The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1917-09-12
CLAIM SUBMARINE
PROBLEM SOLVED
BY AN AMERICAN
(By H. n. Rickey.)

washington ID. &. Sept. IL The
submarine problem is not insoluble
For the first time since the beginning
| of the great war, it is possible to
make this statement based upon facts
| and not upon hopes.
1t is difficult to write about the
progress that already has been made,
is now being made, and with almost
absolute certainty will continue to be
made in multiplying the submarine
| menace, because there are certain
military secrets involved which must
not even be discussed in private, much
less be given general publicity.
But no harm can, and much good
may. result from giving the widest
publicity to the vitality important fact
that IN the great struggle between the
navies of the allied powers and the
submarine arm of the German navy,
the allied navies now have the upper
hand.
What is of equal or greater import
ance. the new method or technique by
which the allies have gained the up
per hand is still in the early stages
of its development.
This method has been worked out
and is being DEVELOPED by most labor
Ious and painstaking processes ap-
piled by group of scientific geniuses
who have toiled at it unremittinply
for many months. It is being APP
piled by the allied naval officers and
men in the fighting ships, principally
destroyers, in manner which is in
creasingly effective.
When the history of the greatest of
all wars is written, not the least i'm
portant or thrilling chapter will be
the one which will tell how a group
of American scientists accepted the
challenge of the German admiralty
and in the face of obstacles which at
times seemed insurmountable, won
the combat
1t is not permissible, for reasons
that are obvious, to go into details
as to the character of the anti-sub-
marine device which has been devel-
oped and which is very rapidly attain
ing greater and greater perfection It
may be said, however, that it's devel-
opment is beyond the theory or lab
oratory stage, and !, that it is being
tested and it's effectiveness proved
every day in the great submarine
hunt which has now spread over
every sea where the submarines op-
crate.
No submarine, submerged or on the
surface, can approach whiting strik-
ing distance of any ship QUILTED with
this apparatus without its presence
and location being known. 1t is only
the question of short time when
every naval vessel engaged in the
submarine hunt will be so QUILTED.
This does not mean that from now
on the submarine will not continue to
take great toll of shipping, or that
at any time in the near future the
torpedoing of ships will absolute1~
stop. In other words, the apparatus
or device or method or whatever
name we call it, will never be 100 per
cent effective.
But even the least scientific or stra-
logically minded layman can under |
stand what a long step has been |
inc as a vital factor in the war when |
he realizes that once destroyer |
"gets in touch" with a submarine it |
can keep in "touch" until the submar- |
inc rises. And every submarine must |
rise at intervals to change it's electric |
batteries.
No submarine is a match for a de- |
stroyer in a surface fight.
There have been more surface |
fights between destroyers and sub
during the past month than
in any month since the submarine
war started. And there are certain to
be more and more of these fights. the
number increasing in direct proper
ton to the number of destroyers
fitted with the Gears" that not only |
will enable them to hear the submar-
ines, but to know exactly where they
are.
By no possibility can the Germans
build enough submarines or build
them powerful enough to keep on
equal terms with the great and pow
erful allied destroyer fleets now on !