IS THE BRITISH NAVY IN DANGER?

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 236, 14 October 1901, Page 4

IS THE BRITISH NAVY IN DANGER?

FOREIGN SVB.M UUXE BOATS. XE-.lilB! FATA OF A STY. F; . -■ Loudon Daily Exp: ess.! Wr. ate . .'i'. ti>.» morning to give the details of a -■ rti.rg si tv.»i d-:-,clepmei;t abio-.d >vi: i> a;.to piece IT me.; .tint Jii; sia ahead . in.; v.iioiv world hi nival strength. Tile outcome of l’.Hiiy i x[vriu’.o:i'; i- the adop. r. i v ihe Dual Alliance of t . ;ujmai.i.e a~ the dominant factcr ill naval war- ■

fare of the future. Oar information has been supplied by an authority well verseJ in naval construction, and who appreciates the naval crusade commenced in the Express by the publication of the details of the Howard submarine nine months ago, and which was followed by the Atkinson, Williamson, and other British inventors’ plans. While the British Admiralty has tardily resolved upon the construction of live submarine vessels, France and itussia, acting hand in hand, have determined to jointly menace the naval powers of Europe by means of a lieet of ninety.two such vessels of the most deadly type. This information has come in a definite form to the British Admiralty, whose officials arc aware also of the precise date at which this formidable iieet of submergible destroyers will be ready for action —the lflth of. February next. What this new phase of the Franco-Bus-sian alliance portends is also no doubt known to the Admiralty.

The submarine always appealed to France. The cost of building a few experimental baats was comparatively trivial; and quite irrespective of success, the French Admiralty used the idea of tiie submarine as an instillment of war to stive her purpose as a political trump card. The newspapers appealed to the imagumtion of the people, and the men. women, and children of France were told that in the event oE war with England our navy could be held in check or utteiiy destroyed.

In the United States submarine vessels have been built for experimental trials; Germany is slow, and Italy is waiting before she draws iatgely on her limited purse. ltussia alone has joined France and entered upon the new scheme with enthusiasm. Fiance increases her iieet of submarines to fifty-eight vessels, and Russia will have twenty sttbmergables ready for sea by the date already named. The French Government is also considering the construction of fourteen other submarinesof a new type, lit? total number in the combined tleets with ltussia b.ing thus ninety two. Trials have taken place at Toulon, Cherbourg, and Brest, in which boats ot diliferent designs have competed, and the programme included such events a- locating buoys and steering a zigzag course to a given point while completely submerged. By November next bS of the -VI submarines which the French Admiralty have decided to build will be ready. Twenty of them are now complete, and the remaining Is are being hurried oil to completion, seven at Cherbourg, seven at Toulon, and four at Brest. They are of the Gustave Zede type, with certain modifications, six of the vessels being of the Morse pattern, with additions found useful in the Narval class ot" submarine. Tin: recent trials with two of the boats — the Francaisc and the Aigerion —have proved remarkably successful. The Francaise was first tested last April, and during the four months the trials have lasted the engineers have not reported the slightest accident or failure. Win t is the part the submarine will play in actual warfare V As a sea-going craft she is admitted to be useless, and ean only serve as an engine of war against a blockading lieet. Our own policy of fitting out live submarine vessels by October next at the cost of £'2-30,000. and placing them under the command of Captain Bacon, an export torpedoist, and a picked crew, points to the itiefc that it is advisable to follow other Powers in employing every conceivable kind of vessel, in the chance of their turning out useful. In regard to the large increase of French submarines, it is as well to point out that preparations have been made to establish an effective reserve and get together a larger engineering stall. Schools of instruction are being held, and a careful study lias been made of the problems that might arise in actual war.

