“Observe the elements of failure. A charge destructive enough if

exploded in actual contact, but innocuous to a strongly built ship

by the accidental interposition of seven or eight feet of water, yet

held near enough to the operating vessel to place her in immediate

danger, either from the direct action of the explosion upon her thin

sides, or from her being swamped by the falling columns of water,

self-acting fuses, so arranged as to necessitate the most exposed

direction of attack, viz., the enemy’s broadside; an acid

composition sluggish enough in its action to allow time for the boat

to rebound after collision, the few feet required to render the

explosion harmless, and last, not least, a commander and crew, who,

having never fired their weapon before, were in greater terror of

their own torpedo than the enemy would have been. Can we wonder that

the conductor of this enterprise jumped overboard before the

explosion, that his little vessel had her fires extinguished and was

nearly swamped, and that the _New Ironsides_, though severely

injured, was not compelled to return into port? The crew, deserted

by their commander, relighted the fires, and brought the boat safely

into harbour.”

The first attempts of the Confederates with their submarine boat having

proved a failure, the Federal officers on the outside blockade grew

somewhat careless, and the final result of the Confederates’ efforts was

that one of the fine new vessels of the Federal fleet, the _Housatonic_,

1,264 tons, and carrying 13 guns, was destroyed in Charleston harbour on

the night of February 17, 1864.

The _David_ that accomplished this feat, unique in the annals of

submarine warfare, had been built at Mobile by Messrs. McClintock and

Howgate, and brought overland to Charleston. She had lateral fins by

which she could be raised and submerged, and ballast tanks to lighten

her and enable her to rise to the surface, though these, we read,

uniformly refused to act. She carried no reserve of air, and hence she

well deserved the name “peripatetic coffin.” She was about 60 feet long,

and elliptical in transverse section. Her crew consisted of nine men,

eight of whom propelled the vessel by operating cranks on the screw

shaft, while the ninth acted as pilot.

[Illustration:

THE “DAVID” THAT SANK THE “HOUSATONIC.”

]

It was originally designed to make the attack by passing under the keel

of a ship towing a contact torpedo, having a small reserve buoyancy.

Under favourable conditions the torpedo would be drawn under water when

the vessel descended, strike the bottom of the ship, and explode on

contact.

During her first cruise under the orders of Lieut. Payne (or Paine?) an

enemy’s vessel passed close to her without noticing her; the swill

raised by her paddles sunk the _David_, and Payne alone of all the crew

saved himself. When the boat was recovered from the bottom, Lieut. Payne

persuaded eight sailors to embark with him; a squall of wind caused the

boat to fill with water, Lieut. Payne and two bluejackets alone escaping

by leaping out of her as she went down. No sooner was the boat recovered

from the bottom than her gallant commander offered to try again. A new

crew volunteered, and all went well for a time. But one night, off Fort

Sumter, she capsized, and only four (of whom Lieut. Payne was one)

escaped.

A third time she was raised, and the next essay was made in the Cooper

River, under the lead of Mr. Aunley, one of the men who had constructed

the boat. Alas! She sank for the fourth time, having caught her nose in

the bottom, and all hands were drowned. Once more she was recovered only

to foul the cable of a schooner at anchor in the harbour, and to sink

for a fifth time.

Up to this time five crews of eight each had volunteered for service in

the ill-starred _David_, and of these forty men, no less than

thirty-five had perished. The brave Southern sailors, instead of

fighting shy of the submarine, were as ready as ever to face death

again. The _David_ was recovered, and Lieut. Dixon, with Captain

Carlson, both officers in the Confederate army, volunteered with five

others to take her out against the Northern fleet. The Federal corvette

_Housatonic_ lay outside the bar in Charleston harbour, and it was on

this vessel that on the evening of February 17, 1864, the attack was

made, an attack which is thus vividly described by Admiral David Porter,

U.S. Navy, in his book, “The Naval History of the Civil War”:—

“At about 8.45 p.m. the officer of the deck on board the unfortunate

vessel discovered something about 100 yards away, moving along the

water. It came directly towards the ship, and within two minutes of

the time it was first sighted was alongside. The cable was slipped,

the engines backed, and all hands called to quarters. But it was too

late—the torpedo struck the _Housatonic_ just forward of the

mainmast, on the starboard side, in a line with the magazine. The

man who steered her knew where the vulnerable spots of the steamer

were, and he did his work well. When the explosion took place the

ship trembled all over as if by the shock of an earthquake, and

seemed to be lifted out of the water, and then sunk stern foremost,

heeling to port as she went down. Her captain, Pickering, was

stunned and somewhat bruised by the concussion, and the order of the

day was ‘_Sauve qui peut_.’ A boat was despatched to the

_Canandaigua_, not far off, and that vessel at once responded to the

request for help, and succeeded in rescuing the greater part of the

crew. Strange to say, the _David_ was not seen after the explosion,

and was supposed to have slipped away in the confusion; but when the

_Housatonic_ was inspected by divers, the torpedo boat was found

sticking in the hole she had made, and all her crew were dead in

her. It was a reckless adventure these men had engaged in, and one

in which they could scarcely have hoped to succeed. They had tried

it once before inside the harbour, and some of the crew had been

blown overboard. How could they hope to succeed on the outside,

where the sea might be rough, when the speed of the _David_ was not

over five knots, and when they might be driven out to sea! Reckless

as it might be, it was the most sublime patriotism, and showed the

length to which men could be urged on behalf of a cause for which

they were willing to give up their lives and all they held most

dear.”

It was by deeds such as these that North and South are to-day united, as

they never were before.

When Lieutenant Hobson, during the Spanish-American war, offered to sink

the _Merrimac_ at the entrance of Santiago harbour, half the American

sailors were wild to join in the hazardous task, and if volunteers for

submarines had been requested it is certain that men would have come

forward in 1898 as they did so nobly in 1864.

[Illustration:

THE SINKING OF THE “HOUSATONIC.”

]

The _David_, that finally succeeded in sinking the _Housatonic_, proved

so costly an experiment in human lives, because she was not worked as a

submarine, but as a low freeboard surface torpedo boat, a purpose for

which she was never designed, and for which, as we have seen, she proved

dangerous and inefficient. As some one has observed, she was intended

for submerging at pleasure—her own pleasure, however, not that of her

crew. During the attack on the _Housatonic_, on February 17th, the

vessel did not run under water. The crew submerged it to the hatch

coaming and left the cover open against the protest of Mr. Howgate, who

despatched it on its mission. The attack was made by a spar torpedo, and

the wave thrown up by its explosion, when it struck the _Housatonic_,

entered the open hatchway and swamped the vessel. Most accounts of the

feat of the _David_ state that _all_ the crew were drowned. From the

following extract it would seem that the gallant captain survived the

attack.

“I remember on one occasion during the war,” wrote Hobart Pacha in

an article, “The Torpedo Scare,” appearing in _Blackwood’s Magazine_

for June, 1885, “when I was at Charleston, meeting in a coffee-room

at that place a young naval officer (a Southerner) with whom I got

into conversation. He told me that that night he was going to sink a

Northern man-of-war which was blockading the port, and invited me to

see him off. I accompanied him down to his cigar-boat, as he called

it, and found that she was a vessel about forty feet long, shaped

like a cigar, on the bow of which was placed a torpedo. On his

stepping on board with his crew of four men, his boat was immersed

till nothing but a small piece of funnel was visible. He moved off

into the darkness at no great speed—say at about five miles an hour.

The next evening, on visiting the coffee-house, I found my friend

sitting quietly smoking his pipe. He told me that he had succeeded

in making a hole in the frigate which he had attacked, which vessel

could, in fact, be seen lying in shallow water, some seven miles

off, careened over to repair damages. But he said that, on the

concussion made by firing the torpedo, the water had rushed in

through the hatches of his boat, and she had sunk to the bottom. All

his men were drowned. He said he didn’t know how he escaped himself,

but he fancied that he came up through the hatches, as he found

himself floating about, and swam on shore. This affair was

officially reported by the American blockading squadron,

corroborating the fact of the injury done to the frigate, and

stating that the torpedo-boat was got up, with four dead bodies in

her hold. Here is one system which might be utilised in naval

warfare if perfected, and I am given to understand that a submarine

torpedo-boat is already invented by Mr. Nordenfelt.”

After the sinking of the _Housatonic_ the Federals again turned their

attention to submarine warfare, and in October, 1864, some trials were

made on the Hudson with a boat named the _Stromboli_, constructed at

Fairhaven from the designs of an engineer, one Wood. It was not,

properly speaking, either a submarine or a diving boat, but by letting

in a certain quantity of water into the reservoirs it could be brought

flush with the surface, leaving only the conning tower, the chimney and

the ventilator above the waves. A steam engine propelled the _Stromboli_

at a speed of ten miles an hour, while a spar torpedo formed the

armament. On the 16th of November, 1864, the _Stromboli_ was under the

command of John Lay, and was ordered to proceed to Hampton Roads to

attack the Confederate cruisers. It appears to have arrived on the 6th

of December, but its subsequent doings are not to be discovered.

Another semi-submarine which figured in the American Civil War was the

_Sputyen Duyvil_, built by Messrs. Mallory & Co., from the plans of

Messrs. William Wood and John Lay. She was made of wood, and her

dimensions were, length 74 feet, beam 20 feet, draught 7½ feet. On going

into action she could be immersed to a depth of 9 feet in order to put

her armoured side below water, she was to fight with her deck, which was

placed with 3–in. armour, flush with the water. Amidships, and standing

about 3 feet above the deck, was a pilot house from which the boat could

be steered. The _Sputyen Duyvil_ was attached to James River’s squadron

during the year 1865, but there is no evidence that she was ever brought

into use; her torpedoes were fired on contact, and were worked through a

hollow iron boom projecting from the bow, and having inside it a rod to

which the torpedo was to be attached.

[Illustration:

THE “SPUTYEN DUYVIL.”

]

CHAPTER XIV

THE WHITEHEAD TORPEDO—“THE MOST WONDERFUL MACHINE IN THE WORLD”

“When you have been shown lovingly over a torpedo by an artificer

skilled in the working of its tricky bowels, torpedoes have a

meaning and a reality for you to the end of your days.”—RUDYARD

KIPLING.

“The next great naval war will bestow upon the torpedo and its users

a halo of romance which will eclipse entirely that surrounding the

gun and the ram.”

“The arts of shipbuilders and steel-workers stand for nothing when a

Whitehead torpedo succeeds in striking a ship’s bottom and tears and

rends it with the explosion of 200 lbs. of gun-cotton. In the hands

of ignorant or careless people the Whitehead is nearly as dangerous

to its friends as to its foes, but in the hands of skilful and

resolute men it is the most terrible engine of warfare which the

world has ever seen.”—Lieut. G. E. ARMSTRONG, in _Torpedoes and

Torpedo Vessels_.

“The spar-torpedo is the dagger which a determined man plunges into

the body of an enemy who does not protect himself with a coat of

mail; the Whitehead torpedo is the bullet which, easy to discharge

from afar, kills the enemy in its path.”—Lieut. C. ARNAULT.

