Evening star., 1921-09-11
By EDWARD MARSHALL.

~ CEAN depths are less mys-
terious to Simon Lake than
to any other human being.
He was first to make the sub
marine a practical thing. That it
has been used principally for warfare
he regards as a tragic preversion of
it's potentialities. That it will be
marvelously useful in peace enter
prise he believes with all his heart.
Its peace-time promises. as he sees
them. are like fairy tales.
"Two-thirds of the earth's surface
are covered by water" he said
thoughtfully. thirds! 1t is not
the least productive two-thirds, eth
er. Its mysteries conceal more treas
ures than the widest romancer ever
had dreamed of. Treasure? Billions
of it! Yet. We know practically moth
ing of it besides the fact that ii is
vast and that it does hide riches.
But the machines whereby we
might have mastered it have been
PERI ected and at our disposition long
er than the airplane has been Mans
neglect of this great opportunity is
amazing. The depths of the ocean
have baffled us. They need battle US
no longer. 1t bores me to have peo-
pie talk about the submarine as if il
could be nothing but sort of vast,
aquatic beast OF pray, sailor killer,
baby murderer. ship sinker.
people are beginning to under
stand that aircraft can do better
things than drop bombs on defense
less cities. Let men also comprehend
the fact that submarines may have a
mission which has naught to do with
stealthy. Hunnish killing. that if the
liner is lady, the submarine may
be, at least, an earnest, brave, use
full adventurer, exploring, mapping,
studying, eventually rendering COM
monplace environments now utterly
unknown, pathfinder eliminating
periis.
"Excursioning in submarines is hid
den, cramped, oppressive work in
darksome depths associated with grim
tragedies of wrecked ships, drowned
men, women. babes. tremendous un-
known monsters. Its risk is quite as
thrilling as that OF air travel and
even more mysterious. but it is incur
red in stuffy quarters. out of sigAi OF
all mankind save few thrust into a
lcunnpaHSfons ship. which restricted
the early boats which proved the
possibility of underwater travel, no
submarine has been the subject of ex-
cited crowd enthusiasm. The German
record in the war has made the name
OF sailors daring death by operating
SuQularlpeS dHdtHeHld-
Yet /, personally. am sure that the
submarine will give as great gift
to man as the i-.rplane ever can. The
latter may explore some difficult areas
of the earth's surface. but it will skim
, above them, studying superffcialiy
the submarine, sooner or later, VIII
explore far greater areas below the
surface of the sea. and it will dtlre,
investigate, not merely map out paths
| for closer students. Treasures untold
await the submarine equipped for
work among them, and she will
actually find them and pass them up
for mankinds use.
uCINcE I saw you last have heard
~ from an Australian who has been
working with a submarine in locating
pearl oyster beds. Long as the subma-
/ far as 1 know, was its first use for this
obvious purpose.
He tells me that pearls have been
fished out not only close about, Aus
tralia, but far to the northward. at all
depths which can be reached by recent
methods, but that marvels up to now
unguessed exist for the man who Shall
GO after the pearl oyster in rightly
equipped submarine. Old oceans store.
both of pearls and shell. has been ex-
hausted down to depths of. say. 100 feet,
save in the 'culture-pearP beds OF ia
pan, which, with inferior pearls. grown.
as it were. to order. have much upset
the market. Because of casualties and
physical breakdowns due to water pres
| sure it is not profitable TO go deeper
than 100 feet to get the precious things
! by hand. and it also is impossible to
| dredge beyond that distance, because of
the nature of the hofIOm on which Dearl
. oysters grow.
, $50 the finer fisheries come to an->nd
although We know that probably the
best of all pearls-marvels, perhaps be-
yond the imagination of the most en-
thusiastic dreamer-may exist at levels
down. say, to $50 feet. There are places
where we know the bottom to be COW
cred at that depth with pearl-oysters.
undisturbed by man since the beginning
| of the species; therefore, some of them,
of great age, conceivably. bearing pearls
! beyond the present dreams of experts.
'And other untold natural treasures
exist at the greater depths, hitherto un-
. reachable except by chance. Grabs in
j beyond the depths to which divers can
descend such coral as is not accessible to
the shallow waters. These depths and
far. far greater ones will be available to
submarine fishermen. One coral piece
! brought up by a Bay of Naples grab
| was quite matter of chance. Imagine
| what might be done in similar waters by
submarines equipped to search intelli-
gently, seeing clearly what is there and
capable Of selecting that which may be
| best among discoveries.
1.-THE Prince of Monaco, intensely
| interested in all matters of deep sea
life and exploration. is working at q
plan for the extensive use Of the
motion picture machine under water.
This has been worked out by others
| in very moderate depths, and a film
shown in America and Europe had
great vogue. But with the subma-
rine developed as 1t has beens far
more extensive picturing of depths
| is now. q possibility.
81 have designed what has been
proved. through experimentation with
an old submarine purchased from the
government. perfectly practical
submarine, fitted especially for use in
the deep-sea pearl fisheries. The
prince recommends to the Australian
government, which controls great
beds unreachable by the old methods
| the construction of a new boat. The
enterprise has been deferred by the
great war, but is practical.
mo new principle is involved, In
the construction Of submarines for
| exploring ocean bottoms and recover
l ing their treasures. It was -possibil-
tiles Of this sort, not those of. de-
structive work in warfare, which drst
interested me In submarines and such