TESTING A SUBMARINE.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 348, 24 February 1902, Page 3

TESTING A SUBMARINE.

The recent experience of the new Holland submarine destroyer, Fulton, was probably the severest test that such a craft has ever been submitted to. The results however exceeded all anticipations. The officers and crew of the little vessel remained fifteen hours under water. They, slept, ate, and. played cards while a storm was raging 'overhead, and on coming up - ' Glared that they had suffered not the slightest inconvenience. Fifteen hours under water constitutes a record in submarine navigation, the previous best being . Twelve hours 0 . The Fulton's crew, moreover, asserted that they could without inconvenience have spent a week or even a fortnight below the surface, so little were they affected by the submersion. “ What makes the test doubly satisfactory-, ' says a Home paper, “is the fact that it was made in the teeth of one of the fierc est m gales that has been known on the northcast coast of Long Island, Hew --.0r),-, for three and twenty years. Experts now affirm that properly-built submamves can remain submerged for weeks, jf n'sed be, and the crews will suffer no mc.onvent cnee.” The test was mado by Itear Admiral John Lowe, a veteran investigator, Captain Charles Cable, and .- a crew of six. The Fulton sank down to the bottom of Pcconic Bay, indication those on board heAthat thero was “ a bit of a blow above was the fact that during the night, the vessel, resting on her bilges, at the bottom of tho bay, lowered a trifle, and buried herse f in . the mud to the extent of about a foot Admiral Lowe stated afterwaids that throughout her submersion the an which they had to breathe was perfectly pure and ' wholesome. “It was an experiment, ho said, “ in which 1 consider myself privileged to have partaken It was marvellous. I beliove wo could stay down foi cioht months practically indefinitely. It°is only a matter of mathematical calculation as to food, fuel, and air supplies.