Although twenty-five Federal vessels are known to have been sunk and

destroyed, and nine others more or less injured by various kinds of

torpedoes during the great war of secession, the many objections to the

employment of the spar-torpedo were only too evident. The necessarily

close proximity of the craft attacking and the ship attacked, resulted

in some cases in the destruction of the former as well as the latter,

and inventive minds therefore set to work to devise a submarine weapon

which could be discharged at the enemy from a distance. The result was

the automobile fish torpedo, an instrument of warfare which is to be

found in every navy, and the sole armament of the modern submarine boat.

In a history of under-water warfare, a description of the Whitehead

torpedo, which is in reality a crewless submarine boat, must find a

place, but a word may be said beforehand respecting the difference

between the “Mine” and the “Torpedo.”

The mine is a stationary charge of explosive contained in a case moored

beneath the surface of the water. The torpedo is a case of explosive,

which by some means or other is provided with the power of aggression,

either on or below the surface. The mine awaits the enemy, in fine,

whilst the torpedo goes to seek him. Into the details of Submarine

Mining it is not proposed to enter here.

Torpedoes are divided into two classes—(1) Uncontrollable. (2)

Controllable. Class I. comprises Projectile, Rocket, Drifting, and

Automobile torpedoes; the last named are now practically the only kind

of uncontrollable torpedo employed. In nearly all navies the “Whitehead”

is the type adopted; the German uses the “Schwartzkopff,” which differs

only from the former in that it is made of phosphor-bronze instead of

steel. Controllable torpedoes comprise Spar, Towing, Dirigible,

Locomotive and Automobile. Great Britain has adopted the Brennan

locomotive torpedo for coast defence only, and she still retains the

spar-torpedo, although it is doubtful if it would ever be used in a

naval engagement.

[Sidenote: The Whitehead Torpedo.]

Somewhere about the year 1860 an officer of the Austrian Marine

Artillery devised plans for the construction of a surface screw boat or

fire-ship, to be propelled either by a steam or hot-air engine, or by

clockwork, to be steered from the shore by means of long tiller ropes,

and to carry in its fore part a large charge of gun-cotton, the

explosion of which was effected by means of a pistol in communication

with a movable blade at the bow, and with one vertical and two

horizontal spars, so that if any of these arrangements came into contact

with the object aimed at the pistol was fired and the charge

exploded.[8] On the death of this officer, which took place before he

had time to put his ideas into practice, the pen drawings came into the

possession of Captain Lupuis, an officer of the Austrian navy. During

the sixties Captain Lupuis carried out a series of experiments with a

view of discovering a means of propelling a floating torpedo along the

surface of the water and directing it by means of ropes and guiding

lines. The forward end of the torpedo was to be charged with explosive,

and on coming in contact with a vessel it would be exploded by the

automatic firing of a pistol. The motive power was to be either steam or

clockwork. The Austrian Government, before whom he laid his plans, told

him that they could not consider them until he discovered some reliable

form of motor and a better method of steering. In the year 1864 Captain

Lupuis sought the advice and assistance of a Mr. Whitehead, at the time

manager to an engine manufacturing company at Fiume, and the result was

that the latter invented the famous locomotive torpedo that bears his

name.

Footnote 8:

A picture of this—the original idea for a locomotive torpedo—appears

in the twenty-ninth volume of the Journal of the Royal United Service

Institution.

The first Whitehead fish torpedo was produced in 1866, but it was a very

much less terrible engine of destruction than it is to-day. It was built

of steel, was 14 inches in diameter, 16 inches at the fins, and weighed

300 lbs. Its explosive charge was 18 lbs. of dynamite. The motive power

was compressed air charged to a pressure of about 700 lbs. to the square

inch, and the air chamber was made of ordinary boiler plates. The speed

was only six knots for a short distance. Mr. Whitehead’s design was a

great improvement on Captain Lupuis’s. It ran beneath the waves, it was

independent of outside aid when once started, and its motive power was

superior both to steam and clockwork. Still it was by no means a

perfectly reliable weapon, and its great fault was that it failed to

keep a uniform depth in the water.

By 1868 Mr. Whitehead had invented the “Balance” Chamber, which has

since proved a very effective means of controlling the depth of the

torpedo. In 1868 a committee of Austrian naval officers experimented

with two Whiteheads whose dimensions were as follows:—

Small. Large.

ft. in. ft. in.

Length 11 7 14 1

Maximum diameter 0 14 0 16

lbs. lbs.

Weight 346 650

Charge (gun-cotton) 40 60

The trials were carried out at Fiume; the Austrian gunboat _Genese_ was

handed over to Mr. Whitehead to fit with a bow ejecting tube, and the

target consisted of the yacht _Fantasie_. The result was the adoption of

the Whitehead by the Austrian Government in 1868.

Although the Austrian Government purchased the secret of the Whitehead

torpedo, they were unable to secure the exclusive right of manufacture.

On the invitation of the English Admiralty, Mr. Whitehead came to

England in 1870, bringing with him two torpedoes and a submerged tube.

The first two English torpedoes were of two sizes and of the following

dimensions:—

Length. Max. diam. Charge.

ft. in. in.

No. 1. Large size 14 0 16 67 lbs. gun-cotton.

No. 2. Small size 13 10½ 14 18 lbs. dynamite.

The trials were carried out on board the _Oberon_, an old paddle-wheel

sloop. Over 100 runs were made and the average speed obtained was 8·5

knots for a distance of 200 yards, and 7·5 knots for 600 yards. The

balance chamber proved capable of keeping the torpedo at the required

depth, although at times it behaved in an erratic fashion. After the

trials, the committee of investigation reported that in their opinion

“any maritime nation failing to provide itself with submarine locomotive

torpedoes, would be neglecting a great source of power both for offence

and defence.” Acting on this verdict the English Government, in April,

1871, purchased the secret and right of manufacture of the Whitehead

torpedo for £15,000.

Naturally certain conservative officers, incapable of recognising the

possibility of improvement in the weapons of naval warfare, sneered at

the torpedo, but their scorn had little effect, and in a short time all

the great navies of the world had adopted the Whitehead or some similar

form of fish torpedo. One instance will be sufficient to show that naval

men failed in many cases to realise the potential value of this

instrument of destruction.

Commander W. Dawson, R.N., in a paper read before the Royal United

Service Institution, commenting on the drawbacks of the Whitehead,

remarked that he did not attach much value to self-contained powers of

locomotion in submarine projectiles, and said that he believed that

progress must be looked for in modification of the outrigger and the

towing torpedoes which were free from complicated mechanism, simple in

their application, and above all safe to the operators and to friendly

vessels.

In 1876 Mr. Whitehead produced an improved torpedo. It had a diameter of

only 14 inches, a speed of 18 knots for a distance of 600 yards, and a

charge of 26 lbs. of gun-cotton. It was fitted for the first time with

the “servo-motor,” which, as Lieutenant Armstrong remarks, makes the

steering almost as perfect as if a mannikin helmsman were steering the

torpedo from the inside. In 1884 it was still further improved. The

speed was raised to 24 knots and the explosive charge was increased. In

1889 the speed was again raised to 29 knots for 1,000 yards, and the

charge was 200 lbs. of gun-cotton.

The Whitehead torpedoes carried in His Majesty’s ships to-day are of two

dimensions:—

Diameter. Speed. Range. Charge.

in. kts. yds.

A 18 32 600 200 lbs. gun-cotton

B 14 30 600 80 lbs. gun-cotton

Several different patterns of Whitehead torpedoes are turned out at the

various factories, but they all resemble each other in their main

characteristics.

[Illustration:

MARK IX., R.G.F., FOURTEEN INCH WHITEHEAD TORPEDO.

]

The “baby,” as the seaman calls it, is a cigar-shaped object made of

steel or of phosphor-bronze. It is divided into compartments, and in the

foremost of these is placed in war time the explosive charge. At the

head is the end of a pointed rod penetrating the explosive, and when the

torpedo comes into contact with a solid object, the point of the rod is

driven in against a detonator which explodes the charge and tears a hole

in the ship’s bottom. Abaft the explosive chamber comes the air chamber;

herein is stored the compressed air which acts as the motive power of

the torpedo. Behind this is the balance chamber, where all the automatic

steering apparatus is fixed. Abaft this are the engines; these are

worked by the compressed air from the air chamber and revolve a shaft,

on to the end of which are two screw-propellers working in opposite

directions. Furthest aft of all is another hollow air compartment termed

the buoyancy chamber. There are four rudders, two horizontal for

steering from right to left, and two vertical for maintaining the proper

depth.

One might be forgiven for thinking that the narrower the fore part of

the torpedo the faster would be its speed; a study of fishes shows,

however, that this is not Nature’s principle, and the Whitehead is

therefore thicker at the fore than at the tail; technically, it has “a

full entrance with a very fine run.” The Whitehead is divided into eight

sections, containing:—

1. The firing arrangement.

2. The explosive chamber.

3. The air chamber.

4. The “balance” chamber.

5. The engine chamber.

6. The buoyancy chamber.

7. The bevel wheel chamber.

8. The horizontal and vertical rudders and propellers.

1 AND 2. THE FIRING ARRANGEMENT AND EXPLOSIVE CHAMBER.

At the head of the _Whitehead_ is the end of a pointed steel rod

which penetrates the chamber containing the explosive. When the

torpedo’s nose comes into contact with a ship’s side, or in fact any

rigid object, the point of this rod is driven in against a detonator

cap inserted in the centre of the charge: the immediate result is an

explosion sufficient to tear a large hole in the ship’s hull. The

detonator is fulminate of mercury, which, when ignited by a sudden

blow, expands to about 2,500 times its own size. The sudden

expansion gives such a severe blow to the gun-cotton around it that

it at once explodes. Special precautions have to be taken to prevent

the torpedo from damaging the ship from which it is fired: it might

happen through carelessness that a lieutenant would fire one with

the port closed, and so three checks are provided. The rod is so

arranged that it cannot go back until a small “collar” with

propeller fans on it has revolved off. When the torpedo enters the

water the fans begin to turn, and when it has run some 30 yards the

collar is worked off. Even then the charge will not explode unless

the blow to the rod is severe enough to shear off a little copper

pin standing in the way. Lastly there is a third precaution in the

shape of a safety pin which holds the collar fixed until it is

withdrawn at the last moment as the torpedo is launched into the

tube.

It happened in the Russo-Turkish war that a Russian lieutenant in

command of a torpedo-boat forgot to haul out the “safety pin” and

the consequence was that though the torpedo reached the target it

failed to explode. From what has been said it will be understood

that torpedo warfare is not quite so simple as it looks. In time of

peace the torpedo is not fitted with its war head, and so for daily

purposes a steel dummy head is used, while there is an arrangement

that causes it to rise to the surface on completion of their run. To

facilitate its recovery, a “Holme’s light” is carried on to the

head. This consists of an arrow-headed tin canister pierced with

tubes and full of phosphide of calcium, which on contact with the

water gives out both a strong light and a strong smell.

3. THE AIR CHAMBER.

This contains the motive power of the torpedo and it comes just

behind the explosive chamber. The air is compressed into the

compartment by means of air-compressing pumps fitted on board ship,

and the latest types are tested to a pressure of 1,700 lbs. to the

square inch.

