SUNK SUBMARINES

Hokitika Guardian, 9 March 1928, Page 1

SUNK SUBMARINES

NEW SALVAGE DEVICE. ADMIRAL’S SUGGESTION. LONDON. Jan. lCk The recent disaster to the United States Submarine St has called forth a letter from Admiral Sir Charles L. Ottley. in which he makes a suggestion for obviating such accidents. Tji.a letter to “The Times” he says: “It is natural to ask whether some

compromise cannot he hit upon 1)0tween the Scylla of ‘safety first’ and the Chary lid is of a ruthless pursuit of mii.xiimim fighting efficiency at the expense of reasonable safeguards. Bevofid perail vent tire, had it been practicable to bring the U.S. Submarine •SI to tin surface quickly alter the collision many gallant lives might have been saved. Are we to admit that such rapid salvage is for ever impracticable F “To raise a vessel (of 1000 tons, perhaps, or more) from the ocean bed within an hour or two of her foundering seems a colossal task—witness the skilful, hut lengthy operations at Scapa. The special technicalities of submarine construction must, however, ho taken into account. A modern submarine, although of huge bulk and heavy displacement. does not weigh, in water (when trimmed for diving), more than a few ions. Even wh'en holecl, as was S 4, the dead weight in water may‘quite possibly have been within the capacity of the capstans of large vessels. The real difficulty is to fix quickly the lifting chains to the sunken hull. “M any devices suggest themselves. Perhaps the simplest would be to use in peace time, stream-lined salvage buoys clamped against the submarine’s outer skin and capable of release in case of emergency, by the creiv inside. The lower end of each buoy-rope would be made fast to the

salvage chains. The salvage procedure would be simplicity itself. The rescuing vessel or vessels would pick up the buoys', bring them to ' their capstans, and ‘heave round.’ In the course the salvage chains would heave in sight, and ‘take’ the capstans. The subsequent raising of tile conningtower of the submarine above the brim of the sea should not take more than half an hour. | “If it !«? objected that the weight of heavy steel chains would be ati inconvenience to the submarine when cruising, they might be carried normally by other ships. The only additional weights to he home on the hull of the submarine in this case would he the huovs themselves, and the relatively light luioy ropes, down which the rescuing vessels would send their chains, fitted with suitable grappling devices. A contrivance of.this kind was tried with success in the Meditoraniiean Fleet' many years ago 1 , on a smatl scale, for fishing up disabled Whitehead torpedoes. “A long familiarity with the ideas of inventors induces scepticism and caution, but I venture none the less to make these suggestions in the hope that the whole problem may be ventilated.”