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Show CURIOUS UiEfffi BflTOTUKED Little Unarmed Submarine Caught When About to Lay Mines. MEN TAKE TO WATER Hundreds of Thousands of People View Odd Craft in the Thames. Special Cable to The Tribune. LONDON, Sept 2. A curious German submarine, caught just as it was about to lay mines off the cast coast, has been placed on exhibition in the Thames, ami is being viewed by hundreds of thousands of sightseers. This is not one of the fast, big U-boats which have preyed on shipping, but a little fellow without guns or torpedo tor-pedo tubes, built solely for mine laying. lay-ing. Some weeks ago a British destroyer was out exercising off the coast. When she sighted this submarine, the German boat was in difficulties. It was misty weather. The destroyer drew close and the English seamen noticed that all the crew of the U-boat seemed to be on deck. Explosions Aboard. The British commander called out for the Germans to surrender. The latter hauled down their flag and put their hands above their heads. At a word from their commander they jumped into the water and swam for dear lite away from the ship. Internal explosions followed, and at the last and heaviest a cascade of hammocks ham-mocks and other debris shot out of tho open conning tower to a height of forty feet. That there was this vent for the explosive forces probably saved the ship, but as it was she tok a good deal of water. Although the submarine had laid no mines, two had .been released by the foree of the explosions and were foul of the bottom of the vessel. Contact with the "horns," which jutted out all around tho mines, would have set off enough high explosive to wreck a battleship. Task Is Difficult. A young British officer now performed a highly difficult aud dangerous task. He went down in a diving suit and made the mines safe by detaching the detonators, afterwards securing tho mines in a safe positiou. This submarine is the "UC-5," and carried twelve mines. She was built in five sections in Germany, brought to Zeebrugge, on the Belgian coast, in freight cars, and there put together. She displaces 395 tons floating and 1M0 submerged. sub-merged. She submerged bv blowing out certain tanks -and by the use of hydroplanes. hydro-planes. Her length is J10 feet. Amidships is the conning tower, with periscope and wireless mast. Forward of the conning tower are six shoots, or air locks, in which tho mines are stored, two to a shoot. The mines were discharged dis-charged electrically from the conning tower. Mines Expensive. These mines weigh 1200 pounds loaded, load-ed, and cost about $800 each. When one of their horns is jarred by a ship's hull a glass vial in the interior is broken, letting loose a liquid which energizes a battery, and the mine explodes with terrific ter-rific violence. The craft is propelled by Diesel heavy oil engines and electric accumulators charged before leaving port. She crawls along at a speed of only six knots. Her officers and crew numbered sixteen six-teen persons in all, ami they were uncomfortably un-comfortably crowded when their boat was under water. |