4. THE BALANCE CHAMBER.

Next the air chamber comes the balance, or secret chamber, although

the secret is now universally known. Here is contained the mechanism

for automatically transmitting to the horizontal rudders the

movements necessary for keeping the torpedo at a uniform and

pre-arranged depth below the surface during its run. It consists of

a hydrostatic valve and a pendulum whose combined movements are

transmitted to an air cylinder called a “servo-motor,” placed in the

engine room. The hydrostatic valve is kept in its place by a spring

that is forced in by the pressure of the water when the torpedo goes

below a certain depth to which the valve has previously been

adjusted. If the pressure be less than that of the set depth the

opposite action takes place. This valve is connected with the

servo-motor, which in its turn acts on the horizontal rudders. The

pendulum consists of a heavy iron weight curved to correspond with

the circular section of the torpedo and suspended by the pivoted

steel rods or arms. It swings in a fore and aft direction and is

connected by rods to the rudder for a certain distance after the

discharge of the torpedo. A controlling gear is provided which keeps

the rudders fixed. It will thus be seen that by the combined actions

of the hydrostatic valve and the pendulum the Whitehead, after

leaving the tube, is brought to the proper depth very rapidly and is

held at this depth throughout her run. Both these devices are

necessary, as the torpedo has a great tendency to run down an

inclined plane at great speed, and this requires to be checked. In

addition the balance chamber contains various valves (the stop

valve, the charging valve, the starting valve, the delay action

valve and the reducing valve) through which the air passes on its

way to the engines from the air chamber.

5. THE ENGINE ROOM.

Inside the engine room are the propelling engines and the

servo-motor. The engines are of the single-acting three-cylinder

Brotherhood type. The compressed air, after leaving the air

reservoir, passes through the main pipe to the pressure-reducing

valve. In the latest pattern 18 inch Whitehead the indicated horse

power is 56. The torpedo is started by means of a trigger which

projects a little beyond the casing of the torpedo, and which

automatically opens the starting valve when the torpedo is fired,

the trigger just before leaving the tube is caught by a catch in the

tube which draws it back when the catch releases itself.

THE SERVO-MOTOR.

This ingenious apparatus was called into existence owing to the fact

that the mechanism of the balance chamber was unable, through its

feeble power, to work the horizontal rudders of the faster

Whiteheads direct. The servo-motor is, then, the air engine from

which is derived the power to move the diving rudders. It is only

about 4 inches long, but so great is its power that with only

half-an-ounce pressure on the slide valve the piston is capable of

lifting 180 lbs. It consists of a cylinder, a piston, and a

cylindrical slide valve. Its balance mechanism acts on the slide

valve of the servo-motor, and this acts on the piston, and the

motion of the piston is transmitted to the diving rudders by means

of a rod and a system of levers.

6. THE BUOYANCY CHAMBER.

Abaft the engine room is the buoyancy chamber which gives the

necessary buoyancy to the torpedo: to guard against the collapse of

the chamber flat steel rings are fitted into it for support. In the

“Tail,” the rearmost compartments of the torpedo, are carried the

bevel wheel mechanism, the vertical and horizontal rudders and the

propellers, and the counter mechanism for adjusting the length of

run.

THE GYROSCOPE.

From the foregoing description of the many devices employed to enable

the Whitehead to accomplish the tasks for which it is intended, it might

be thought that everything that science could imagine has been done to

ensure its efficiency. There still, however, remained one great drawback

to the efficiency of the torpedo, and this was its deflection from right

to left, which was often so serious as to prevent it from striking the

object at which it was aimed. The hydrostatic valve and the pendulum

were sufficient to keep the torpedo at the required depth without

diverging from her true vertical course, but it was apt to swerve from

its course in a right or left direction either by reason of the blow it

received on striking the water, by dents on its shell, by air leakage,

or other causes. An error of only one degree in its course means a

lateral error of nearly 50 feet at 800 yards, and it was in order to

prevent the deflection of the Whitehead out of the line of fire that the

principle of the gyroscope has been applied to the torpedo. In addition

to her pair of ordinary vertical rudders, which may be set to any angle

up to 20 degrees by means of a clamping screw, the torpedo carries a

pair of movable vertical rudders placed in recesses in the vertical fins

and controlled by the gyroscope through a servo-motor. The ordinary

vertical rudders are usually discarded if the latter are carried.

[Illustration:

_Photos by_] [_West & Co._

THE FIRING OF A WHITEHEAD TORPEDO.

]

In a manifesto issued in July, 1901, the Navy League declared that owing

to the lack of prevision no adequate provision for gyroscopes and other

“essentials of efficient fighting” had been made. Soon afterwards, in

the House of Commons, Mr. Arnold Forster, referring to the condition of

the navy, remarked that the gyroscope was an exceedingly complicated and

beautiful appliance, which from its nature and mechanism you could not

get by sending round the corner. Its manufacture, he said, was a long

process, involving considerable skilled labour, but still it had been

carried out with unremitting zeal, and a great many vessels were

supplied with them, He assured the House that there had been no

relaxation in the effort to provide all torpedoes with this necessary

and desirable accomplishment.

The working of the gyroscope as applied to the Whitehead torpedo may now

be described. In the centre of the lower part of the buoyancy chamber is

placed a small heavy-rimmed flywheel or gyroscope about 1¾ lbs. in

weight, carefully suspended on gymbals (like a ship’s compass) in a

vertical position and transverse to the axis of the torpedo. The

apparatus is “set” by winding up a strong spring, and the action of

firing the torpedo from the tube releases the spring and causes the

gyroscope to spin round at a rate of about 2,200 revolutions a minute.

The use of the gyroscope is based on the fact that if a wheel be set

spinning on its axis with any considerable velocity, it will always tend

to revolve in the same place to which it is set spinning. The gyroscope

works a servo-motor, which in its turn works a pair of movable vertical

rudders, and the slightest deviation from the direction in which the

torpedo was originally fired causes the gyroscope to move the rudders

and bring back the torpedo to its pre-determined course. Thanks to the

hydrostatic valve, the pendulum, and the gyroscope, the Whitehead

torpedo is almost certain to hit the object at which it is aimed. In

peace manœuvres the Whitehead has often been run absolutely dead

straight, with no divergence either up or down, or from right to left,

to a distance of 2,000 yards. In 1890 the range of the Whitehead (Mark X

R.L.) was officially placed at 800 yards, so the value of the gyroscope

is quite evident.

Torpedoes are fired in four ways—

1. By submerged tubes.

2. By above-water tubes.

3. By revolving tubes.

4. By boat’s “dropping gear.”

The torpedo is blown out of the tube either by compressed air suddenly

injected into the rear end, or by an impulse charge of a few ounces of

powder, usually cordite. The air pressure varies from 300 to 600 lbs. to

the square inch, and the powder charge from 4 oz. to 6½ oz. Submerged

tubes are of course tubes below the water-line, and all the most recent

ships are fitted with these, as their advantages over above-water tubes

are universally recognised. After the Chino-Japanese war all

governments, when demanding designs for new warships, made it almost a

_sine qua non_ that the torpedoes should be discharged from below water.

In firing torpedoes from above-water tubes the torpedo is liable to be

hit by the enemy, and it is generally considered that if the tube be hit

by even a small projectile it must inevitably explode; the submerged

tube affords protection both to the men and the weapon, while the

torpedo is less deflected on entering the water. The weight of the

submerged tube is some 7 tons, 2 tons more than an above-water one. In

order to avoid any possibility of the Whitehead inflicting injury on the

vessel firing it, and in order that it may be as little deflected as

possible, a guiding bar is run out of the tube by means of pneumatic

power when the torpedo has been placed in it. The guiding bar holds and

guides the torpedo until quite clear of the ship, when by means of a

secret apparatus it releases the torpedo at the end simultaneously;

without this arrangement the torpedo would be enormously deflected

towards the stern directly it began to leave the tube, and would

probably strike the ship from which it had just been fired.

Revolving tubes are carried either singly or in pairs on board

torpedo-boats and destroyers, and the torpedoes are fired from them by

powder impulse only. “Dropping gear” is only used on second-class

torpedo boats and picket boats. It consists of a pair of clip tongs

suspended from pivoted davits; the tongs being opened, the torpedo falls

into the water, the engines are set in motion, and it speeds off to do

its deadly work. The torpedoes for the English Admiralty are made at the

Royal Gun Factory, by Messrs. Greenwood and Batley, of Leeds, and by Mr.

Whitehead’s factory at Portland.

Mr. Whitehead has another factory at Fiume, whence he supplies almost

all the Great Powers with his torpedoes. In time of war the torpedo

would be discharged by an officer in the conning tower; by the aid of a

torpedo directory he would make the necessary adjustments and would fire

the torpedo down below by pressing his hand on an electric key, thus

completing a circuit connected with the firing apparatus in the tube.

[Illustration:

A BRITISH DESTROYER.

]

CHAPTER XV

THE NORDENFELT SUBMARINES

About the year 1878 a gentleman in holy orders, Mr. Garrett by name,

designed a submarine boat, which was built by Messrs. Cochrane, of

Liverpool. It was 45 feet long, of the shape of two cones, with a

central cylindrical portion. This vessel, to which the name of

_Resurgam_ was given, was tried in the Birkenhead Float in 1879. It

descended by means of pistons which varied the displacement of the boat

by being drawn in and pushed out, as well as by central rudders which

steered it up and down. Compressed-air tanks were provided, and

chemicals were stored to purify the air after use.

Soon after a larger boat was constructed in which steam replaced manual

labour as the motive power; when about to sink the chimney was removed

and an air-tight stopper fitted on the opening to the up-take; the

furnace mouths were similarly closed by doors, like those of a gas

retort, and the boat sank. Power was supplied on Lamm’s system by the

hot water in the boiler. After a number of experiments she was finally

lost off the Welsh coast.

The attention of Mr. Thorsten Nordenfelt (the inventor of the gun which

bears his name) was directed to Mr. Garrett’s design, and the result was

that he decided to build a submarine vessel himself. He acknowledged

that the negative experience gained during the trials of the Garrett

boat had been of advantage to him in avoiding the faults which made that

boat unsuccessful.

[Sidenote: Nordenfelt I.]

Mr. Nordenfelt’s first submarine boat was built at Stockholm, and was

tried in the Sound of Landskrova, in Sweden, in September, 1885, in the

presence of delegates from most of the leading Governments.

Its dimensions and details were as follows: Length 64 feet, beam 9

feet (over sponsons 12 feet), draught 11 feet, displacement 60 tons;

speed on measured mile 9 knots; distance travelled without

re-coaling 150 miles; depth to which safe descent was possible,

about 50 feet. Engines, surface condensing compound type, with two

cylinders and cranks at 90°; at pressure of 100 lbs. to square inch,

indicating 100 horse-power. Boiler of ordinary marine return tube

type, having one furnace, and about 200 square feet of heating

surface; two hot-water cisterns, rhomboidal in body with spherical

ends. The boilers and cisterns contained about eight tons of water.

Both boilers and cisterns were made for a working pressure of 150

lbs. to square inch. One fish torpedo, 14 feet long, was carried

outside on the bow and discharged mechanically. The sinking

apparatus consisted of two vertical propellers driven by a 6–h.p.

double-cylinder engine, and placed in sponsons on each side of the

boat. The revolution of these caused the boat to descend

horizontally when its buoyancy had been sufficiently diminished.

