The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1914. BATTLESHIP V. SUBMARINE

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2244, 2 September 1914, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1914. BATTLESHIP V. SUBMARINE

The rather startling opinions on the submarine menace expressed by Admiral Sir Percy Scott gave rise to an interesting discussion among naval exports just before the war commenced Sir Percy Scott, it will be recalled, contended that the introduction of vessels that steam under the water lias entirely done away with the utility of ships that swim on top of the water. This means .that the coming of the sub-. I marine has doomed'the battleship to extinction. Sir Percy Scott's alarming views were 'adversely criticised by experts of the highest standing. It was, of course, generally admitted that the submarine was bound'to be a factor of the utmost importance in naval warfare, but most of those in a position to speak with authority on the subject . • held that the Dreadnought was destined to play a great part'in sea fignting for many years to come. The First Lord of the Admiralty expressed the prevailing opinion in naval circles in a recent, speech in which he discussed' the problem whether the great ships of the Dreadnought era will some day follow tho mammoth and the mastodon into extinction. Mr. Churchill said:

Those who believe that that time will come—and they aro a considerable 6choul —point with a warning finger to tho ever-growing power of the submarin» aiid to the new and expanding possibilities of tho air, and they ask whether the day will not come when, guided by information out of the sky, a blow may not bo struck beneath the water which will 1m fatal to. the predominance of great capital ships, at any rate in the narrow seas. Ihat time has Dot come .yet, and the ultimate decision of naval war still rests with' those who can place in the lino of battle fleets and squadrons which in numbers and qualify-, in homogeneity, in organisation, in weight of metal, and in good shooting are superior to. anything they may be called upon to meet. In reply to critics, Sir Percy Scott contended ihat none of them had given a satisfactory explanation of what our battleships would or could do if we should be at war with a nation well equipped with submarines. Well, since those words were written Great Britain has become involved in war with a country whoso navy is second only to our own in numerical strength, and it is certainly "well equipped with submarines." Tho submarines certainly have not.had it all their own way in the war so far as it has gone. Earlier in the. war a German submarine was sunk by a couple of shots from the cruiser Birmingham, and in the fight off Heligoland the submarines do not appear to havo figured very conspicuously, or to have done much, if any, damage to our ships. The British Fleet has kept up a constant blockade of tho German coast since hostilities commenced, and up to the present the enemy's undcr-watcr craft have not succeeded in playing the terrible role predicted by SirPehov Scott, Aa a matter of 'faofc neither, tho air

craft nor the submarines have dono tho wonderful things which many people expected. No one can tell what tho future may have in store, but the experience so far acquired during tho present war does not indicate that the timo is in sight when "naval officers will no longer live on the sea, but either abovo it or under it." The continual presence of battleships in tho North Sea sinco the beginning of tho war should be a- sufficient answer to Sir Percy Scott's question: "Will any battleship expose itself to such a dead certainty of destruction 1" Kear-Admiral Bacon, in criticising the arguments of Sir Percy Scott, points out the extraordinary difficulty of handling the submarine and also' its limitations. Ho says it has probably only the sea-keeping qualities of the 125foot torpedo boat, . and those who have "kept the sea in those boats would hardly venture to recommend the abolition of the battleship if we' were restricted to the submerged speed of the present submarine, even u these torpedo-boats were invested with tho present degree of invisibility of the submarine boat." He also _ reminds us that operations which „look very simple on paper may be extremely difficult with sea con-ditions-to contend with. War experience does not support the theory that the submarine is bound to drive the battleship from the sea-. Admiral Sie R. Oustance recently stated that of 5l per cent, of torpedo hits obtained during tho RussoJapanese war, 3j per cent, were scored upon ships at anchor or not in motion, and Loed Sydenham holds that a further deduction must be mado for hits obtained in the absence of due precautions, or upon ships previously rendered kors de combat by gun-fire. "The net results would show the war_ efficacy of the torpedo to be _ distinctly disappointing." Theoretically thore may be no direct and absolute defence against the attacks of a submarine, but in actual warfare its mission is one of deadly peril to itself. Lord Sydenham tells us that a touch from a ship's stem will send it to the bottom, while the entry of a single small shell—and a destroyer can fire 100 in a minutewould render it helpless. If it is to attempt any offensive action it must frequently rise to the surface, and it may then be drenched with small projectiles and lose its periscope. It may also be liable to aeroplane attack. _ Naval manoeuvres do not give any idea of the strain on the personnel of a submarine in war, and this strain must "tell heavily on its efficiency. .Lord Charles Beresjord favours the views of Lord Sydenham and Admiral Bacon. ' He states thai tho submarine can only operate by day and in clca/r weather, and that it is practically useless in misty weather. When once a submarine came to the top the torpedodestroyers and other craft "would be on it as a hunter would be on a whale—directly he came up, harpoon him." The present war is putting tho submarine and other modern fighting machines to the test, and up to the present the experience gained has not borne out the alarmist opinions of Sir Percy Scott. The coming of the submarine has undoubtedly added a new terror' to naval warfare, but it has not yet driven the battleship on to the scrap heap,