SECRET OF GERMAN SUBMARINES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 302, 31 May 1915, Page 5

SECRET OF GERMAN SUBMARINES.

STO'LJN DESIGNS OF THE PIRATE GRAFT. SUBMERGED (iIL FUEL SUPPLY SHIPS. j (By .Herbert Russell.) Germany was the last great naval Power to adopt the submarine. This is why she had so comparatively few of these craft completed oil the outbreak of war. On the. other hand, this delay gave her the advantage of the experience of other nations. Siie did not hesitate to beg, borrow or steal any ideas, patents or rights which seemed to her good. The bombastic assurance with which the German naval authorities proclaimed their intention and ability to blockade our trade routes by submarines has lent an accentuated interest to the qualifies of ifliese craft. What arc they like? Do they really possess any unsuspected features of superiority ? Mr. Simon Lake lias favored me with the story of how it came about that the Germans possessed themselves of his plans and ideas. Just about the timehe brought out the well-known Protector, Krupp's turned out a batch of boats that failo.i o act properly. They rebuilt them tliK. times, without sucKRUPP'S REACHERY.' Mr. Lake was : ed to go to Berlin and advise the 1 pp people how to correct their trout . The, fault with these early Germ submarines was that while they wen designed for level keel work they lacked longitudinal stability, and had an awkward trick ot running head first into the bottom. Mr. Lake was able to explain the reason for this and how to overcome it. At that time, Admiral Barandon, formerly of the German navy, was at the heid of the Krupp German:* works. ITe proposed that Mr. Lake should enter into an agreement for tho construction of his boats for Russia, which, having lost her surface fleet in the Japanese war, was anxious to build a submarine navv.

"The agreement," lie writes, "was never carried out, as the revolution started in Russia, which caused the Krupp directors to decide not to build the contemplated plan there. But, in the meantime, they had access to mv plans and data, even to the extent of patents pending. Unfortunately, I had not taken out' many German patents, and Krupp's attorney informed me, when it was decided not, to go ahead under the Russian agreement, that, they should continue to build t'he Lake type of boat for Germany, and bv reference to mv e'irlv plans, as submitted to Hie United States Navy Department from time to time, and the nhotosrrnnhs anil descriptions of the German boats, every designing engineer and mechanic can readily see that they are built upon the LnV-e principle.'' Therefore, what" the German naval authorities have assiduously striven to keen secret, Mr. .Rivon Lake is easily able to toll us. Nor does the treatment he has received at the Tiands of Krunp's render bun any tTie less inclined to do so. DTVTXO CHAMBER.

While the enemy submarines are all built on the submersible principle—that is, being forced under water by deflection rudders, thus overcoming their surplus buoyancy—they descend in a perfectly horizontal poise. The advantage of this is that they are always ready to discharge a torpedo, whioii is not the case with a boat that dives bows first.

There has been a great deal of speculation as to how these piratical submarines have contrived to maintain themselves for considerable speeds «,t such long distances from their home bases.

Mr. Lake quite believes in the existence of submerged oil-fuel supply ships. He further believes that tho United States Xnvy Department has successfully experimented with such a vessel.

But how is fuel to be taken from a submerged sup'pl.v ship? This i 3 one of the secrets which the. Lake Submarine Company can disclose. Their diving chamber, the plan of which Krupp's stole,, renders this, and other operations of which more directly perfectly simple.

The German submarines are provided with big steel bilge-wheels, which they can drop, and so move along the. bottom after the fashion of an aeroplane about to take flight. A hermetically sealed chamber, with a watertight door, •8 fitted to the fore part of the boat, Tielow the torpedo tube. A diver, with a safety helmet holding enough compressed air for half an hour, enters this, and shuts himself m. Tieui, bv means of a hatch, he. can drop through on the bed of the sea. Access could be had to a submerged supply ship in the, same manner and a large number of cans of liouiil fuel transferred in a comparatively short space of time. ' MTNE-LAYIXG. e have heard that the Germans intend to lav mines by means of sub. marines. With our general knowledge of these craft, as derived from pictures and published descriptions. Ave have not taken this threat very seriously. Mr. Lake, however, is convinced that, employing, the principle of his diving chamber, the Germans possess submarines especially designed for minesowing. A comparatively small craft could carry a large cargo of these infernal machines, which are naturally of a ff floaty" character.' \ 1 he antidote to the mine-sowing submarines is the mine itself. ' Such places as she would particularly single out for the work are just the spots which she might expect to find most heavily protected in this way. When the Germans sucked the brains of the American submarine inventor, they did so with characteristic thoroughness. One of the features of the Lake type—ami of the German boats—is a. mine-evading device. This consists of stout steel guards and horns projecting to a. meeting point considerably bevond ' eurving down to within a lew inches of the ground, very similarly to the cow-catcher of an American locomotive. The principal features of mv mineevading submarine," writes M r .' Simon LaKe, are the bottom wheels and living compartment: high ami water- ■ Jgh., superstructure, which is indispensable for high speed, ocean-goim; submarines; anchors, and lifting and sighting instruments. 1 '