There was one cold-water tank in the centre of boat, holding about

four tons of water, for regulating buoyancy. This tank was used as

coal bunker when doing long surface runs. In the stern was a

four-bladed propeller 5 feet in diameter, and the rudder for port

and starboard steering was placed aft of this propeller.

In the bow on either side were balanced rudders on one and the same

axle, always maintained in the horizontal position. The crew

consisted of three men, and when the boat was closed up there was

sufficient air to supply three men for six hours without causing

discomfort, and this was not supplemented by any storage of

compressed air or restorative chemicals. The depth below the surface

at which the boat travelled could be varied in two ways; either by

varying the speed of the vertical propellers, or by reducing the

speed of the engines driving them by an automatic valve controlling

the steam supply. On the surface the boat was driven by working the

boiler in the usual manner, and the temperature of the water in the

cisterns was kept up to a degree corresponding to a steam pressure

of 150 lbs. When it was desired to descend, the ashpit and fire door

were closed, as also the funnel inside the boat, and the vertical

propellers were started. For sub-surface travelling there was

available, as propelling power, the steam given off by the heated

water (about eight tons), and this was found sufficient for a

distance of 14 knots; on one occasion, when the boat was opened up,

there was still over 20 lbs. pressure in the boiler.

[Sidenote: Nordenfelt II.]

Mr. Nordenfelt recognised that for the defence of open coasts and for

operations where it might be necessary to keep the sea for days together

without being able to seek the shelter of inlets or the mouths of

rivers, other and larger proportions than those of his first 64

foot-boat would be desirable.

He accordingly constructed a boat on such larger lines, the details of

which are as follows:—

Length 100 feet, beam 12 feet, displacement 160 tons, speed on

measured mile 12 knots, distance travelled without re-coaling 900

miles, depth to which descent could safely be made, about 50 feet.

Engines, surface condensing compound type, with two cylinders, and

cranks at 90°, and at a pressure of 100 lbs. of steam indicating 250

h.p. Boiler, of the ordinary marine return tube type, having two

furnaces; about 750 square feet of heating surface. Hot-water

cistern, rhomboidal in body with spherical ends. Both boiler and

cistern made for a working pressure of 150 lbs. per square inch.

Armament, two fish torpedoes, 14 feet long, carried outside on the

bow and discharged mechanically. Two Nordenfelt quick-firing machine

guns consisting of 1–inch calibre. Sinking apparatus, two _vertical_

propellers, driven by two engines, each indicating 6 h.p.; these

propellers were placed in the fore and aft line. This was an

improvement on the earlier boat whose screws were fitted in side

sponsons. The mere arrest of these propellers sufficed to bring the

boat to the surface, as it had a reserve buoyancy. Bow fins, whose

action was both automatic and controllable, maintained the boat in

the horizontal position. The main propeller was placed abaft the

rudder. Two main cold-water cisterns placed at each end, and

containing 15 tons of water each, also one in centre of boat for

regulating buoyancy containing 7 tons; coal bunkers on the side of

boiler; 8 tons of coal carried at the side of hot-water cistern and

in middle of boat. Crew, three men in a watch: two watches carried.

With coal in the bunkers only, this boat could keep the sea for five

days or more. No attempt was made to purify the air when submerged.

When descending, the boat was perfectly horizontal, and was

invariably kept so when moving under water by means of the bow

rudders operated by a plumb weight.

[Illustration:

“NORDENFELT II.” RUNNING AWASH.

]

Nordenfelt II. had two distinct conditions of existence as a torpedo

craft—that of a surface boat and a submarine one. The sinking operations

were as follows: the furnaces were hermetically closed, upon which

combustion was soon brought to an end. The piece of funnel connecting

the boiler with the outward portion was then removed and the doors

placed in position. Whilst these changes were being effected, water was

allowed to run into the ballast tanks to reduce the buoyancy to its

proper limit, and this arrived at, nothing remained but to close up the

conning tower and to set in motion the vertically acting screws to place

the boat quite out of sight.

In a paper which he read before the Royal United Service Institution, on

February 5, 1886, Major-General Sir Andrew Clarke in the chair, Mr.

Nordenfelt after mentioning previous under-water vessels, gave his views

as to the reason of their failure.

First of all he said they were always built too small and too weak.

The longest was 45 feet, and their small dimensions and weak plates

made them useless in bad weather and dangerous for submersion; the

small air space available forced the crew to use chemical means to

obtain pure air. Secondly, they were never made for firing a fish

torpedo; consequently they had to endeavour to fix a mine to the

bottom of a vessel, a feat which Mr. Nordenfelt considered

impracticable, owing to the risk of contact with the vessel, which,

especially if it were pitching or moving, might easily destroy the

boat. Thirdly, in all the early boats, the mines were charged with

only black powder, the effect of which was less destructive than

that of the gun-cotton or dynamite in the fish torpedoes. The effect

of the explosion, again, against a wooden ship, was nothing like as

serious as against the thin bottom plates of an ironclad. Fourthly,

all the boats hitherto in use were propelled by hand power; this

gave too much hard work to the crew, who could not take the boat any

distance on the surface previous to the actual attack, and made it

quite impossible for it to face any rough weather. In the Nordenfelt

boat the use of steam diminished the number of men, and they had so

little to do when below the surface that the temperature, lower than

in modern stokeholes, was no detriment. Fifthly, all previous boats

had most unreliable means of descending and ascending. The descent

by steering downwards in the American boats of the Civil War period

was quite as dangerous as the attempts before and after that time to

lower and raise the boats and to keep them steady at any desired

depth, by means of increasing and decreasing the weight of the boats

by more or less water-ballast or by altering their displacement.

None of these boats used the principle which Mr. Nordenfelt applied to

pull his boat down by mechanical means, while relying upon its always

retained buoyancy for rising; so that if the mechanical apparatus failed

the boat rose at once to the surface. Again, they did not have the

tendency to steadiness given by the two forces of constant pulling down

by the vertical screws, acting all the time, whether still or moving,

against the pulling upwards caused by the buoyancy.

Mr. Nordenfelt considered it most dangerous to rely upon a detachable

weight in case of emergency, as the apparatus for detaching it would be

always liable to fail. He confessed that he could not imagine how the

longitudinal instability of a submerged boat could possibly have been

satisfactorily controlled by any of the means applied to the previous

boats. Even Goubet’s system of moving water or weights fore and aft

inside the boat must act more slowly and cause more diving and

oscillation than his rudders which always remained in the horizontal,

and thus controlled the slightest tendency of the boat to get out of the

longitudinally horizontal position. He considered it absolutely

essential to keep the boat horizontal when moving, as he believed that

any inclination downwards with the impetus of a heavy boat would almost

to a certainty carry the boat below its safe depth before it could be

effectually counteracted by shifting weights.

The reason which led Mr. Nordenfelt to construct his submarine boats was

the almost insuperable difficulty in carrying the Whitehead and

Schwarzkopf fish torpedoes with any degree of certainty up to the short

distance at which they could be considered infallibly effective. It

seemed to him that a much greater chance would be given for carrying the

torpedoes within striking distance, if, instead of trying to rush the

distance by many boats, all the time exposed to the destructive fire

from machine guns, he could carry the torpedo secretly up to this

distance without the probability of being seen at all, and without any

probability of being struck by the enemy’s shot even if seen.

The tactics to be adopted by his submarines in action were thus laid

down by Mr. Nordenfelt. Out of sight of the enemy the vessel ran on the

surface with its cupola and about three feet of its turtle back out of

water, but by forced draught, blowing out its smoke under the surface.

When she arrived within such distance of the enemy that she might be

discovered, she descended into the water so far that the cupola alone

appeared above the waves, this was done by taking in water into the

cold-water tanks sufficient to reduce the floatability to what the

horizontal screws were capable of overpowering. The “reduced

floatability” was never done away with, but the descent from the “awash”

position was effected by starting the vertical screws, thus overcoming

mechanically the buoyancy of the boat, which was pulled down to a less

or greater depth depending upon the speed given to the screws.

The three main points in Mr. Nordenfelt’s system on which he laid

special stress were these:

1. That by using water as the means of storing up energy he was in

possession of a reservoir which could never get out of order, and which

could be replaced at any hour in any part of the world, and without any

extraneous assistance from shore or other ships. The reason of all

others which at once decided him to adopt the hot-water system was the

enormous factor of safety obtained by his being able to blow out, by

steam pressure without the use of machinery, large weights of water

which would lighten the boat and counteract any leak likely to occur.

Mr. Nordenfelt had little faith in electricity as a motive power, which

is not surprising considering the accumulators then in use.

2. The submerging the boat by mechanical means: Mr. Nordenfelt was

convinced that previous attempts had proved unsuccessful, mainly because

either they depended upon varying the displacement of the boat by taking

in water to submerge her and to regulate the depth at which they desired

to operate, or they descended by steering downwards. His objection to

the first-named method of descending, by taking in water and thus

increasing the specific gravity of the boat, was that practically there

was no difference in the specific gravity of water on the surface or at

50 feet depth; thus when the boat had lost its buoyancy at the surface

it had also no buoyancy at any given depth, and the risk was thus very

great of suddenly descending beyond a safe depth.

3. The horizontal position Mr. Nordenfelt found to be a _sine qua non_

for a submarine boat.

When Mr. Nordenfelt built his boats electric accumulators were very much

inferior to those of to-day; no designer of an under-water vessel would

think nowadays of using the steam given off by heated water for

under-water propulsion. As to his theory that a submarine boat must

always descend on an even keel, this has since proved to be entirely

erroneous; the modern diving torpedo boat goes down at an angle and is

brought to the horizontal position at the required depth either

automatically or by hand-worked mechanism.

[Illustration:

“NORDENFELT II.” AT CONSTANTINOPLE.

]

During her trials _Nordenfelt I._ hardly did herself justice, but

nevertheless in the beginning of 1886, she was bought by the Greek

Government, and in April, 1886, trials took place in the Bay of Salamis,

when Mr. Nordenfelt’s agent carried out the various conditions imposed.

Shortly after the first boat had been bought by Greece, Turkey ordered

two submarine boats (_Nordenfelt II._ and _III._) from the inventor.

Both boats were sent to Turkey in sections, but only one was assembled

and tested. In 1887 it underwent trials at Constantinople, which were

witnessed by the Sultan himself, who expressed himself highly satisfied

with the performance of the boat.

[Sidenote: Nordenfelt IV.]

Mr. Nordenfelt’s fourth vessel was built by the Barrow Ship Building

Company, the machinery being supplied by Messrs. Plenty & Sons, Newbury.

The principal dimensions were: Length, 125 feet; diameter, 12 feet;

displacement fully immersed, 245 tons; in light surface condition,

160 tons. The engines turning the main propeller were especially

designed for using steam at varying pressures, and indicated 1,000

h.p. when working with steam at a pressure of 150 lbs. At that power

her estimated speed was 15 knots. Submerged, her speed was 5 knots.

