The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-05-09

formerly Chief Naval Construct of the
British navy, contained every funda-
mental principle of "buoyancy stabil-I
ity. and control of depth which are
found in the modern submarine; 1T
cannot be claimed" he said in 1905,
that any new principle of design has
been discovered or applied since Bush
nell. !. He showed the way to all
his successor. Although alterna-5
tive methods of fulfilling essentials
have been introduced and practically
tested, in the end Bushnell's plans in
substance have been found the best"
The chief inspiration of Bushnelrs
work was natural hostility to Great
Britain, which was at that time en-
gagged in war with his own country;
his submarine, invented in 1777, was
intended to sink the British warships
which were then anchored off the
American coast, break the communica-
tions of Great Britain with her re-
voting colonies and in this way win
our liberty. Bushnell did not succeed
in his ambitious enterprise, for rea-
sons which it is hardly necessary to
set forth in this place; the fact which
1 wish to emphasize is that he regarded
his submarine as an agency which
.
United States, weak naval power, to
| deprive Great Britain, the dominant sea
power of its supremacy.
His successor, Robert Fulton, was
| inspired by a similar ambition In
1901, Fulton took his Nautilus" into
the harbor of Brest, and blew a mer-
chant vessel into a thousand pieces;
( this dramatic experiment was intended
/ to convince Napoleon that there was
one way in which he could destroy the
British fleet and thus deprive England
of her sea control. Dramatic as this
demonstration was, it did not convince
Napoleon of the value of the subma-
rine; Fulton therefore took his ship to
i England and exhibited it to William
Pitt, who was then Prime Minister. The
great statesman was much impressed,
but he did not regard the submarine
as an innovation that should arouse
much enthusiasm in England.
i eff we adopt this kind Of fighting
he said, sit will be the end of all
navies."
4 Despite his own forebodings, Pitt
sent Fulton to st. Vincent who was
then the First Lord of the Admiralty.
"Pitt is the biggest fool in the
world" remarked the head of the VIC
, torious British navy. why does he
encourage a kind of warfare which is
useless to those who are the masters
, of the sea, and which, if it succeeds,
will deprive them of this supremacy"
Wrong Impressions.
; The reason for ST. Vincent's oppo-
| sition is apparent. He formed the con-
ception of the submarine which has
prevailed almost up to the present
time. In his opinion, submarine was
la vessel which could constantly re-
main under the surface, approach great
warships unseen and blow them to
4 pieces at will. This being the case, a
nation which possessed two or three
successfully working engines of this
kind could apparently wipe out the
entire British fleet. It therefore
needed no argument to show that this
was a weapon which was hardly likely
to prove useful to the British navy. II
the submarine could fulfil it's appointed
mission, it would give the control of the
sea to that nation which used it sue
cessfully; but since Great Britain al
ready controlled the sea, the new type
, of war craft was superfluous to her
In the hands of a weak naval power
however, which had everything to gain
and nothing to lose, it might supply the