TRIP IN A SUBMARINE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1370, 6 March 1915, Page 4

TRIP IN A SUBMARINE.

AN EERIE) EXPERIENCE

Until quite recently the sub marine was uncommonly near to be regarded an out-and-out failure as an engine ot destruction. She destroyed hundreds of lives in times of peace, but when her first real chance came with the RussoJapanese war, she had singularly little to say for herself. The present war, however, is forcing the most virulent critics of uncier-water craft to very considerably amend their hostility. When three great towering cruisers, armed to the teeth and aggregating 36,000 tons, can by their agency be swept out of sight for ever inside a few minutes, submarine warfare forces home possibilities that are simply staggering. The first impression of the interior of a submarine is distinctly favourable. A little enclosure seems bigger internally than externally. It is, however, the brightness that fitst takes the fancy. Her interior is brilliantly lighted. But for the certainty of getting our feet wet we might have remained on deck a little longer, as the good ship is not going under water quite yet. Her gasolene engines are taking us along at quite twelve knots an hour, and we comment on the modest pace, and inquire of our guide bow she can be expected to administer the coup de grace to a 28 knot cruiser, or even to the 20knot battleship. We learn,, however, that she will not even attempt discharging one three torpedoes at a big L which is moving quickly. i. . absolutely essential to success ha l the enemy ear-marked f . .■ d-s ... 0 tion be at rest, or, at any rr moving slowly. PRESERVING xai.-i BALANCE. We lake 9 weird-like interest in the ere;;, wi > number some thirty men. They sro n-rwrn- r.nout gingerly, as if a ...A. X ....it of their balance. As a matter of fact it i. the submarine's equilibrium they are cor ;ern.d a :.U. I is an ever-present possibility, especially when the craft is submerged, that with too much live weight suddenly thrown on one side, she will, despite her pair of horizontal keels, turn turtle, and end her history on the missing* board of the Admiralty. This knowledge makes us almost farcically careful, and we walk like the veritable hen on hot bricks. However, we recover sufficiently from the shock of this discovery to admire the beautiful guumetal hull and the

numerous brightly polished instruments ranged on the iuuer skin, which take the place of pictures. Here is a thermo, of the most approved palleru. Whew ! it is warm. We feel it all the more on discovering the mercury to be standing at 78 degrees, and we are told it will rise another five points after we have dipp-d below. Nor is it altogether comforting to hear that it is possible to remain the better part of the day below surface, and yet come up alive, though six hours may kill a weak suoject. OUMOVS DANGERS.

Another instrument we examine s a very important u>e, for it cli ows the wafer pressure. if it should evince an inclination to rise beyond the S}4 tons to the square ... .? mark, then no time must be lost in getting higher up if the frail sides are not to be crushed in like an egg shell. In other words, we dare not descend below 50 fathoms, an ample depth for business, however, string that five or six fathoms will nicely clear the hull of the greatest battleship afloat. But there is another and graver menace. Bike the airship crashing to earth and destruction by ascending at too acute an angle, she may, as submarines have done before, dive bow first and be squashed in the fatal embrace of the deep, or, if the water is shallow, her bow may stick in the mud and remain there, till the last dicker of life leaves her ill-starred crew. This actually happened not so long ago. The reflection is a disturbing one, especially as just at that moment an extraordinary feeling of something being decidedly wrong seizes us; the feeling is centred in the pit of the stomach. Water is rushing into the ballast tanks, forcing the air out, and we are sinking down, down, a brilliant opalescent mass into a cavernous darkness. It is with a feeling of unmitigated relief that we observe nobody (but ourselves) is looking the least put out, though the engineer, with tense face, is peering the pressure glass out of countenance as he handles the lever of the water ballast. The correct level, some ten fathoms down, has been found and we are off again apparently as fast as ever, the electrical eupiaes being now our motive power. We ascertain, among other things, that ihejsctew acts as a rudder in addition to its orthodox duty, and so admirably is it adjusted that the vessel can be turned easily within her own length. We also leatn that a pump is busy at work driving out the vitiated air and that everyone now is being spoonfed, as it were, with compressed air, which air strikes us as being rather warm and unsatisfying compared with the original article. It is all interesting, very interesting indeed, but what is of much greater concern is how the ship is to get up again, and it is pleasant to hear that it is only a matter of driving the water Irom the ballast tanks. There is attached to the keel ot the vessel a great weight, which, on a spring being pressed, will instantly release itself, bringing us aloft like a bubble of air. WHITK MICK rABSKNGKKS. We have another look around and admire from our heart the brave fellows forming the crew, who are all picked men from the navy. Men acquainted with the interior of a battleship’s cells are not wanted here; for one thing there is scarcely room aboard to intern a refractory cat. As a matter of fact, you will never find a cat refractory or otherwise, ot on a submarine, but a small family of may always be seen—.’bite, delicate little things, as ‘■'tally important as any imstru .r ent aboard. If ary of these

I linla caged creatures languish aud ( '..,12, up the submarine must go, 'cr somethiug has gone wrong I vita the air supply. It is scarcely possible to pen testimony in too high terms to the gallant fellows who go to sea and under sea on board the submarine. Every one of them who cheerfully faces life and death interned within its sombre walls a hero.