Fourteen auxiliary engines were carried for driving air circulating

and feed pumps for steering and sinking. In the middle was the

entrance to the stokehole through a scuttle 4 feet in diameter. Fore

and aft of this scuttle were two funnels, and about 30 feet from the

stem and stern of the boat were the conning towers, 2 feet high and

of the same diameter. They were of 1–inch steel and were considered

perfectly impervious to any shot which in warfare would ever be

directed against them. In the forward tower were placed at the hands

of a commander means of controlling every motion of the vessel. The

boat was divided into five compartments: (1) The torpedo chamber

containing two tubes; (2) Quarters for four officers; (3) The boiler

room; (4) The engine room; (5) The men’s quarters, cooking galley,

stoves, &c. The crew consisted of nine men all told; 35 tons of cold

water were carried in the tanks; and 27 tons of hot water in the

boilers. These latter were expected to store sufficient heat for a

run of 20 knots under water. The coal bunkers held stores of coal

which, at a speed of 8–9 knots, could drive the boat a distance of

1,000 miles. Should it be necessary to transport her to a greater

distance, her water tanks could be filled with coal, enabling her to

steam 2,500 miles. Two vertical propellers, one forward and one aft,

kept the vessel submerged and overcame the retained force of

buoyancy (500 lbs.). The boat was lighted by candles; without any

special provision of air it contained enough for a crew of nine men

for about six hours.

_Nordenfelt IV._ made her passage from Barrow-in-Furness to Southampton

through some heavy seas, and during the voyage she was tested by her

commander in every wind and every condition of wave and sea, and she

proved that she was capable of being manœuvred in any weather, however

bad.

On the 26th of May, 1887, she underwent her first examination before a

body of critics, composed for the most part of skilled, experienced

scientific officers of both branches of the Service. She was first run

with nothing above water save the two conning towers and a few inches of

her back, at the rate of about six miles an hour. The time occupied by

the trial in the awash condition was 1½ hours, and at the end of the

time a sufficiency of steam was stored up in the boilers to drive her a

distance of about 24 miles. On the pumps being put in motion, some 20

tons of water were pumped out in eight minutes. The funnels were then

fixed, the fires relighted, and the _Nordenfelt_ was soon making 15

knots on the surface.

On December 19, 1887, a semi-official trial of the _Nordenfelt_ took

place, when she manœuvred successfully both on the surface and

submerged, but no attempt was made to fire the torpedoes.

“The neutral tint she was painted,” wrote the special correspondent of

the _Engineer_, “rendered her almost invisible at the distance of even a

few hundred yards, while as a target she presented nothing to attack

save the two conning towers and a few inches of her turtle back, and as

these were of great strength and rendered still more invulnerable by

their shape, it is all but certain that no gun carried on any other

torpedo boat would ever do her the slightest injury, while she at the

same time possesses the enormous advantage of being able to attack

without smoke, or fire, or noise. Indeed, given these advantages of a

minimum of target and a total absence of noise and smoke, we fail to see

what more could be desired in any vessel of war.”

In a leading article in the issue of December 23, 1887, the _Engineer_

said: “We may—we hope we shall—have quite a little fleet of

_Nordenfelts_ when Christmas comes round again. When once Columbus had

shown the way to America, the water was freely traversed.”

The correspondent of the _Army and Navy Gazette_ said that the

_Nordenfelt_ had a great and assured future before it, that with a gun

or two on her turtle back, and working as an above-water torpedo boat,

she certainly possessed many advantages over the ordinary first-class

torpedo boat, and that her powers of submersing should make her the more

valuable craft, the cost being the same. “It is not likely or advisable

that a number of such boats should be at once built, but the country

which can give £100,000 for a Brennan torpedo would do well to further,

in every possible manner, trials and experiments with a boat so simple,

yet possessing such possibilities in the future.”

It will be very naturally wondered why, in spite of these favourable

opinions, the _Nordenfelt_ was so soon forgotten. The answer may be

found in some recent issues of the _Engineer_. This journal published,

during the years 1886–1888, all the information that was suffered to

leak out concerning the experiments with the Nordenfelt boats. In 1901,

by the courtesy of Mr. P. W. D’Alton (now Chief Engineer to the Central

London Railway), who was associated with Mr. Garrett and Mr. Nordenfelt,

it was enabled to state much more than had hitherto been made public.

Taking first the Turkish boat, it was easily proved that as a boat

working near the surface, but not wholly submerged, she was fast,

manageable, and a very dangerous foe because of the difficulty of

finding her, and the very small mark which she offered.

As a submarine boat, she was entirely a failure.

“She had the fault of all submarine boats, viz., a total lack of

longitudinal stability. All submarines are practically devoid of

weight when under water. The _Nordenfelt_, for example, weighed by a

couple of hundredweights less than nothing when submerged, and had

to be kept down by screw-propellers provided for the purpose. The

Turkish boat was submerged by admitting water to tanks aided by

horizontal propellers, and raised by blowing the ballast out again

and reversing the propellers. Nothing could be imagined more

unstable than this Turkish boat. The moment she left the horizontal

position the water in her boiler and the tanks surged forward and

backwards and increased the angle of inclination. She was

perpetually working up and down like a scale beam, and no human

vigilance could keep her on an even keel for half a minute at a

time. Once, and we believe only once, she fired a torpedo with the

result that she as nearly as possible stood up vertically on her

tail and proceeded to plunge to the bottom stern first. On another

occasion all hands were nearly lost. Mr. Garrett was in the little

conning tower. The boat was being slowly submerged—an operation of

the utmost delicacy—before a committee of Ottoman officers, when a

boat came alongside without warning. Her wash sent a considerable

quantity of water down the conning tower, the lid of which was not

closed, and the submarine boat instantly began to sink like a stone.

Fortunately Mr. Garrett got the lid closed just in time, and Mr.

Lawrie, the engineer, without waiting for orders, blew some water

ballast out. It was an exceedingly narrow escape. In spite of these

difficulties, the Ottoman officers were so impressed that the

Turkish Government bought the boat. It goes without saying that it

was only with the greatest difficulty the price was extracted from

the Sultan’s treasury. But no use whatever has been made of her, and

she lies rotting away in Constantinople, unless, indeed, she has

found her way piecemeal to the marine-store dealers. A paramount

difficulty in the way of utilising her was that no engineers could

be got to serve in her. If men were appointed they promptly

deserted. Indeed, it may be taken as certain that not one man in

five hundred is fit to take charge of any submarine boat.”

The _Engineer_ is not less severe on _Nordenfelt IV._

“To all intents and purposes the _Nordenfelt_ was a total failure as

a submarine boat. She began badly. As soon as she was launched from

the stocks at Barrow it was seen that a mistake had been made in

calculating weight, as she was down by the stern, drawing 9 feet aft

and about 4 feet 6 inches forward. This would have been partially

rectified by her torpedoes, but she never had one on board. Extra

ballast had to be put in forward, and it was always held, rightly or

wrongly, that this made it all the more difficult to keep her on an

even keel, when submerged. The extra weight carried militated

greatly against her speed as a surface boat. Another mistake was

that the water ballast tanks were too large, or perhaps it would be

more correct to say that they were not sufficiently subdivided. When

she was in just the proper condition to be manœuvred by her

horizontal propellers the ballast tanks were only about

three-quarters full, and the water being left free surges backwards

and forwards in them. It must not be forgotten, however, that ample

tank capacity was necessary because the quantity of ballast needed,

depended on the number of tons of coal and stores on board.

Subdivision would, however, have prevented the surging of the

ballast water. If, for example, the boat was moving forward or on an

even keel at, say, two knots, if a greaser walked forward a couple

of feet in his engine room her head would go down a little. Then the

water surged forward in the tanks, and she would proceed to plunge,

unless checked, and in shallow water would touch the bottom, as she

did on the Mother Bank in the Solent, or if in deep water she would

run down until the pressure of water collapsed her hull. No one who

has not been down in a submarine can realise their extraordinary

crankness. The _Nordenfelt_ was always rising or falling, and

required the greatest care in handling.”

PART III

APPENDIX I

BRITISH SUBMARINES

“The tendency of the Admiralty is to follow and not to lead other

great nations. I hope that one of these days we shall not follow

just a little too late.”—W. E. ARNOLD FORSTER.

Probably the first occasion of recent years that mention was made of

submarine boats in Parliament was subsequent to the trial of the

_Nautilus_, a diving boat invented by Messrs. Campbell and Ash, during a

trial of which several exalted personages nearly lost their lives. Lord

George Hamilton described the incident to the House of Commons, and

created some amusement by his relation, and there is no reason to

believe that the submarine was looked upon by members other than as an

erratic toy to whose mercy no wise man would entrust his person.

Mr. Nordenfelt built several submarine boats, one of which was bought by

the Turkish and another by the Greek Government, but though in several

quarters the advisability of the Admiralty purchasing one or more

Nordenfelt boats was suggested, nothing came of it.

Mr. Edmund Robertson, K.C., dealing in the _Nineteenth Century_, of May,

1900, with the question of submarine boats remarked that five or six

years ago he knew the opinion of the technical advisers of the

Admiralty, and that they did not see their way to recommend the

Admiralty or the Government to make any provision for submarine vessels

of war.

Since that time, however, very few weeks passed but some writer took up

the cudgels on behalf of the submarine and urged the Admiralty to

consider the advisability of constructing boats.

The keen interest taken in France in under-water warfare was reflected

to a certain extent in this country, and on the 9th of February, 1899,

Mr. Charles McLaren addressed a question to the First Lord of the

Admiralty in which he referred to the “extraordinary value” assigned by

the French minister to the new vessels, and asked “whether the British

Admiralty attached any importance to these experiments, or had any

intention of adding any such vessels to the British Navy?” Viscount

Goschen’s answer was: “It would be inexpedient at this stage for me to

express the opinion of the Admiralty as to the reported performances of

the new submarine boats. With reference to any action which the Board of

Admiralty may take, I am not at present prepared to make any statement.”

The position of the Admiralty in the early part of 1900 may be

ascertained from an answer given by Viscount Goschen to a question put

by Captain Norton on the 6th of April. “Close attention has been given

by the Admiralty to the subject of submarine boats. The submarine boat,

even if the practical difficulties attending its use can be overcome,

would seem so far as the immediate future is concerned to be eventually

a weapon for maritime Powers on the defensive, and it is natural that

those nations which anticipate holding that position should endeavour to

develop it. The question of the best way of meeting its attack is

receiving much consideration, and it is in this direction that practical

suggestions should be valuable. It seems certain that the reply to this

weapon must be looked for in other directions than in building submarine

boats ourselves, for it is clear that one submarine boat cannot fight

another.” In the debate on the Ship-building vote the First Lord made a

further statement. “The importance of submarine boats had been pointed

out, and it had been said that it was their duty to make experiments.

The nations which were likely to have the greatest use for these boats

might gain from their experiment more than others. He did not propose to

make publicly any declaration as to these boats. Of course he did not

wish to encourage or discourage other nations, but he must ask the

Committee to excuse him going into the question.”

