SUBMARINES.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1915, Page 11 (Supplement)

SUBMARINES.

BUILT .FOR ALLIES IN CANADA. ALL RECORDS IN BOAT BUILDING BROKEN. How the notable achievement of building ten submarines on the American side if the Atlantic, and sending them under their power across the sea, to fight for the Allies, was accomplished was explained in detail to the New York Herald of September 0 by a man who was familiar with every phase of the enterprise from the time the contracts were let until the completed craft had arrived at the Dardanelles and off Heligoland. Tins remarkable achievement of American enterprise was related with pride in its complete, accomplishment. While the rest of the world w«9 dreaming of the day when the transAtlantic submersible would he an accomplished fact, the tiling was done by American genius and American craftsmanship. In just five months from the time that Charles M. Schwab, of the Bethlehem Steel Company, signed a contract for the submarines with the British Government, the "little vipers," as they have come to be known, were turned over to British crews at the Vicker-Maxim yards, in Montreal, where they were built jointly by the Bethlehem Steel Company and the Electric Boat Company, and started for the war zone. Five are now operating near Heligoland, behind which island the main German fleet has been hiding since the outbreak of the war. The other five are with the Allied fleets in the Dardanelles. ALL RECORDS BROKEN. All records in submarine construction were surpassed by this feat, and all records for speed and sustained effort were exceeded. Within two weeks after leaving Montreal five of the submarines were safe in the English Channel. Inside of twenty days the other five were in Turkish waters, and their commanders had reported for instant active service to the British commander of the Allied fleets, Vice Admiral de Rebeck. The construction of these craft and their dispatch to the European war zones were attended with the greatest secrecy. Tn the face of the wonderful German system pf espionage, the American workmen did their tasks unsuspected. From every standpoint the achievement is a remarkable one, and its chief value to Americans is in its demonstration of what American naval constructors can do in strengthening the national defence if called upon;

READY IN FIVE MONTHS. It was to discuss with offipers of the British Admiralty the possibility of speedy construction on the American continent of submarines that could safely cross the ocean that Mr. Schwab went to England last December. Mr. Schwab convinced the British officials that it could he done. Contracts for ten of the submersibles were signed at once. In five months the submarines were ready for delivery. That is the story in brief of the most remarkable accomplishment in naval construction since warships began to be built. It is reported that the British Admiralty was thunderstruck in May, when word was received from Mr. Schwab that the submarines were actually completed, and ready to go into commission. Such a thing had not even been dreamed of. The British officers, who observed every step in the construction of tho little undersea boats, however, reported that they were perfect in every detail, and the last word in submarine construction.

Crews were immediately sent liere, and within a few days after tbey arrived all ten of the sea terrors had passed out of the harbour, and were ploughing their way through the ocean to the war zones. They made one stop at Gibraltar, to take on extra oil and fuel in ease of emergency. It is officially reported that these extra supplies were not needed and not used.

Maintaining an average speed of a fraction more than seven nautical miles an hour, they made their way unseen to their destination. New vessels as they were, without any extensive testing to find possible weaknesses, they made their unheard-of journey without mishap.

INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY FOLLOWED. The British officers and crews were told exactly how to handle them. They obeyed instructions to the letter, and the result proves that in neither construction nor operation was the slightest miscalculation made. When Mr. Schwab returned to this country with the British contracts in his pockets, he expected to construct the submarines on United States soil, in conjunction with the Electric Boat Company, which has had much experience in building submersibles. He bumped squarely into the ruling of Mr. Bryan, then Secretary of State, that submarines for the warring Powers should not be built in this country. Because of this ruling, ten submarines which had been built for Great Britain by the Bethlehem Company at the Fore River Yards, Quincy, Mass., werp tied up. They are still tied up, and will not be delivered to the British Admiralty until the close of the present war.

Mr. Schwab was not disposed to have that sort of thing happen again. Arrangements were made to utilise the Vickers-Maxim shipbuilding yards at Montreal. No sooner was this decided upon than the great steel plant at Bethlehem, Pa., began turning out the parts, and shipping them to Montreal. Already scores of American workmen had gone there, and the work of assembling was kept right abreast with the work of production. Night and day shifts were employed, and the most extraordinary precautions were taken to protect the great secret.

SPEED AMAZES OFFICIALS. British oflicials who observed the work were amazed with the rapidity and thoroughness with which it was done, and are now unstinted in their praise of the Yankee genius that made sucii an exploit possible. In what few tests were made 0/ the submarines before they were dispatched on their long sea trip, lit was demonstrated that they could be handled with an expedition and accuracy never attained in either under or surface boats before. To this quality is attributed the fact that they all managed to work their way safely through the mine-fields off Heligoland and in Turkish waters. The ten submarines arc of the newest standard type, differing in no important detail from those under construction in this country for the United States. They are 140 ft long, and equipped with the Diesel heavy oil engines. These engines were built by the Electric Best Company At lit p&nt, tt Ntw

London, Conn. Each submarine hag four torpedo tubes, lint when they left Canada they carried no guns. It ia assumed that guns ha\e been mounted on them since, as facilities for placing light guns were provided for by the buildern. K»cl' submarine, however, curried torpedoes, and was prepared for actual hostilities. The little vessels cost uOU.OOOdoI. each. This is an usually high price for submarines of this type, and is due to the expedition with which they were built. Extra labour and extra machinery had to be provided to keep the work going twenty-four hours a day, and thia wa» added to the cost of the vessels. SUBMARINES STAKT TOGETHER. All ten of the submarines left Cana* dian waters together, and arrived at Gibralta within a few hours of one another. The five British-bound submarines arrived oil' the Irish coast a little more than a month ago. The other five reached the Dardanelles about the middle of August. One hundred thousand gallons of oil were stored aboard the vessels.

The capacity of the Bethlehem Steel Compnny, in conjunction with the Eleo" trie Boat Company, is 100 submarines a year, but it is known that this will soon be doubled, to meet the demand of the European belligerents and of the United States. In the world to-day there arc fewer than UOO submarines. Germany had between fifty and sixty at the beginning of the war, and she has been unable to do more than keep pace with lossea inflicted by the Allies. Great Britain has ninety seven submarines. She has | lost fewer than Germany, and is adding; I submarines at the rate of one a week.

The next surprise in the marine world, the cargo submarines, it is said, freight* oil with American commerce for tha Allies, will be equipped with engine* similar to those of tiie war submarines, wliich are almost the exact counterparts of the engines 'that operate elevators in the skyscrapers of a score of AraerW can cities.