by passing
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