SUBMARINE DANGERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 661, 13 May 1929, Page 14

SUBMARINE DANGERS

DEVICE TO PREVENT DISASTERS TESTS IN AMERICA Since the disaster which occurred j oft Key West, Florida, in December, j 1927, when the American submarine j S 4 sank in 120 feet of water and the 1 crew of 40 were asphyxiated before I adequate rescue measures could be put into operation, inventors throughout the world have sought to perfect devices which would make the repeti- ! tion of such a catastrophe impossible, j Experiments have now been carried \ out at the site of the accident which j point to the likelihood of ultimate j success, says a naval expert in the j “Sunday News.” Using a device for escaping from j submerged submarines, Lieutenant j Monsen and Chief-Torpedoman Kolinowski, of the U.S. Navy, successfully rose to the surface from the interior of the S 4 itself. The invention consists of a mask inflated with oxygen, and Lieutenant Dunbar, who is in charge of the tests, believes that it offers a solution to the problem. Not a New idea The idea itself, however, is not entirely new. In 1922 a firm of engineers at Sheffield introduced a similar device in the form of an air and watertight jacket, with tight-fitting rubber sleeves and waistband, which was surmounted by a helmet with glass portholes. The wearer could regulate the supply of air required from a knapsack containing oxygen in steel bottles, which enabled anyone to remain under water for an hour. This diving jacket was far less cumbersome than the regulation dress, its primary object being to enable men to clear submerged propellers or i chains where air tubes would not al- | low freedom of action without fouling. Since that invention was introduced to steamship companies improvements have been made. Scarcely a month passes without an idea being introduced to liberate men from sunken submarines. After the loss of the S 4 numerous patents were taken out in this and other countries, which the inventors claimed would liberate imprisoned crews. One of the more modern devices includes the use o£ a watertight ■ chamber, abaft the conning tower, that can be emptied by pumping or filled by flooding. The chamber has sufficient room for two men dressed in rubberised suits of thick canvas, carrying a small container of oxygen, to enable them to reach the surface, where they can float in ka-pok-lined clothing until rescued.

Swedish Invention Recently a practical invention tor saving the lives of submarine crews has been tested at Karlskrona, the Swedish naval base. This device has been favourably reported upon, and additional tests of a more stringent nature are to be made this summer. To avoid- risk of collision, a submarine, when submerged at a depth, or coming to the surface, would release a tube containing a chemical which, on reaching the surface in daylight, gives off a dense black smoke. For night work another tube containing carbide of calcium would be employed. On reaching the air at the surface of the water a brilliant light, which will burn for 20 minutes, gives warning to an approaching vessel. Either of the tubes may be released from the interior of the submarine.

Its great usefulness, it is claimed, would be in the event of disaster to indicate the whereabouts of a vessel that could not rise to the surface. In such event both smoke and flare tubes would be released simultaneously, w-hile the protected core of the wire to which the tubes are attached would serve for connecting a telephone. Naval authorities have also been considering the best means of supplying air to imprisoned men by means of surface pumps through the coupling of a hose on to a projecting tube. On the last occasion it was stated that Morse signals were exchanged between divers and the victims who were suffocated from lack of air. Bad Weather There was no projecting tube or shaft to which an air-pipe could be connected, and before anything could he done under water bad weather set in, making it impossible for divers on surface craft to remain on the spot where the submarine was located. Precious time was lost, for the reason that the submarine was not fitted with stout steel lifting rings, to which the wires could be shackled from the craft above. It was stated that had these existed surface ships could have raised the hull sufficiently to admit of it being towed into shallower and sheltered water, which would have enabled divers to carry out salvage operations by the introduction of air valves through the steel shell. A further invention to be put into practical test is a floating signal apparatus for attaching to the hulls of vessels lying on the bed of a fairway, where they might prove dangerous 10 the navigation of other ships. This instrument is fitted with„ dry batteries, and sufficient energy is stored to send out brilliant flashing signals for three months without recharging. Another use for this instrument would be in the event of aircraft being obliged to descend on the sea or in difficulty country.