SNAIL SUBMARINES.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 June 1920, Page 4

SNAIL SUBMARINES.

NEW YORK, April 1. At to-day’s proceedings in the Senate inquiry into Rear-Admiral Sims’s charges against the Navy Department, RearAdmiral Albert W. Grant, commander of the battleship force defending the American coast, emphatically refused, in response to questions, to endorse Mr Daniels’ much-discussed declaration that the Navy was ready “ from stem to sterp ” at the outbreak of hostilities. On the contrary, he declared, if the British Fleet had failed to hiold the German Fleet in check disastrous consequences would have ensued for the United States. When in July, 1917, he received orders to prepare 12 of .Ilia host submarines for service in European waters against the U boats, he designated 12, but at the same time declared that not one of them was ready for the work intended. His verdict on them was confirmed by the officer who took the first 5 submarines across. First one, then another of the submarines had to be towed by the accompanying ships. Most of them moved at a snail’s pace on one engine. Of the first 12 submarines sent over 5 were without guns, and a number laboured under the disadvantage of fixed periscopes.