SUBMARINE BOAT.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 386, 10 April 1902, Page 3

SUBMARINE BOAT.

By Telegraph—Press Association- Copyright London, April 8. • The British submarine boat at Burrow-on-Furness traversed six miles at a depth of fifteen feet. By Lewis Nixon, Proprietor of the Crescent Shipyard, New Jersey, America.

it After three hundred years of experi- -- ment, the submarine boat is now in d practical use it The theory that it would lie possible ! to evolve a craft that would be able y to move and perform useful purport ses beneath the .surface of the water d has at length been developed into a s practical boat, of complete working e efficiency. There is no longer any j question of this ; innumerable trials 3 have proved the fact beyond the possi- . bility of a doubt. Very conservative . naval experts have become convinced . of the great importance of the Holland 1 submarine boat for the purpose of 5 coast defence, witli the result that the , United States now owns six of this kind, and Great Britain has ordered five, which are in course of building. | The conservatism and prejudice aga- \ inst submarine craft was even greater in Great Britain than in this country, hut the Holland type of boat won a victory there as well as- here. Those now being constructed for the British Government will be similar to our own in almost every particular. The French naval authoritiesi have also been very active in investigating the capabilities of submarine boats but they have been following ideas and inventions of their own. These inventions have as yet led to no satisfactory result. I have no hesitation in saying that the Holland boat, as adopted by the United States is vastly superior to any other which has so far been devised' There is not the slightest doubt that in future warfare on the seas, submarine boats will play a very prominent part. In the system of naval tatics which have been evolved by hundreds of years of sea fighting, these small, incomparable boats will bring about changes which will lie almost revolutionary- The blocking of ports as practised under our present system, will be well-nigh impossible. The immensely

WCirillgU JlU]JUk>olMl(y. 1 111/ wealthy sea coast cities, which have trembled at rumours of war because of the likelihood that an enemy would steal up to their doors and destroy them may put aside their fears. A few submarine boats will be able to clear any harbour of attacking ships of war. Against the stealthy and underhand, but terrifically destructive assault of such a craft, a battleship can have no defence but flight. At Santiago for example, our men-of-war would never have dared to close in around the mouth of the harbour, if the Spam ards had had three or four vessels like the “ Holland ” scurrying about and delivering quick and unforeseen blows from the depths of the ocean. A battleship cannot attack one of these naval sharks, for the very simple reason that it presents no target. Be the look-outs ever so vigilant, they cannot, of course, detect an enemy approaching beneath the surface to attack from a water ambuscade. No armour plate that has ever been been devised is as efficient as a score or more feet of water. Ordinary torpedo nets will give no protection against submarine attack ; the assailants will be able to dive under these nets, and send through them a torpedo which will tear a hole large enough to enable the boat itself to pass. I think it is not putting it too strongly to say that, in a harbour protected by submarine boats, blockading, as practised under the present system, will be a thing of the past. I believe that it will be necessary to devise some type of war ves-, sel to withstand these boats. What type this will be no man can say. The “Holland’s” Practicability. The vital feature of the new boat is of course, their ability to move and fight under water. Many inventor* have spent long years in endeavouring to devise means to accomplish this purpose; but with the notable exception of John P. Holland, they have failed. Mr Holland has given a lifetime to his invention. He has informed me that the idea of a submarine boat first came to him when in Dublin, he read in a newspaper an account of the fight between the “ Monitor ” and the “ Merrimac,” about two weeks after the great naval conflict. Ever since he has been working to make the idea practical. Many ideas and models received months and years of attention from him,only to be finally rejected. The development of the “Holland” may well be called an evolution. Not only had Mr Holland to contend with the great memechanical difficulties of the task, but also with a deep-seated prejudice against any such style of boats. Perhaps the strongest opposition was encountered among the naval officers , hut, with the melting away of the mechanical difficulties, under the fire of Mr Holland’s inventive genius, came the disappearance of most of the prejudices. . ,(To be continued).,