In the same debate Mr. Arnold Forster, who a few months later was

appointed Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty, made

some remarks on this “somewhat cryptic utterance,” as Mr. Robertson

called it. “If in the matter of submarine boats the First Lord of the

Admiralty had said that in the opinion of the engineering advisers of

the Admiralty to design and work a submarine boat, was so remote of

accomplishment that there was no reasonable probability of being able to

work it, he would have been slow to contradict him; but that was not the

line taken by him. The First Lord said that the Admiralty had not

designed a submarine boat, and did not propose to design one, because

such a boat would be the weapon of an inferior power. But if it could be

produced as a working article, the Power which possessed such an article

would no longer be an inferior but a superior Power. We, above all

nations, were exposed to the attacks of this engine. He submitted that

it was not a satisfactory thing to stand by and allow others to carry

out this problem without making some attempt to solve it for ourselves.

He admitted the tendency of the Admiralty to follow and not to lead

other great nations. He hoped that one of these days we should not

follow just a little too late. If we had been compelled to learn our

lesson with regard to ironclads, breechloaders, and armoured cruisers in

the face of an active enemy we should have experienced the same lessons

which the Austrian army underwent in 1866 when they were compelled to

learn the merits of the breechloader by studying it on the field of

battle. There was room for improvement in the attitude we had taken up

in regard to submarine navigation.”

During the short session of December, 1900, after the General Election,

the Admiralty was again questioned, and the reply was that the

“attention of the Admiralty had been called to the additional provision

for submarine boats in the French naval programme, and a statement will

be made when the estimates are laid before the House.” Between this date

and the introduction of the Navy Estimates endless rumours regarding the

position the Admiralty would take as to the submarine boat question

found their way into the daily press. While, on the one hand, it was

“confidently asserted” that, the Government were making secret trials

with all kinds of wonderful craft, on the other hand it was stated “on

the highest authority” that the Lords of the Admiralty had no intention

of altering their minds as to the advisability of taking any action

whatever in the matter.

The statement of the First Lord of the Admiralty explanatory of the Navy

Estimates for 1901–2, published on the 1st of March, 1901, contained the

following item:—

“Five submarine vessels of the type invented by Mr. Holland have been

ordered, the first of which should be delivered next autumn. What the

future value of these boats may be in naval warfare can only be a matter

of conjecture. The experiments with these boats will assist the

Admiralty in assessing their true value. The question of their

employment must be studied, and all developments in their mechanism

carefully watched by this country.”

In the discussion on the Navy (Supplementary) Estimates on March 4,

1901, Mr. Flynn asked whether the policy of the Admiralty in

constructing battleships “as to the strength of which they knew

nothing,” when other nations were turning their attention to submarine

vessels, was quite wise. This same notion as to the advisability of

going in for small submarines instead of big battleships is to be found

in a speech by Mr. O’Shee on March 23rd, who said that if these boats

were able to do half what was claimed for them, then the present

gigantic expenditure for naval construction was entirely uncalled for. A

submarine boat could be built for £25,000, and manned by ten men, and if

it were true they were able to combat the big ships which the Government

were building, those ships would be absolutely useless except for

carrying the submarine boats to places where they were to work. If

submarines were all that was claimed for them it would render

unnecessary the £9,000,000 which was then being expended on new

battleships.

Mr. Arnold Forster in the House on March 18, 1901, said:—

“I will not say much about submarine vessels, but I will say that I am

glad that the Admiralty, under the advice of Lord Goschen, took the view

that it was wise not to be found unprepared in regard to this matter. We

have a great amount of information about these boats, but we do not

attach an exaggerated value to it. But we believe that an ounce of

practice is worth a ton of theory, and that when we get officers and men

to see these boats, they will learn more from them than from many

reports which come from foreign countries. One thing stands between the

submarine boat and efficiency, and that is the motor by which it is

propelled. But there is no disguising the fact that if you can add speed

to the other qualities of the submarine boat, it might in certain

circumstances become a very formidable vessel. We are comforted by the

judgment of the United States and Germany, which is hostile to these

inventions, which I confess I desire shall never prosper.—(Commander

Young, M.P., said that if the Admiralty built any submarine boats, all

he would ask would be that he might not be ordered to serve on one.)—But

we cannot regard our position as the same as that of other nations. The

United States to-morrow, if a perfect submarine were invented, would not

only have more secure protection for their harbours. In Germany the

harbours are no doubt carefully protected now. But we live in the narrow

waters of the Channel, and our problem is not precisely that of any

other nation, and I am glad that Lord Goschen did give this instruction

to the Board which has now borne fruit in the determination to put this

experiment into execution, and we shall see the result of it during the

next financial year.”

Mr. Edmund Robertson, K.C., in the debate on the Navy Estimates on March

21, 1901, remarked that as the building of the submarine boats was only

a matter of experiment, he thought it might have been introduced upon a

somewhat smaller scale. If its value was purely conjectural, he should

have said that one boat would have been enough to experiment with. Two

should have been quite enough, but we generally did things on a large

scale, and after having refused to say one word for many years about

submarine boats, we now found the Admiralty launching out into quite a

little fleet of them. “What,” asked Mr. Robertson, “had become of the

control of the House of Commons? What had become of that control when

the Admiralty of the day, having refused to tell them their policy, come

forward shortly afterwards and say they will build five of these boats?”

He could not help protesting against this, for a new departure of this

nature ought not to have been made except with the sanction of the

House, and at the very least it ought not to have been done without

being divulged to the House.

It may be noted that Mr. Arnold Forster, speaking in the House of

Commons in January, 1902, explained that when the decision to construct

submarine boats was arrived at, only one type was available for

purchase, that the right to build boats of this type was in the hands of

one firm, and that it was therefore necessary to entrust the work to

that firm.

_The first British Submarines._—The first five British submarines are

almost identically the same as the six Holland boats ordered by the U.S.

Congress on June 7, 1900.

They are cigar-shaped vessels 63 feet 4 inches long; beam, 11 feet 9

inches; and displacement submerged, 120 tons. The plating and frames are

of steel and of sufficient size and thickness to withstand the pressure

of depths not exceeding 100 feet. The bulkheads are located to provide

safety in event of collision, and to stiffen the hull as a whole; decks

are provided throughout the whole length of the interior of the vessel,

combined with beams and floors to carry the weight of machinery; the

tanks are of steel, and they are braced, stiffened, rivetted, and

caulked absolutely tight, and man-holes are located to allow access to

the interior of all tanks.

When the vessel is in light condition for surface running, an

above-water deck, 31 feet long, is available, and there are means of

stowing anchor and lines and of affording mooring facilities to the

vessel. Rudders of steel plates are provided, and they are supported by

skegs at the stern of the vessel. The conning tower is of armoured

steel; its outside diameter is 32 inches, and its minimum thickness 4

inches; it is provided with ports for observation by the steersman. In

the construction of the vessel care has been taken that all portions of

the exterior of the hull shall be free from projections of a kind that

might be entangled by ropes or other obstacles when submerged, and the

lines of the vessels have been designed so that there shall be a minimum

of resistance when it is running at the surface.

_Propulsion._—On the surface the vessel is propelled by a 160 h.p.,

single screw, four-cylinder, Otto gasoline engine, capable of giving a

speed of 8 knots, while when submerged it is driven through the water by

a 70 h.p. electric waterproof motor giving a speed of 7 knots. The

radius of action at the surface is about 400 knots, while the storage

batteries have sufficient capacity for a speed of 7 knots on a four

hours’ submerged run. Gearing is provided for the charging of the

batteries by using the motor as a dynamo, and running it from the

gasoline engine when at the surface, and from connecting the propeller

either to the engine or the motor; these operations are effected through

clutches. Switchboards and switches are provided for the safe and

efficient distribution of the electric current throughout the vessel.

The lighting system consists of portable incandescent electric lamps,

together with several ports and openings in the hull to admit the

outside light. The hull is circular, in cross sections, and is divided

by the watertight bulkheads into three separate compartments. There is

also a thorough subdivision of the bottom and every precaution is taken

to localise any injury to the hull which might threaten the buoyancy.

In the forward compartment is one torpedo expulsion tube, located at the

extreme forward end of the vessel, opening outward two feet below the

light water-line. The tube is placed with its muzzle in the nose of the

craft and its axis inclined somewhat to the longitudinal axis of the

vessel. The muzzle of the tube is closed by a watertight door, and this

can be lifted from within for the discharge of the five Whitehead

torpedoes, each 11 feet 8 inches long, which are carried in the

interior. One torpedo is placed in the tube, and the other four are

placed side by side above the storage batteries. When the first torpedo

is fired a sufficient amount of water to compensate for the loss of

weight is automatically and almost instantaneously admitted into the

tube, causing only a slight change of time for a few seconds. Such

compensation is necessary, as the submarine boat is lighter than the

amount of water it displaces and any alteration in its weight tends to

send it up to the surface or down towards the bottom. When the second

torpedo is placed in the tube the water is run into a special torpedo

compensating tank; of these tanks there are four, and they are filled as

each torpedo is fired. When the last torpedo has been ejected the

expulsion tube is filled with water and is kept thus until the end of

the run.

Besides the torpedo tube there is in the forward compartment a series of

air flasks, a gasoline tank of 850 gallons capacity, and a trimming

tank.

The central compartment contains in its double bottom the main ballast

tanks and a circular compensating tank placed between the two sets of

batteries. Above the double bottom and below the axis of the vessel are

located the storage batteries, and above these are carried the four

torpedoes, which are 45 centimetres in diameter and 11 feet 8 inches in

length. In the same compartment are a series of air flasks in which air

at 2,000 lbs. to the square inch pressure is stored for the purpose of

keeping pure the living spaces of the crew.[9]

Footnote 9:

Also for firing the torpedoes and for blowing the water out of the

ballast tanks when it is desired to navigate as a surface boat.

In the rear compartment is the four-cylinder gasoline engine, which is

rated at from 160 to 190 actual horse-power, and at from 320 to 390

revolutions per minute. Its net weight is 1,300 lbs., its length over

all is 9 feet 7 inches, and its total height above the crank-shaft

centre is 5 feet 6 inches. In these engines, which gave satisfaction in

the first Holland boat, the distribution of the cranks and the timing of

the valves and igniters are so arranged that the operations in the

four-cylinders alternate, so that while one is at the expansion stroke

the other three are at the suction, compression, and exhaust strokes

respectively. By this arrangement the engine is perfectly balanced and

vibration is reduced to a minimum.

_Submersion._—The first operation to be performed when it is desired to

submerge the vessel is the admission of water into her ballast tanks.

When these are full she runs “awash” with her conning tower alone above

the waves.

In order to completely submerge the boat she is steered below the

surface by means of her pair of horizontal rudders at the stern. When at

the required depth (normally from 20 to 30 feet) she is brought up on an

even keel by the inclination of the horizontal rudders, which may be

controlled automatically (by some such arrangement as is found in the

Whitehead torpedo) or by hand. All modern submarine craft go under at an

angle, and are steered below the waves by rudders: the principle of

submersion on an even keel by down-haul propellers, advocated by Mr.

Nordenfelt, has been abandoned by all latter-day designers, as has also

the submersion of the drawing in of cylinders adopted in the

Campbell-Ash boat.

When running submerged the submarine is lighter than her displacement,

and is only kept under by her horizontal rudders, which, of course, only

act when she is moving.

