A TRIP UNDER WATER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2524, 14 February 1887, Page 2

A TRIP UNDER WATER.

We mentioned recently that a torpedo boat called the Nautilus, had " been invented. for travelling under water. A reporter of tko Pall Mall r - Gazette and eight other persons recently went down in her for a trial trip to the >V ; bottom of Tilbury Dock. Narrating ' a..-; his experiences"he says:—" In a . ? piercing; north, caster it is far more • j pleaaant.at the,bottom of the Tilbury Dock' than on-lhe pier head. With twenty fivo feet-',of. water abova, on® did not feel the biting wind/whieU blew on- Monday, while tju new '(1 submarine boat w«b alteraatpaßVlng and floating, running ahead,'aSkm ' astern, .and generally showing its pao« > s - under"the critical eye -of Admiralty Ott 'tLe occasion of th» / v H previous trial of the Naatilos, Lord J / | i harles Beresford went to the bottom ' 1 J in the literal -and not the figuratiw \ ; "j sense, and on Monday Mr-WjJL } .'■ ■ White, of the Admiralty; wadapnS© ' the small party of nine (all j /!».. f f including Pall Mall Gazette 1 | tive—-which went down on anoifcer i 1 ) trial trip to the bed of the dock, »ad <' ' moved about in the eubroarine world, The experience is novel, but, | scionce, it is not Buch a fearful one \ as Borne may Imagine, Yon breath* ■ as freely as, say, in a tenement ■in :h« f Seven Dials, and with a couple of ■ incandescent lamps you have a dent i more light than in an ordinary oil-life steamer's cabin, or in,a carriage: on »•' suburban railway. *lf Jonah had biea/ ! half as comfortable he would h»T»l been in no .psrtioul&c haßte -tp get ) ashore. As to space, one is certainly ' cramped. You elbow room, and fore and aft you have slightly stooping posture; fciffimidships a man can-stand at full height. As; soon as wo, had dropped through ,tho tower or manhole-the dimensions of not; suited , : j for. j/ersoua of corpulent.proportion —we were stowed, bo to Bpeak, the length of the central chamber. The top of the tower was secured, the wheels were turned, the cylinderawere drawn in, and down we sank, quickly but almost imperceptibly, touching the bottom on an even keel. There were no unpleasant sensations except such as the imagination might supply, stimulated by the gruesome anecdotes which the novel situation suggested,to a storyteller among the company.. After a few minutes wo thought of: coming; to the surface, and bo the wheola were reversed in order to shoot out the pro* jectors. But what is the meaning of this,stiffness 1' Why are thoy So hard ' to move ?; Are we ascending ? ' No. The register shows,2sft of water overhead; /Ail/hands",(visitors included) - are.at the wheels turning with' might andjmaiu in tKs cramped position. Slowly the cylindors.aro (jriij&oted,' but ; we ire n«}t yet off the,ground, the mfid proving a stiffer obstacle than pater, 1 Was there for a a doubt of thi result 1 But at' lask .Vo . are aiovinfe Twenty feet, fifteen,' turn—five, four ( three, : -tad th<J»a a peep of daylight; through and iii a moment more I the tun chow,, through deok, : Up to thia 'tuba oleotrio engines hara heea: : btiS the word 'befog gfyehi-.tlrb | moved, emitting a flash, a'nf ih|i Krewi set to work noißles^iyi'' :, at.* moderate • pace,: /lapping of thtf'faUif 'oii 'deck, there is no noise, \ there is absolutely none. ::M6*f®i up and down, and move about s. I feet freedom, and with the greatest k comfort so far as the passengers, *ije 'll : concerned. Thiswasjof 'course in th« /! j Btaooth' water? of .tho doql^^vtif| same Bte»diriesa should end; Oiir trip-over, /•' £ in-the-box in cer fcainly'a .mncb Mn t - comfortable ednditipn ..than*nipped crowd oij the ; been watching our evolutions."-