The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-09-15

mysterious theft of handbag
 belonging to Commander Stein
 brink, whow as travelling from
 Wilhelmshaven to Kiel to read a
 very important paper before the
 Kiel Naval Academy.
 It is stated that the bag in
 question contained papers relat-
 ing to German naval secrets, and
 that it disappeared suddenly at
 Hamburg railway station when
 Commander Steinbring changed
 trains, and his attention was di-
 verted from the bag for a mo-
 ment.
 A handsome reward is offered
 for the recovery of the bag and
 its contents.
 The reward was never claimed; and Steinbrink never recovered his old jauntiness. Nevertheless he preserv- ed all his enthusiasm for submarine work, and was soon experimenting with another weapon of remarkable ingenuity and efficiency.
 More than nine months after I made my memorable cruise with Commander Steinbrink in the U 21, ostensibly the largest and most per feet submarine then in e1rscence,, I was ordered, under pledge of inviol- able secrecy to help in the trial of a vessel for \ underwater cruising of much greater dimensions.
 By way of elucidating the vast strides made in submarine construc- tion even then, let me compare the dimensions of the two vessels.
 U 21, according to the accurate de- tails made public for the information of all the world, had a displacement of 800 tons when fully submerged, and about $50 on the surface. Her l engines were two DieseIs, of 900- horsepower each, giving her sur face speed of IT knots, while the elec- tric motor for submerged use gave her between eleven and twelve knots. | She had four torpedo tubes and was armed with two 14-pounder guns. Her cruising range, on her oil capac- i 1ty of 1S,0O0 gallons, was 5000 miles. | The new vessels. which I first saw in a secret dock at the mouth of the l Schley Bucht (the harbor at the mouth of the river Schley, near KieD had a displacement of 2,000 tons, and storage for 30,00O gallons of oil.
 Her two 2,000 horsepower Diesel engines propelled her at her first trial a distance of nearly 21 knots an hour
 on the surface, though her speed when submerged was little greater than that of U 21.
 Her radius was 5000 miles, and her arrangements for taking aboard fresh fuel were remarkable in theil detail and ingenuity. She had two 6-inch guns mounted upon her sup. erstructure, and carried twelve long
 range torpedoes for her six torpedo
 tubes.
 ! I These torpedoes were of new
 type, and of so strange and powerfu u a make that they merit the specia description which I thal1 shorty be stow upon them. For observation purposes the sup : er-submarine-for by ~, : spoke of this new craft-was furnish ed with a very lofty coming tower I protected with three inch steel armol plating, and invulnerable to the gun that could be carried by any sma1 | fast craft specially designed for sub. : arine-destroying.
 s1 The advantage of this protected ob -5 servation. post was greatest in tn
 early morning and in evening twiligh when the imperfect refraction mad 5 observation through the periscop } next to impossible. 3 Above all, the rolnm.ness of thf l great vessel, when >compared to tn 8 little 200 and $50 ton boats in whicl i we learned the first rudi1nentssof sub ! marine navigation made possible hu
 man existence for long. spells of sub : merged navigation. Y
 X One could walk about the ship i g an upright position, and the arrange I ments for purifying and refreshing tn }, air were so good that it was possibl | to forget one was in a submarine e deep down beneath the surface of tn water.
 Admiral von; PohI supervised he t first speed trial, for which she wa . stealthily navigated out of the cana q by night into the Eight of Heligolant |. The amazing speed she develope < seemed to surprise even the sangui, g Commander Steinbrink himself; whil - not one of the veterans of submarin v creising who formed her crew faile 8 to grasp the fact that with such = ispeed no merchant vessels, howeve = modern, could hope to escape fro1 c such raider in time of war. g The six-inch guns were powerf, = enough to sink the biggest vess, e afloat; the torpedoes need only l. ,- carried for use against armed ship @ IT need not go further inth the de e tails Of her trials; the ease and con ,t fort in which we endured long spe .- of idleness while she lay motionles
 on the soft mud not fifty minut, l. rom one or the greatest and buSfe l. ports in the British islands: or tk d ease with which she threaded ht if way unobserved among the trawlel F. of fishing fleet belonging to Hul l. while we noted in the periscope ever L. last detail of the busy craft.
 The conclusion of the trial, how a ever, was so remarkable that the in l., pression it made upon my mind ha 2 never since been effaced. We return 1- ed to Kiel, as we left the place, # the dark of night, and before dav J. broke a dull explosian might ha, e. been heard proceeding from tf n Schley Bucht.
 Four powerful charges of T. N. r. had been placed about the great u, $ dersea boat, and she had been deli " erately wrecked by the same pow " which had produced her.
 Her wonderful engines were pa ve tered into name1ess, shapless scra le and her twisted plates were made tl l. merest junk.
 B. We do not wish the discovery es another of our secrets" said Stei, l. brink, grimly, mindful, no doubt. l. the papers that had been stolen fro ,e him a few months before. eff il 1. construction of these engines ocean st possible to the English, the work
 all these years would te lost"