BUILDING PIRATE SUBMARINES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3065, 28 April 1917, Page 13

BUILDING PIRATE SUBMARINES

HOW GERMANY DOES IT

STANDARDISED METHODS

Germany has adapted to tho building of U-boats the same kind of workshop methods as aro employed by the manufacturers of cheap American motorcars. Parts and processes are duplicated meticulously with the object of facilitating quick construction. In a manner of speaking, submarines are "chopped out" like ready-made clothiug or cheap furniture in an East End factory. It is by following this practice that Germany has obtained enough U-boats to make her latest piratical outburst a thing of serious portent. This .-is -how her system of building them-is organised. A standard pattern of U-boat has been designed. Each separate part of it is made in quantities by firms who devote themselves to this task only. Some construct a given section of the hull or 'a portion of the fittings or the machinery. Whatever may be tho task allotted to_ a factory, it concentrates all its attention on that fraction of tho vessel, and undertakes no other part oF it, with the result that the workmen, being always employed in making one thing, have.become expert at their task and able to do it expeditiously. The various parts thus produced are sent to one of tho shipyards, and there bolted together by staffs of men .whose whole time is given to "assembling" the portions of hull and machinery which other men have made. The building yard employees merely "sew together" a-garment that has been cut out elsewhere. "A submarine built at Kiel" really means a submarine put together thoro. Possibly 30 different establishments in as many differont parts of the country were each responsible for their little piece of her, in tho manufacture of which they had specialised. The advantage of such a system as this in speeding up construction' will be_ obvious to anyone acquainted with shipbuilding. By it a dozen 'boats can bo turned out for every one that could be constructed b.v the usual methods which entrust a yard with tho building of a complete boat ■ and make no provision for the standardising of partß so that they can easily bo duplicated. A Standard Training. This practice of standardising ,her submarines helps Germany immensely in another way that is quite as important to her as rapid construction. All her new U-boats being of tho ono type, crews can he changed from ono vessel to another without any loss of efficiency. Tho new submarine to which thoy go is so exactly like tho old ono that they have loft that no "shaking down" period is necossary to onablo tho officers and men to get used to their craft. . Nor do tho advantages end We. In the Baltic Germany has established a school for training submarine crows. If she had varying types of U-boats one at least of each kind would havo to bo "tied . up" for. instructional duties, and the officers and men taught to handle one class could not be. transferred, directly t'o another and sent right off toi sea. But as a result of having standardised her boats sho need use only ono or two for instructional purposes. Thoy are sufficient to train crows for a wholo flotilla, as the complomonts passed through them can be passed directly to the craft commissioned, for active • service as these are completed. Standardised training thus follows upon standardised construction, and onables Gormany to get ths maxi-. mum of work out of her under-sea flotilla. _ '. . It is this methodical way of going about the business which has enabled her to make her . submarine menace at last a very real ono. Germinv !ins not always had her pirate fleet organised on this well thought-out plan. Its adoption coincided with her decision to dovoto hor naval energies mainly to submarino warfare. Having made up her mind for tho action, she began methodically preparing to make it as offeotive as possible when the time came to' start —when sho was quite ready. Germany's requirements differ . so muoh from thoso of other Powers' that what meets her caso would be of no use to them. This building of submarines on the standardised principle has drawbacks as well as advantages. Tho latter are only for a country that has to meet an emergency which'calls for numbers abovo any other consideration, and wants them quiokly at that. It docs not produco tno best type of submarine, as'design must be ruled rather by what can be done than by what is best to do, and that means limitations which may prove handicaps. But, this limitation notwithstanding, Germany has greatly improved the constructional details of her U-boats. High Speed and Powerful Guns. The latest U-boats, as is well known, are much larger than their predecessors. One sometimes seem them described as submersible cruisers. AVhethcr that description may be regarded as accurate or not depends upon what one understands by "submersible cruiser." Thero is no evidence that Germany has yet sent out U-boats to which a naval man would apply this name. But this must not be taken as implying that her under-water craft aro to be lightly regarded. Quite the other way about. So much has their displacement been increased that they are capable of a wide radius of action, and by husbanding their fuel supplies can keep tho sea for a long time. ' Moreover, they possess high speed (high for a submarine,'which, of course, . must be judged by standards different from those applied to surface ships), and they can dive very quickly. Guns equal in power to those carried by some destroyers are now being mounted in them. These weapons are placr ed on a disappearing mounting; that is, are raised from the interior of the boat when required aud lowered again when she dives. Over tho gun emplacment is an armoured hatch which lifts with the gun and forms' a strong, protective hood above the gun and its crew while the weapon is in action. As tho gun lowers, so' this hatch automatically .sinks back until it falls into place again as a part of the hull. Their torpedoes are mostly shortrange weapons loaded with a very heavy explosive charge. Shortness of range enables them to carry a much ,more powerful war-head than they would bo able to do if thoy were eugined to travel a longer distance. On their boat-shaped bows is fitted a cuttor designed to onablo the boat to shear its way through any obstacle it may encounter. They are equipped also ' for mine-laying, and, in fact; include this among their regular activities. ■ With a view to enable them hotter to resist attack, they are built with two hulls, one outside the other, somewhat like a steel cylinder enclosed in the hull of a boat. And living conditions for tlieir crews are far better than they were in the earlier types of U-boat.—"Daily Mail."