El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-01-29
CAN SINK,
THEN RISE AGAIN
When Attacked This New.
est German Ocean Going
Ship Can Submerge.
By PERCTVAI A. HIsLA1I

London, Eng Jan. 29.-Ever since
the earliest days OF the war occa-
sional stories have reached US from
neutral capitals TO the effect that
Germany was building for our dis
comfiture a special brand OF relative
" gigantic submarine As long ago
as October, 1914. Copenhagen IN
formed US that submersible transports
were being constructed for bringing
over the army OF invasion. In the
middle OF 1916 we were warned that
submarine cruisers Of 5000 tons, de-
signed for the long distance attack
on commerce, were in hand in Ger
man yards; but several months
elapsed before any details became
available.
1t is now known that a German en-
gineer. Groeben by name. has de-
signed what we may call submersi-
bic cruiser OF a very remarkable type.
When cruising normally on the sur
face, there is nothing to distinguish
It, even at very short distance, from
a typical neutral merchantmen. Be-
low the water level however. the
ship has the lines OF a very fast
cruiser. and is, in fact, alleged to be
able to make speeds several knots
greater than any decent sized ship
was capable Of three years ago.
Most striking Of all, the entire ship,
which IS said TO have a displacement
Of about 500 tons, can be submerged
and maneuvered under water like an
ordinary submarine, though only at a
very low speed because Of the enor-
mour power that would be needed to
drive a submerged vessel or this size
at anything capable Of being called
4 rapid rate.
Diving Purely Defensive.
The Groeben submersible is not de- /
signed TO operate as a submarine al (
al, the ability to dive being purely 1
self defensive. Such a vessel would 1
be able to cover great distances in i
the night, and during the day would 4
operate as the Noewe and Seeadler /
did, displaying signals OF distress and 4
Turing merehantrnen up close along
SIDE before suddenly dropping the 4
collapsible bulwarzs and Lighthouses
and opening fire with the concealed
guns.
In the event OF the approach Of an
patrol ship. the Groeben sub
mersible would have three courses to
choose from It could decide to put |
up Straight fight, being fairly
heavily armed, or ii could take TO !
IT'S heels with remarkably good
chance OF getting well away: or II 1
could bring its submersible qualities
into operation and gradually disap-
pear from sight
It has been suggested that they
were probably ships Of this type
which carried out the dramatic and
raid on a neutral convoy
under British guard in the North sea
IN October Il last; but the admiralty
eommunlque merely said that the two
Enemy ships were very fast and |
heavily armed" and that on both |
heir outward and homeward journeys |
hey succeeded in evading the Brit
sh watching squadrons.
IL VIII be seen that there is nothing
n this which conflicts with the theory
hat they might have been submer- |
Ibles Of the Groeben type, and the
act that they did succeed in evadinZ J
he spiderweb patrols OF the British {
lavy in the North sea does, at least. !
uggest that they may have lodged $
hem in the most effective way of all
by dropping under the surface and !
ut OF sight. {
Costly Hunting U-BOats.
Our methods Of fighting the q
oat are costly enough today. when
.rltain alone has $500 warships COM
lissioned solely for the U-boat hunt. :
low much more weightily would the
urden lie upon Us If. in addition to :
nese measures against the normal 7
Of about a thousand tons.
re had 10 police the seas Of the c
'orld against surreptitious vessels !
apaDle OF cruising three-fOurthS Of !
be way round the world on a single
upply Of fuel? OF course the big q
oats cannot be built so rapidly as
he small, but then they would not &
e required in such large numbers. '