FIGHT FOR LIFE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1975, 10 January 1907, Page 4

FIGHT FOR LIFE.

HOW TJ 111 BUTIN’S CHEW MET THEIR FATE.

it is now known that the men of the ill-fated submarine Butin fought desperately for their lives before being drowned. The Commission of Enquiry lias reconstituted the lust moments of the vessel and its crow, and the story is told in all its dramatic horror in a telegram which the Petit Parisien published from its Tunis correspondent. It will he remembered that the sub-

marine went out hi rough weather, and was followed by' the tug Jskeul. After three dives Captain Fopoux signalled, to the tug that he was about to drop 48 feet for a fourth dive.

Tlio water ballast was taken on hoard and the submarine disappeared ill the waves. When it had arrived at a depth of 48 feet (as tho manometer showed him), the captain ordered the valve to he shut. Tile sailor whose duty it was did so, hut when the valve was two-thirds shut the sluice stopped, and the sailor, thinking it was closed, left it. The captain then ordered water to he pumped out, and his orders to that effect are noted on the log. But tho valve was open, and the water continued to pour in and the submarine to sink deeper. Then tho turbine was set working, but under the pressure of tho water six holes were torn in the sides cf tho Butin, the accumulators were paralysed, and the wretched sailors worked feverishly in an inky darkness, broken now and again by' a flash', as one short circuit after another occurred. In the dark room the men felt their way to the compartment forward, for the turbine in the stern could not hold its own against the inrush of water. They reached the partition, and fought feverishly for life.

Then the lead weights of the fore part were set free, and tho Butin made a sudden leap above the surface of the water. The Butin made a sudden leap above sailors oil hoard the Iskoul saw her leap out of the water prow upwards, like a dolphin at play, and plunge down again for the last time. The sailors on hoard the fated ship tore their shirts and clothes, and in their frantic fight for life, tried to stop all openings until the Iskeul should bring help. It was exactly half-past ten when the water stopped the clock in the stern. The clock in the tower stopped at 11.20. For nearly an hour the j .■ sailors must have waited for tlio help which did not come, and then they made one last desperate hid for safety. They opened the hood (capot), but the water rushed in like a mill sluice, and all was over.

A BOOM IN AERONAUTICS. The Daily Mail’s offer of a 110,000 prize for the fust per.on who flics on an aeroplano from London to Manchester in one day, with not more than two stoppages, has set the aeronautical experts talking at great length on the glowing prospects of speedy success in the conquest of the air. If the public have failed to share the excitement it is simply because they have waited so long for the successful airship that they have got quite used to waiting, and until tho inventors have done a little more than talk about flying people are content to possess their souls in patience. But great prizes liko this offer of 410,000 must undoubtedly act as a great stimulus to the hundreds of inventors who are working away' on the aerial problem. With most of them the want of ready' money is a great and generally an insuperable obstacle, but the chance of winning so largo a sum as this may induce speculative investors to advance the necessary money to tho men who have the ideas but not tho cash to develop them. Quite a number of valuable prizes now await the man who really masters the secret of the air - e-g.: London to Manchester, 410,000 prize, offered by the Daily Mail. The Archdeacon prize of 12000 for aeroplane over a distance of half a mile. Paris to London, in 1908, 44000 prize, offered by the Matin, and increased by' public subscriptions to £JO,OOO. S 2000 from the Adams Motor manufacturing Company, to go to the winner of the Daily- Mail i'lo,ooo, provided that his aeroplano is entirely made in Great Britain or in her dependencies over the s -as.

A prize of .£SOO offered by fche Aula? car lo the maker of tlie petrol engine chiving the flying machine which wins tbc Daily Mail i 10,000 piizc, provided the engine is made by a British motorcar manufacturer. The Daily' Graphic’s prize of 41000 to the inventor who first produces a machine which, being heavier than air, shall fly with one or more human passengers between two given points not less than one mile apart. Sir David Salomons’ prize, offered last year for a type heavier than air. Gordon-Bennott International Annual f liallenge Cup (first competed for last September). Hedges Butler Challenge Cup, offered by Mr Frank Hedges Butler, for aeroplanes and ba'loons, starting from Dondon on a 'fixed date and travelling the longest distance, Howard de Walden prize, offered this year for a type heavier than air. It is safe to predict a boom in aero-

nautics as the result of this goodly array of prizes. M. Santos-JOumont, who succeeded in flying 230 yards on an aeroplane the other day, is delighted with the turn of events, and already announced his intention of competing for the London-to-Manchester prize. “ The motor-balloon,” he says, “is a thing of the past. That sort of airship will soon be relegated to a museum. I gave the balloon form of airship a thorough trial, and tested it in every way for years. But I became convinced that I was mov-

ing in a wrong direction altogether, and I gave up balloons and took to aero, planes.” Sir Hiram Maxim is not so enthusiastic as the young Brazilian. Ho thinks the distance between London and Manchester (over 180 miles) is too great. “ if,” ho says, “we get a machine to travel forty miles within the next two years we shall be doing pretty well,”