New-York tribune., 1917-07-15
British Shipyard Rushes Work
On Huge New-Type Submarines
American Devices and Machinery Big Help to Vickers
''' puldcrs-Divng Fighters Often Lie OFF German
Ports Twenty-four Hours at Time
Bv ARTHUR S. DRAPER
tSta1 Correspondent

July, 1914, that the submarine would
be major weapon in 1917. The nos
sibilities of the submarine have ex
ceeded the expectations of every one.
Ii was not until near the end of the
first campaign that Germany decided
TO concentrate on the building of sub
mersibles. and to use them as her chief
offensive weapon. Just as aeroplanes
have made this primarily a war of po-
sitions IN which armies take to
trenches instead of fighting in the
open, the submarine has revolutionize a
sea fighting. making it necessary for
0readnoughts and observation-disclosures
10 stick close 70 their bases and await
"der Tag"
There have been fights between sub
mersibles, but some day there is going
10 be real tussle between two of the
giants of the British and German
navies. That fight will be more thrill
ing and spectacular than anything this
war has produced. II will be fight 20
the death.
Big Guns Cost $4,000 Each
From submarines to S-inch howit-
zers and 12-inch naval guns is a far
cry, but it is only a short walk from
the submarine sheds to the gun mount
ing shops in the Vickers plant. A
gun, costing $4,000 and firing twenty
miles, is nothing out of the ordinary
when resting on the floor of a gun
mounting shop alongside of several
others, but if it rested in the turret
of a battleship off Sandy Hook and
was pointed at New York City it would
be something else again.
k,,t1 ha%
at Vickers as we'll as 1S-pounders. the
British equivalent to the French "75."
The 1S-pounder, as il is turned out, has
all the features Of the "75." That is
a direct result of the Grand Alliance,
in which interests are pooled in the
common cause. For years the secrets
of the "75" were carefully guarded by
the French, but now they are shared
with the British.
The long-barrelled naval gun has
grown more popular in France in the
last eighteen months. Ordnance ex-
Ierts are constantly experimenting in
ar effort to get weapon which will
outrange the enemy and still be &C
cUrate. Thus, the short-barrelled
hcwitzer is being superseded by more
graceful looking weapon, whose elon-
geted barrel gives il an additional
range of several thousand yards. 1t is
common knowledge that under present
fighting conditions the depth of an ad
vance is limited by the range OF the
heavy artillery, and that after the first
push there is an inevitable halt while
the guns are being brought up. Even a
thousand yards advantage over the
enemy's gun range is Of incalculable
value. That is what the ordnance ex-
perts are striving after.
Plant Constantly Growing
At Vickers's plants here the $4,000
men and women employed are making
big and little guns, gas shells, shrapnel
shells, 1s-pounder shells and giant
howitzer projectiles, submarines and
standardized ships and hundred and
cne other things which the god of war
demands and eats up with an appsr-
emily Unsuitable appetite. The plant is
constantly growing, the output is con-
stantly increasing and still the cry is
for "Morel More! Morel" It is pri-
vate plant and laid with an eye to the
future-the dim, distant future time
when the god Of war will have become
surfeited. Then it will be quickly
turned over to supply the demands Of
peace.