Evening star., 1918-08-04

GGLED UP TO THE MOTHER SHIP 4
on submarines. Give him only a SUBJ
marine that will dive in nothing fat.
a short-range, high-velocity torpedo.
a bottom at fifty fathoms and an
enemy.
Now, the torpedo is in reality
miniature submarine without crew.
Looking at number of them. with
their dull red warheads on. strapped
by steel bands into the side of the
torpedo compartment, one imasines
that torpedo is as tough as the nick
eled steel of its long body. its long.
slim body ending in twin screws and
small rudders. But 1t is not. Within
it is a jewel of delicacy. adjusted with
microscopic precision and as exqul-
sitely fashioned as a chronometer.
The submarine itself Is not exactly
delicate, but every little handle In her
central operating compartment has a
meaning all it's own. She aims her
torpedo with her own helm, and when
ever 1t pleases her captain at the for
ward periscope to touch the torpedo
pounds of compressed air. a reluctant
"whoosh," and a farewell nod at the
bow. And she says. as she fees to
fifty fathoms with ten tons negative
buoyancy and no bottom: -
There's my youngest daughter, take
a look at her. take look at her"
And the submarines crew is like no
other crew of the Navy.
During the first four or FIVE days OF
a patrol, they sleep all the time off
watch. After that. when they're COM
pletely slept out, there's nothing to
do but. to hang, on: They can't sit
down, because they'll faH of. They
can't play the music machine. because
they'll wake up somebody. They can't
smoke, because they may set off an
explosion. II they want to smoke.
they have to go up topside and the
more men UP topside, the more time
Is lost when time is mos. valuable in
securing matches to submerge. For
this reason, only two men beside the
officer of the deck and lookout are
permitted up topside at once, and
these only long enough for one smoke
So, ordinarily, she spends all day on
a periscope patrol. with everybody
below but the helmsman at the eye
ports in the coming tower, and at
night she does a dive just to get her
trim ("something happens every time
you go DOWN.. Then she blows 1000.
comes streaming up into the moon
light and lays to under a slow slog-
q
and charge her batteries, with all the
crew OF watch waiting their turn at
the cruising hatch ladder in the after
battery compartment below to go for
a smoke on the coming tower fair
water.
y
Submarines are divided into three
sections, with sixteen Army cots for
q crew of twenty-four. They stand
the usual four hours. on and eight OF
at the base, but at sea their watches
are cut to three hours. For when a
submarine clutches her main engines
into her main motors to run the juice
into her batteries she heats up occa-
sionally. And If she does 55-degree
roll occasionally it's nothing to brag
about at the base. It's because she
has no bilges and she can roll as
much as she likes and welcome. OF
ian easy notion" "a deep slow roll"
"about a six-second roll" but that
proves nothing. Destroyer crews say
the same thing about their craft. But
leave it to the testimony Of rank out
a shipwrecked crew at sea. The ship
wrecked cook said she had a motion
like a muscle dancer. The ship
wrecked mate, who was second cousin
to Greenland walrus. stood her mo-
tion for few minutes in swaying
silence and then burst out: 'I chrfsten
ye Buffalo Bill, ye rough-ridin' son
of a female dog!" And the ship
wrecked skipper was SO badly shaken
up that when he finally reached the
landing at the base he remarked
about 1t.
She is full of stale air. fuel oil aad
battery gas. She Is SO small that at
the base they have to station q boat
watch up topside all night to keep
tall surface craft from stepping on
her. She has only five rooms, with
steel bulkheadb between them and