It seems curious that after keeping the secret so long the Admiralty should decide to publish to the worid the fact that live submarines have been nearly completed at Barrow, and will be ready for their trials by the middle of October. Our Sea Lords have, presumably on the advice of the permanent oliicials, gone further—they have and encouraged the* giving out of details of the construction, tonnage, and mechanical arrangements of these new boats, v As a matter of fact, our Admiralty began to grow alarmed in .January, when a great torpedo expert gave them his opinion on the sum ct to the effect that the submarine menace to our Empire was very real, and that something should immediately be done. The exact plan of the Holland, the American boat, was known in Whitehall, but the only knowledge of the Gymnote, the Gustave Zede, and their sister boats, had been derived from French engineering papers, and the details given there were pronounced by our own engineers to be “faked” descriptions printed with intent to deceive. The reports were full of mechanical impossibilities and transparently “ bluff” drawings. There was only one thing, to be done, and whether directly through the instrumentality of Vickers, Sons, and Maxim, or by the Admiralty themselves on their own initiative will in all probability never be known. A man had to be found, an engineer of sufficient courage and sagacity to play the spy and secure the true mechanism and facts about these French submarines. Such a person was not, easily discoverable : he had to be engineer, a man of long residence in France, and speaking the language like a native ; and, above all, able to obtain employment in Cherbourg Dockyard. The man was found, and by the end of May most of the plans were in our hands. Then came the Toulon trials, and to the astonishment of whoever the employer of this patriot was no news came to hand. Special inquiries were immediately set on foot, and as far as can be ascertained a so-called British spy’ has been arrested, sentenced secretly to fortress work for life, and so the matter end?. No doubt compromising papers would be found oil the unfortunate victim, but Governments have a happy knack of avoiding such unpleasant subjects, so that wc shall here no more about it. When a spy is not shot in France, he is sent to work on a fortress with a block chain attached to his leg, and wearing a distinctive uniform. Even the convict 3 who work side by side with him evince their contempt for him, and tho irony of his task is that he is for the rest of his life helping to construct buildings that some day may belch forth death to his compatriots. We shall never know what was the truth for the full history of the Gustave Zede's share in the man*l jvies lies locked up in the brain of an Englishman whose future existence is too terrible to dwell upon. Five years ago Dr G. Jl. Jones, of Museum Mansions, designed a buoyant armour sheathing for vessels of war which would defy th*.- submarine. “I have vastly improved on it since those early days,” he told an express representative, “ and I have now as near perfect ion as I can ever hope to make it. Listen to what Aifred Elgar, the late naval constructor to the Admiralty, says about it-” Here he reads a long testimonial to i;s wonderful capacity for torpedo res.stance which contained such opinions as th.s : “In engagements between rival battleships on the high seas torpedo nets would not be used at all. in accordance with Admiralty Departmental rules issued over two years ago. Even had these rules not been issued it is well known that torpedo nets cannot be used by ships dependent on their mobility in action c>n the high seas. In this case the Jones buoyant steel-plate instantaneously operated torpedo guard is the only defence against torpedo attack.” “ Would this apply to the torpedo discharged from the submarine, Dr Jones?” “ Absolutely,” replied the doctor. “Torpedo netting takes some hours to get out. and tin n can be cut by the torpedo, as has been proved time after time. My sheathing is projected, and renders the ship impervious to attack in a few minutes. Look at this!” Here he touched a little wheel in the beautiful model placed on the table, and with a few turns there sprang out of the sides of the ship a complete coating of armor, which curved with the lines of the ship and was level with the keel. “No torpedo can ever strike through the 15ft cushion of water betwen the lower rim and the keel. The direction of the toi pedo. always fired at an upward angle, would alone prevent it. 4 ’ “But has the admiralty had tin's ottered to them a deed our representative.

••The invention is before the Admiralty j now,” replied Dr Jones. ”1 have been in- j tending all this weed: to write to the Express, 1 seeing that you are taking such an intelligent j interest in naval matters, to come up and j see this invention, 'lhe public cannot be i made acquainted too scon with the deadly risk the Empire is running, while other nations are arming themselves wholesale with theso submarines.” :