Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-10-13
NOTHING ELSE IN NAVY
IS LIKE U. S. SUBMARINE
Own Peculiar Little Wants
and Difficulties.
GENTLE HINT TO THIN MEN
Heat and Sleep Make Members of
Submarinc Crews Fntter Than
Other NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. of Trip
Under Surface OF Ocean.

Not only on land, but on sea. America
is out to destroy the Hun. clair Price
Travelled 1000 miles to get this story of
american submarines ont on patrol
duty TO search for and destroy the
ny CLAIR PRICE.
The submarine is like nothing else
In the navy She has always had her
makes quick dive she may leave a
hatch open. or when she makes Il quick
porpoise she may lift hatch: and i'll
age batteries. she gets their gases, or
her diving rudders may jam, or she may
leak. and the deeper she goes the worse
II gets: or gas may accumulate In her
crank pits: And on top OF all these
little worries sho. has TO lead the life
alter course at the first sight of any
thing bigger than II rowing boat. And
when she secs n hydroplane. no matter
how far Oft, take It from her captain.
she goes down TO mine hundred feet.
and on Il dark night VIC get away with
it
Every little handle in the subma rine's
central operating compartment has a
meaning all its own: She aims her tor
pedo with her own helm. and whenever
it pleases her captain at the forward
periscope to touch the torpedo-k key. she
sends it away with 1000 pounds Of
and farewell nod at the bow.
And the submarines crew is like no
other crew in the navy. During the first
when they're completely slept out.
there's nothing to do but to hang on.
They can't sit down. because they'll fall
off. They can't play the Eramophonc.
because. they'll wake up somebody.
They can't smoke, because they may
smoke they have to go up, topside. and
the more men up topside, the more time
is lost-when time is most BILE
in securing matches to submerEe. For
this reason. only two men beside the
officer OF the deck and a lookout are
permitted up topside at once. and these
only long enough for one smoke.
Submarines are divided into three
sections. with siXtee.- army cots for
ss Of foy nnr Thes stand the
the base. but ut sea their watches are
cut 10 three hours.
LIFE ON SUBMARINE
MAKES THIN MEN FAT
A submarine is full OF stale air, fuel
oil and ba,tery-gas. She is so small
that at the base they have to station
a boat watch up torside all night to
on her. She has only five rooms. with
steel bu!kheads between them, and
steel doors which can he logged down
so that If one room becomes tillcd with
the sea, four rooms may remain. From
bow to stern the five are the torpedo
compartment. the forward battery com
partment. the after battery compart-
ment and the cngine-room. The officers
hang out in the torpedo compartment
The crew hangs out in the forward
battery compartm> And they all mess
together in the after battery compart-
ment where the cook hangs out
The total effect of 1t is that the heat
and sleep they, undergo make the sub
marine men fatter than other navy
men. Although they are given water
proofs and submarine clothes" for
protection against extremes OF heat and
cold. they all wear dungarees. except
the captain. who wears dungarees and
dancing pumps: For submarine is as
cold -blooded as a fish, and would take
the heat generated by the huma n
bodies. storage batteries and gas en-
gineS in her.
United States steamship Mi left her
| l0,000-ton mother this afternoon ana
went out on another of those tcn-da y
| patrols.
Two hours out the captain sighted a
| steamship.
Stations" said the captain
| Down from the vast, sunlit spaces of
topside one dropped through the man
.traddled past the hcmsman and hur.
ried on down the iron rungs TO the
! central operating compartment. crowd
ed, electric-lit and no, as Turkish
| bath. with the lookout all but step
! ping on ones hands and the captain
| all but stepping on the lookouts hands.
| "Flood ballast tanks. ahead both mo-
| tors, 5 degrees dive, taken her down
! grees and keep IL for five minutes!'
| said the captain.
| One wiped the perspration of ones
| forehead and composed ones self for
| the dive. and almost at once n machin-
/ list off watch stepped in from a glance
, at the depth gaugers and said 10 the
listener at the radio board: sixty feet.
And that. take it from me. is all there
is to it. The down express reaches six