The great drawback to all under-water craft has been their lack of

longitudinal stability, for they have a tendency to rise or sink at the

slightest provocation. In our account of the Nordenfelt boats this

disagreeable quality is illustrated. In order to keep the vessel at a

regular depth recourse must be had to the horizontal rudders and to the

two trimming tanks and the one circular compensating tank carried.

In a general way it will probably be found possible to keep the boat on

an even keel by means of her rudders, but if she shows any decided

tendency either to dive to the bottom or to rise to the surface or to

heel over to one side water may be admitted into the above-mentioned

tanks, and the admission may be effected either automatically or by

hand. A hydrostatic valve will prevent the vessel passing the safe limit

of depth.

_Air Supply and Ventilation._—Compressed air is stored aboard the vessel

with means of allowing a supply of air into the interior of the vessel.

Ventilators are provided for the circulation of outside air throughout

the vessel; the gasoline vapours from the engines and all noxious gases

are carefully excluded by suitable devices, while safety valves are

provided to prevent the pressure to the vessel from exceeding that of

the atmosphere.

_Pumps and Pumping._—All tanks and compartments are connected with the

pumps, the valves are located to allow of quick manipulation, and pumps

with independent means of operation are furnished in duplicate. The

tanks can also be emptied by flowing out.

_Navigating Apparatus._—In communication with the interior of the vessel

there are bells and speaking tubes, while there are provided gauges,

indices, and clinometers for indicating pressure, depth, positions,

quantities, and weights.

Two compasses are carried, each compensated and adjusted. It is said

that the first of the British submarines exhibited certain defects in

its compasses, which it was thought were due to the steel conning tower.

This was replaced by a brass construction, and on being tested the

compasses acted more satisfactorily. After a few trials a new

steering-wheel was fixed in the boat close to the conning tower, which

could be worked from above and below alike.

The first British submarine was launched on November 2, 1901, at Barrow

without any ceremony, although representatives of the Admiralty were

present. The trials were placed under the direction of Captain R. H. S.

Bacon, D.S.O.

Before launching “No. 1” was by means of a floating dock placed on the

gridiron. A crew of six men were put on board, and she was then

hermetically sealed for three hours, air being supplied by compressed

air cylinders. The trial was quite successful, and the men suffered no

inconvenience. On her first “sea trial” “No. 1” started from the

floating dock and proceeded along the Devonshire and Buccleuch docks and

back to her moorings. On subsequent trials she attained a surface speed

of 10 knots.

The first submersion trials of “No. 1” were carried out on February 5,

1902. She went under water with some officers of the _Hazard_ t.g.b.,

the mother ship to the submarines (Captain R. H. S. Bacon, D.S.O.) on

board, and most satisfactory results were obtained. Her appliances for

the purification of the air were used to maintain atmospheric conditions

without any need of her cylinders of compressed air being requisitioned.

The first deep sea trials of “No. 1” took place at the beginning of

April last in the Irish Sea. The submerging was accomplished in less

than six seconds. From the “awash” conditions she suddenly disappeared

and then came again into sight some yards’ distant with great rapidity

and ease, and the diving was continued at intervals for several hours at

a time without any perceptible hitch.[10]

Footnote 10:

Mr. Arnold Foster, in the House of Commons on May 29, 1902, said that

the submarines had been a pronounced success, performing all that

could be expected from them in the way of evolution and manœuvring.

Submarine “No. 2” was launched on February 21, 1902. Certain alterations

were made in her construction, rendered advisable by defects which had

been discovered during the testing of “No. 1.” “No. 3” took the water on

May 9th, and “No. 4” on May 23 last.

During April last No. 42 t.b. was commissioned at Portsmouth as tender

to the _Hazard_ t.g.b., and was sent to Barrow for a series of

experiments with the submarines.

The Navy Estimates for 1902–1903 provided for four further submarines,

which Mr. Arnold Forster said would be an improvement on those already

constructed at Barrow. The Admiralty, he added, proposed to continue the

process of adding submarines to our fleet. Details of the new boats are

not obtainable.

APPENDIX II

THE AMERICAN SUBMARINES

“The Submarine Boat is a small ship on the model of the Whitehead,

subject to none of its limitations, improving on all its special

qualities, excepting speed, for which it substitutes incomparably

greater endurance. It is not, like other small vessels, compelled to

select for its antagonist a vessel of about its own or inferior

power; the larger and more powerful its mark the better its

opportunity.”—Mr. J. P. HOLLAND.

“In my judgment, as a constructor of these boats (the new Hollands

for the United States Government), and from my long experience in

designing and constructing war vessels for the Government, and as

the constructor of the original _Holland_, I have no doubt whatever

of the endurance, habitability, durability, and reliability of these

boats.

* * * * *

“No type of boat in the navy has received such crucial tests as the

_Holland_. The submarine boat to-day is further advanced in its

development than any type of naval vessels that I am aware of. I

desire to say that in my opinion the _Holland_, without any

improvements, is to-day the greatest vessel for harbour and coast

defence ever known.”—Mr. LEWIS NIXON, builder of the _Holland_.

When the British Admiralty decided to experiment with submarine boats,

the type chosen was that invented by Mr. John P. Holland. It is

therefore fitting that some account should be given of the various

stages through which the Holland boat has gone in the course of its

evolution.

Although Mr. John P. Holland, of Paterson, New Jersey, U.S.A., made a

number of experiments in the sixties, his first real submarine boat was

not built until 1875.

_Holland No. 1_ may be described as an under-water canoe, for there was

only room for one occupant, who propelled the vessel along by means of

pedal-acting mechanism, a small screw being fitted at the stern.

The dimensions were:—

Length 16 feet

Beam 20 inches

Depth 2 feet

[Illustration:

MR. HOLLAND’S EARLIEST SUBMARINE.

(1875.)

]

It was divided into three parts; the two end ones were used as air

reservoirs and submersion tanks, and that in the centre contained the

operator, whose head was encased in a diver’s helmet. The vessel was

driven by a small propeller projecting from the stern joist, and beneath

this was the rudder.

_Holland No. 2_ was constructed in 1877 at the Albany City Iron Works of

New York.

Its dimensions were:—

Length 10 feet

Beam 3·5 feet

Depth 3 feet

It had a double shell, and in the space between water ballast could be

admitted for submersion. The motor was a petroleum engine of 4 h.p.,

working a screw at the stern. Two rudders, one vertical, the other

horizontal, were carried, and experiments showed that the latter acted

better when placed at the stern than when on the side. After a series of

trials on the Passaic River, Mr. Holland removed the machinery and sank

his boat under Falls Bridge at Patterson, where it probably remains at

this day.

_Holland No. 3_ was commenced in 1879 in the yards of the Delamater Iron

Company of New York City, and finished in 1881.

Its dimensions were:—

Length 31 feet

Beam 6 feet

Depth 6 feet

Displacement 19 tons

It was propelled by a 15 h.p. petroleum engine of the Brayton type; as

armament a submarine cannon, 11 feet long and 9 inches in diameter, was

carried, and the projectile was expelled by means of a charge of

compressed air. “She was the first submarine since Bushnell’s time,”

writes Admiral Hichborn, “employing water ballast and always retaining

buoyancy, in which provision was made to ensure a fixed centre of

gravity and a fixed absolute weight. Moreover, she was the first buoyant

submarine to be steered down and up inclines in the vertical plane by

horizontal rudder action, as she was pushed forward by her motor,

instead of being pushed up and down by vertically acting mechanism. Her

petroleum engine, provided for motive power and for charging her

compressed air flasks, was inefficient, and the boat therefore failed as

a practical craft; but in her were demonstrated all the chief principles

of successful brain-directed submarine navigation. After the completion

of the boat, Holland led the world far and away in the solution of

submarine problems, and for a couple of years demonstrated that he could

perfectly control his craft in the vertical plane. Eventually, through

financial complications, she was taken to New Haven, where she now is.”

In 1896 her air-compressor was removed to work a forge, and she is now

nothing but an empty hull.

_Holland No. 4_ was constructed in the yard of Gammon and Cooper, of

Jersey City. It was simply meant as a model, being only 16 ft. 4 in.

long, 28 in. in diameter, and displacing a ton. The motor was an

explosive engine, which was to serve for propulsion above and below the

surface. The life of this model was unfortunately short, for on one

occasion she was submerged with her cupola open, with the result that

the water entered and she sank.

_Holland No. 5_, commonly known under the name of the “Zalinsky Boat,”

owing to its dynamite guns, was built at Fort Lafayette.

It was—

30 feet long,

7 feet beam,

7 feet in diameter,

and was armed with two Zalinsky pneumatic dynamite guns. Owing to an

error in construction, she was shipwrecked on the rocks, but was

afterwards rescued and used for some experiments in the docks.

_Holland No. 6_ never got further than the design stage; it was not a

true submarine, not being capable of total submergence.

_Holland No. 7_ was known as the _Plunger_.

[Illustration:

BOW VIEW OF THE “HOLLAND.”

]

Whilst Mr. Whitney was Secretary of the Navy he was anxious to provide

some kind of protection against gun-fire for torpedo-boats, and under

suggestion he invited proposals for submarine boats. A great many

designs were sent in, and two propositions to build were made by the

famous Cramp firm, the designs being those of Holland and Nordenfelt. It

will not be necessary to enter into any detailed comparison between the

two types. Suffice it to say that while Mr. Nordenfelt screwed his boat

down by using vertical screws, and held the opinion that the keel of a

submarine must always be kept parallel to the surface of the water, Mr.

Holland steered his boat down and up an incline by the action of

horizontal rudders placed in the stern. The Holland design was accepted,

because “it embodied the ideas of a fixed centre of gravity, of an exact

compensation for expended weights, of a low longitudinal metacentric

height, and of quick diving and rising by the effort of the propeller

pushing the vessel against the resistance of her midship section only

down and up inclines, the angles of which were to be determined by

horizontal rudder action.” Difficulties in regard to guarantees of

performance prevented the closing of a contract that year—1888—and the

next year, after all preliminaries were arranged, a change in

administration caused the matter to be put aside. After the lapse of

some years interest in submarine boats was again aroused, and on March

3rd, 1893, Congress authorised the building of a single experimental

vessel, and after a third competition of designs and other delays a

contract for a Holland boat was signed two years later with the Holland

Torpedo-boat Company (formed in 1895). The new vessel was to be called

the _Plunger_. The long delay was owing, Mr. Holland has said, to the

opposition of a few officers of Conservative spirit, who preferred to

see the value of submarine boats fully established by their employment

in other navies, and their place in schemes of attack and defence

properly located before they could recommend their adoption in their own

navy.

The dimensions of the _Plunger_ are as follows:—

Length 85 feet

Beam 11½ feet

Diameter 11½ feet

Displacement 140 tons on the surface

Displacement 165 tons submerged

Guaranteed speed 15 knots on the surface for two hours

Guaranteed speed 14 knots submerged to one foot with the conning

tower above water

I.H.P. (surface) 1,625

I.H.P. (submerged) 200

Motor Steam engine on surface, fed with liquid fuel

Electric motor, completely submerged, giving speed

of 8 knots for six hours

Although the _Plunger_ was actually launched on the 7th of August, 1897,

she was never completed, although for three years various alterations

were carried out. The steam engines were removed and were replaced by

oil motors, but by the time these modifications had been effected the

Holland Torpedo-boat Company came to the conclusion that the _Plunger_,

when completed according to the terms of the contract, would be so

inferior to the more modern _Hollands_ that they offered to refund the

Government all it had paid them upon the _Plunger_, and all expenses

connected with the contract, provided the Navy Department would enter

into a contract for a new _Holland_. The proposition was accepted, and

the money, some $94,000 odd, was accordingly refunded. A short time ago

it was announced that the _Plunger_ was being broken up.

