THE SUBMARINE MENACE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 253, 4 December 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE SUBMARINE MENACE.

DANGER OF <J\ ERRATING TOUPEDO WUHK.

GUNS THE MAIN FACTOR IN NAVAL WARFARE.

Kverybody I met. yesterday said to me:—

"Well. Percy Scott was right whon he said that tlie submarine was the only warship worth building," (writes H. C. Ferra'jy in the "Daily Express") Thus is public opinion formed, by hasty conclusions, on inadequate data, from an isolated instance. The public confidence in Sir Percy SuHt's judgment in naval matters is based on tli e very remarkable services which that distinguished officer rendered to lli.' Navy in the domain ol gunnery. It would ill become anyone nno hao not the lifetime ol naval experience that is Ins bluntly to contradict Ins conclusions even in the widely lilJofout domain ol submarine wairtaro with the torpedo. Hut Ins doctrine is so contrary to all the teaching ol naval history, it recalls so insistently the now. dead heresy ol the ram. it is so hampered by tuo natural limitations ot the submarine, that one may be pardoned lor offering for consideration a lew ol the many points that require tiffthv-r elucidation before the new doctrine can conscientiously be subscribed to. Every important naval ac'ion in the v or Id's history, every action, that is to wiy, on which the late of nations depended, has been fought out by the largest ships, throughout tho records ot naval construction we always find that when some small type of useful offensive power is envolved, some larger type is rapidly evolved, some larger ."so the torpedo-boat was superseded by tho torpedo-boat destroyer, so in its turn the destroyer is being challenged by the destroyer of destroyers, the new

''light armored cruiser'' type, whose usefulness the Arethusa showed in the light off Heligoland.

OUTDONE. So. again, the protected cruiser ol the Minerva type was outdone by tlio Powerful and tho Terrible, which in their turn found an antidote in the noiv dffunqt Aboiikirs, the first armored cruisers with two 'J.'ltn. Kims and 12 Gin. gun-. This type reached its limit in tho Minotaur ulass. with tour 9.2 in. Runs and ten 7."> in. The next stop was tho battle-cruiser, which, when all is said and done, is a battleship, and the two tvpos have indeed born'merged into tlie now Queen Elizabeth class of battleship. Now too whole essence of sucees for the tornodo-lwmt and for the submarine is stealthinoss of approach. That quality lost in proportion as the size of the craft increases. Invisibility Is im-po-siii! t . to a large Mibniarinc only a few feet under tlio water by reason of the wash that it.s hulk will cause. Yet the large submarine, if it is to act on the offensive, must run at shallow immersion pretty frequently if it is to know where its enemy is. It may lie contended that the submarine need not 1)0 lairge. But the command of the sea in every sense of tho word can only be won and hold by vessels that can go to wa. k<rp at sea, and fight at sea in all weathers. That demands a large ship, well provisioned. well engined. with a large crew, so that the '■train nv.iy be evenly divided between men who bav<, rested and men who have watched.

HAMS. ITio heresy of tlic nun is well wort* remembering at tins moment. Because the gunnery ot the Italian fkn at Lissa ivas poor, the closo witli and rain the Italian t>hip*. tlic effect alone was noted; the cause was overlooked. The 'result was that n>r Ho .years battleship's were built wiUi lams; the battle formation ot fleets underwent a radical change, ana the gnu, ,111,1 is the fiaai arbiter in all battlr, wns neglected. It wa> not until ISU7 that tho heresy iva.s discovered, when the clear-sighted loctures of the late Bear-Admiral H. J. May recalled in ji to an appreciatinon of the fact that no battleship could ram another that was pouring withering broadsides into her. For thirty years ail the best brains in th*. naval service had been obsessed by t?i«' ram, with a consequent nrglect ot gunnery. What would have happened - f we had gone to war during that time hardly bears thinking about. It is urged by tome that tli e torpedo is a great advance on the gun. end tho rapid destruction ot the three cruisers —the CYossy, Aboukir, .ind Hogue will support them in that belief, lint they overlook the fact t u at whereas a a ship is armored above water agaiuot gun-fire, no ship has yet bien armored below water as a del once against toi pedoes. The matter i> one that has received the careful attention ot naval architects, and it is for them and for naval officers benefiting by the experience of thp present war to decide whether this is the best means of delcnc*.

SIX TO ONE. The torpedo, it must be rcnienibtire<l an unreliable projectile. Th 0 13.3 m. gun can place six 123011). projectiles on a lew square yards o! target in the time it takes one torpedo to travel fye same range »rom the submaiine to the battleship. If tile battleship is stationery the torpedo may hit it, but if it is in motion the chance of a hit is considerablv reduced.

In the course of the Ruaso-Japanes>> war only five torpedoes out of alioiK L'oO that were fired hit warships iu motion. In this respect, of course., th« submarine hat an advantage that its invisibility it lo approach nearer to it.- victim than any surface »hip win do The underwater warship has its us'.s; in tho hands of daring and experienced men it is capably of doing much damage, of supplying much valuable information, and. by reason of its stealtliiness. of affecting adversely to some extent th? nerves of thc*»e who are on tho watch for it. But it; lack of sight, its weak m«'am> of self-protection, its low speed, and ita comparatively small Pea-keeping capacity a/re all-important factors that limit its effeetiretiess and deny it any claim to mastery of tue sea.

Foui at Nvist of our battle-* i nisei s were in the tbict of the submarines at Heligoland, and came out unscathed. Met a ."ingle broadside from one of them Mew the Gorman cruiser Koln out of the water.

'Hint is a fact to fiot inside the low of tho Aboukir and her sisUra, and to [KindeT orer.