The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-03-01
England Using Submarine Chasers De-
signed and Built in United States
tH. Thompson Rich in New York SUM
Work of an American.

in New York SUM
Work Of an American.
Even so long as a year before the
sinking of the Lusitania sht had al
ready taken a step against just such
an eventuality. The step | refer to is
her placing an order for so of these
submarine chasers with an American
firm, the Submarine Boat Corporation
of Providence, r. L.; Bayonne, n. j.,
and elsewhere.
! These boats are essentially Ameri-
can. Evolved from successful pleas
ure boat models known for their speed
and worthness the world over,
their success in their new field has
even exceeded the widest hopes of
the motor boat enthusiast. | say mo-
tor boat, for they are motor boats.
They burn gasoline. not oil. as do
their enemies, the submarines. Each
one of them houses a power plant de
livering 500 horsepower. This power
plant consists of two very efficient
gasoline engines of $50 horsepower
each. These engines represent the
very highest type of motor boat en-
gines in the world. They are the re-
suit of years of patient and eXacting
experimentation.
Speed Requirements.
When the British fleet launched
these $50 chasers against Germanys
droves of submarines some people
said: "Why didn't YOU make them
more powerful?" They seemed to
think that 10 knots was slow speed
They wanted 80, 40, so miles per hour
They had been reading in the news
papers about the wonderful speed OF
American racing boats. But the Eng
fish engineers quickly explained and
the performances of the little boats
backed them up. Greater speed could
only be given at sacrifice of gun
power and seaworthiness.
run at amazing speed. But such boats
are mere shells--tin cans with a cy-
clone inside them. They can perform
their wonderful feats only on the still
waters of some river or bay.
The British knew what they want
ed. So did America And they got
it, Britain the boats and America the
honor
Origin of the Idea.
The idea of the submarine chaser
originated with Henry r. Sutphen
vice president of the Elco company
of Bayonne n. j., IA branch of the
Submarine Boat Corporation. | called
on Mr.. Sutphen the other day. He
told me that he had been designing a
motor boat chiefly of the pleasure
type for over 20 years when in the
spring of 1915 the idea entered his
head: Why not design a motor boat
similar to the successful pleasure type,
give it reasonable speed. make it
thoroughly seaworthy, mount a sub
stantial gun on it and send it out to
fight submarines? Thus was a revolt
utionary adoption developed.
Shortly after this an English engi-
neer visiting this country in the in
terests of his government asked Mr..
Sutphen if he could build such boats
in large numbers. They talked the
matter over with Irwin Chase, ma
val architect, in the company's en-
ploy. The result was that the Elco
company began preparing estimates
for so submarine chasers.
The estimates We're completed sub
mitted to the British government and
accepted; whereupon the
Elco company found itself with a
wonderful opportunity before it. These
year and We're to test out minimum
of 10 knots each.
Problem of Construction.
Hundreds of problems presented
themselves. Where was the material
to come from? Where We're the boats
to be made? Where was the labor to
be obtained? Would it be possible to
fulfill the contract in time?
But Mr.. Sutphen and Mr.. Chase did
not worry They had taken all these
matters and whole lot more into
consideration when they Submitted
their estimates and they had reduced
the whole problem to one word--stan-
This is the way they went about it.
They built a singla boat according to
plans. Then they took this boat as
model and proceeded to turn out so
counterparts of each one of it's parts
This single boat contained 100000
separate and distinct pieces. Think of
the proposition of turning out 25,-
600 ,000ss parts! 1t meant the Organ-
cation of a force Of laborers, the gath
erng together of great quantities of
timber, the assembling of hundreds of
carloads of material.
Plant in Canada.
The first thing they did was to
erect a plant up on the shore of Le-
Wis, Canada. opposite Quebec There
they blasted a founda ton in the solid
rock and erected a factory, covering
30 acres They then proceeded to NO
billie 10000 workmen mostly French