_Holland No. 8_ resembled very much the later types, but as she was not

entirely satisfactory, _Holland No. 9_ was built. This latter vessel is

generally referred to as the _Holland_. She was the prototype of the

British submarines, and her performances have excited a vast deal of

interest all over the civilised world.

The dimensions of the _Holland_, which was constructed at Elizabeth

Port, New Jersey, by Mr. Lewis Nixon, at the expense of the Holland

Company, and whilst the alterations to the _Plunger_ were still in

progress, are as follows:—

Length 53 ft. 10 ins.

Diameter 10 ft. 3 ins.

Height (bottom to superstructure deck) 10 ft. 7 ins.

Displacement 75 tons

Water ballast 10 tons

Reserve buoyancy 250 lbs.

On the surface the motor is a gasoline engine of the Otto type of 50

h.p., giving a speed of about 7 knots an hour, and under water an

electric motor, capable of giving 50 h.p. for 6 hours or 150 h.p. for 2

hours, is used. The battery of accumulators consists of 66 cells, giving

350 amperes for 4 hours, and allowing a speed of 8 knots an hour. The

radius of action on the surface is 1,500 miles at 7 knots without a

renewal of gasoline, and it can go 50 knots under water without coming

to the surface. In order to dive water ballast is admitted until the

boat is flush with the water, and it is then steered down an incline by

her two horizontal rudders at the stern, carried in addition to the

ordinary vertical rudder. It has a reserve buoyancy which tends to bring

it to the surface in case of accident. It can dive to a depth of 28 feet

in 8 seconds. The armament was intended originally to consist of three

tubes—two at the bows and one at the stern; two were to throw aerial

torpedoes and shells, while the third was to discharge Whitehead

torpedoes. The submarine gun aft, which was worked by pneumatic power,

and was capable of throwing 80 lbs. of dynamite a distance of about half

a mile, was, however, abandoned. The aerial gun at the bows is 11·25 ft.

long and 8 in. in diameter, and each of the projectiles weighs 222 lbs.,

and carries 100 lbs. of gun-cotton. This gun can shoot these projectiles

a distance of one mile. The torpedo tube is 18 in., and three torpedoes

are carried; they have a running capacity of more than half a mile at a

speed of 30 knots. On the top of the boat a flat superstructure is built

to afford a walking platform, and underneath this are spaces for exhaust

pipes, and for the external outfit of the boat, such as ropes and a

small anchor. From the centre of the boat a turret extends upward

through the superstructure about 18 inches. It is about 2 feet in

diameter, and is the only means of entrance to the boat; it is also the

place from which the boat is operated.

As Mr. Holland had been experimenting with submarine craft for 25 years,

and as he now considered that he had secured a practical result, and

that his newest boat would do all that he claimed, he requested the

United States Admiralty to make a series of exhaustive trials with the

_Holland_. These trials accordingly took place, and having been found to

be satisfactory, the _Holland_ was purchased by the U.S. Government on

April 11, 1900. The price paid was $150,000, and the Company stated that

the vessel had cost them, exclusive of any office expenses, or salaries

of officers, $236,615,427. The _Holland_ was formally placed in

commission under the command of Lieut. Harry H. Caldwell, U.S.N., on

October 13, 1900, but the boat had been under the charge of this officer

since June 25, 1900.

An Act making appropriations for the Naval Service for the fiscal year

ending June 30, 1901, which was approved on June 7, 1900, contained the

following item:—

“The Secretary of the Navy is hereby authorised and directed to contract

for five submarine torpedo boats of the _Holland_ type, of the most

improved design, at a price not to exceed one hundred and seventy

thousand dollars each: _Provided_, That such boats shall be similar in

dimensions to the proposed new _Holland_, plans and specifications of

which were submitted to the Navy Department by the Holland Torpedo-boat

Company, November twenty-third, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine. The

said new contract and the submarine torpedo-boats covered by the same

are to be in accordance with the stipulations of the contract of

purchase made April eleventh, nineteen hundred, by and between the

Holland Torpedo-boat Company, represented by the secretary of the said

company, the party of the first part, and the United States, represented

by the Secretary of the Navy, the party of the second part. Towards the

completion of the equipment, outfit of the new vessels heretofore

authorised 400,000 dollars.”

A contract for the construction of _six_ (not five) submarine

torpedo-boats, Nos. 3–8, was finally concluded on the 25th of August,

1900, between the Holland Torpedo-boat Company and the Secretary of the

United States Navy.

Their names are as follows:—

1. _Adder._

2. _Moccassin._

3. _Porpoise._

4. _Shark._

These four were to be constructed in the yards of Lewis Nixon, at

Elizabethport, New Jersey.

5. _Grampus._

6. _Pike._

These were to be built at the Union Iron Works, San Francisco.

As the specification for these six boats resembles in almost every

particular that for the five British submarines of the _Holland_ type,

details need not be given here.

The contract price of the hull and machinery of each boat was $34,000.

The first of the six submarine boats ordered from the Holland Company by

the United States Government, to be launched was the _Adder_, the

launching ceremony being performed by Mrs. E. B. Frost, wife of the

Secretary of the Holland Company.

The _Porpoise_, _Moccassin_, and _Shark_ were all launched in 1901; at

the time of writing the _Grampus_ and the _Pike_ were still on the

stocks.[11]

Footnote 11:

The Naval Committee of the United States Senate in June, 1902, amended

the Appropriation Bill, and provided for the purchase of five further

submarines of the latest _Holland_ type, and for investigation into

other types.

[Sidenote: The “Fulton.”]

The _Fulton_ is an exact duplicate of the six boats the Holland

Torpedo-boat Company have built for the United States. She has been

built at the expense of the company with the object of experimenting, to

see if it is possible to get smaller engines with less weight and

greater power.

Mr. Holland said that he could not build his boats any longer and could

not get any more speed, simply for the reason that he could not get

engines with enough power. It was his intention to subject every part of

the equipment and motive power of the _Fulton_ to thorough test, and to

incorporate the experience thus gained in the six Government boats.

The _Fulton_ was launched on June 2, 1901, from the yards of Lewis

Nixon.

In the autumn of last year the vessel, with seven officers and men on

board, remained for fifteen hours at the bottom of Peconie Bay, whilst a

bad storm was raging above, without having the air in the interior

renewed. The turret-hatch was closed at seven o’clock on November 23rd,

and at the expiration of fifteen hours it had not been found necessary

to draw off any of the compressed air contained in the four flasks taken

down with the boat. The atmosphere was said to be as pure as in the

cabin of an ordinary yacht. A glass of water filled to the brim stood on

the cabin table during all the time of submersion, and not a drop was

spilled in spite of the gale blowing above water. The new submarines of

the _Fulton_ type carry 59 cubic feet of air compressed by a pressure of

2,000 pounds to the square inch. With the supply to fall back on,

Captain Cable said that six men could probably live in the _Fulton_ for

something like eight months. It was, according to him, more a matter of

food than air.

[Illustration:

STERN VIEW OF THE “HOLLAND.”

]

In December, 1901, the _Fulton_ gave an exhibition for the benefit of

the Norwegian naval officers who were deputed to inquire into the

capabilities of the Holland boats. Whilst travelling under water it

discharged dummy torpedoes at targets with perfect accuracy, and dived

repeatedly once in three seconds, or quickly enough to dodge a shell

aimed at it. Commander Geelmuyden, who was aboard, said that when he

inspected the _Holland_ it was quite incapable of the _Fulton’s_

performances. There is indeed little doubt that the newest _Holland_

boats represent all that is newest and best in submarine boat

construction.

She does not, however, appear to be perfect in every particular. On

Monday, April 28, 1902, the _Fulton_ left New York for Washington,

convoyed by the steamer _Norfolk_. Her course was to have been to

Hampton Roads, up Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River to the Federal

capital, where she was expected to arrive on the Saturday following her

departure. She had on board, besides stored electricity for her

submarine trials, 750 gallons of gasoline for surface propulsion. She

put in at Delaware Breakwater on Monday morning, and shortly afterwards

an explosion occurred. Lieutenant Oscar Kohen, of the Austrian Navy, who

was on board at the time, was severely bruised, while a lieutenant of

the American Navy and several others were injured. The boat itself was

not seriously damaged. It transpired that the accident was due to a

slight explosion of hydrogen gas caused by the spilling of the acid from

the batteries. It was stated that during the trial the engine ran twenty

hours in a very heavy sea without stopping, and the speed of the boat

averaged 8–7⁄10 knots, and behaved extremely well.

The Holland Torpedo-boat Company intended, so it is stated, to build a

couple of boats to go to the lakes and to be carried on battleships. Mr.

Lewis Nixon, the builder of the _Holland_, said recently that Congress

should provide one submarine boat at least for every battleship and

cruiser small enough to be swung by a derrick, and lowered into the

water before going into action. He remarked that it was perfectly

feasible to design a successful submarine boat for such service. Admiral

Dewey had said that big vessels could be fitted to carry diving

torpedo-boats, and that special transport steamers would be the best for

this purpose.

APPENDIX III

FRANCE AND HER SUBMARINES

“By reason of her submarine division the navy of France is the most

dread and the most powerful in the world” (A French journalist,

after the torpedoing of the battleship _Charles Martel_ by the

_Gustave Zédé_ in Ajaccio Harbour in July, 1901).

“Jamais nous n’aurions trop de sous-marins.”—(M. V. GUILLOUSE in _Le

Yacht_).

Had it not been for the keen and abiding interest displayed by Admiral

Aube in the question of under-water warfare, it is extremely unlikely

that the French Navy would be in possession of its present fleet of

submarines.

It was in 1886 that Admiral Aube, being then Minister of Marine,

requested designs for submarine boats. In most quarters his ideas were

received with ridicule, and the experts of the day did not hesitate to

declare that such vessels would never become warships, that at best they

would serve only as diving bells, and that submarine navigation was a

subject more fitted for romancers like Jules Verne than for serious

marine architects.

The Admiral held his own, however, and contrary to the advice of the

Director of Material, ordered from M. Goubet on the 12th of September,

1886, a small boat, and in the same year, in face of the protests of all

his colleagues, he signed an order directing the Société des Forges et

Chantiers de la Méditerranée to build a larger vessel from the plans of

M. Gustave Zédé.

M. A. Saissy, a French journalist who has warmly advocated the

constructing of submarines by France, has written a preface to Messrs.

Forest and Noalhat’s treatise, “Les bateaux sous-marins” (1900), in

which he pays a tribute to the endeavours of the late Admiral to provide

his country with a submarine fleet. “Had we but followed his ideas,” he

writes, “had we but carried out his plans, not only would the defence of

our coasts and of our colonies be assured against attack, but France

would be at this hour the greatest naval power in the world.”