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Show WHEN SUBMARINE MEETS SUBMARINE IN DEEP-SEA DUEL! These new U-boats can remain By Charles W. Duke priOVIDED the war continues another an-other year, it la quite possible that we shall hear of great battles fought In the depths of ocean between the Kalaer'a U-boats and the submarines of the United States navy. Guiding their way unerringly through the fathoms by the light of giant reflectors that project their powerful rays through the greenish mountains of sea Just as the steam locomotive follows the silver stream of Its headlight along the steel rails that surmount the road bed so will the submarine of the near future fare forth to explore the depths. Jules Verno's dream then will have corns true In realistic fashion. All this is within the range of possibility and very likely to be developed during the next year, according to naval experts. ex-perts. Instead of groping in the darkness that closes down upon the submarine of today as It lowers awny into the depths until the "eyes" of its periscopes peri-scopes have dipped through the salt npray Into oblivion, the submersible feeling its way along with the aid of tho gyro-compass, we shall find it soon illuminating the deplhs and operating more accurately, more potently, In the glow of Its own light. U-boats Developed Rapidly Science tells us that this Is but one of the logical developments to be expected ex-pected In the evolution of the submarine. sub-marine. Threo and a halt years ago, at the. beginning of the world war, the submarine was an experimental toy that had yet to bo proved. The U-boat of 3 511 was a mere pygmy compared to the giant submarine cruiser of today. to-day. Take, for instance, the United States submarine of the F-clays that was lost recently with Its crew; compare com-pare it with the latest German submarine sub-marine cruiser. It Is almost like placing the aquarium, down at the Battery, New York, alongside the tallest Broadway skyscraper. So rapid has been the development of the submarine that it has grown in these last three years into the pitilessly piti-lessly powerful Instrument not so long ago depicted only In fiction. The vessel ves-sel on which Captain Nemo explored all the wonders of the undersea world through hundreds of pages of "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" 13 here the dream almost completely realized. Even now American submarine en-. en-. gineers are perfecting the subsea crawler which Is to worm its way over the bottom of the sea under' Its own power and guided by its own light. German engineers have announced their intention after the war to utilize the U-boat In reclaiming hundreds of valuable ships and cargoes sent to the bottom by the conscienceless torpedo. What more to expect, then, when the submarine has been raised to the nth power of perfection than that submarines subma-rines will fight submarines In titanic undersea battles deep down beyond the vision, of man steel whale against steel whalo in a fight where it will be a case always of the survival of the fittest! Imagine one submarine, Its engines stilled, its steel body resting Inert In the fathoms, on guard. Its microphone, micro-phone, or detectaphones, are set to catch the faintest sound of an approaching ap-proaching enemy. Through the mass of water comes eventually the steady whirr of propeller blades that denotes the approach of another subrnarino. Silently the submarine on guard awaits its prey. Ey the use of the microphone and other delicate nautical Instruments the submarine on guard Is able to Judge accurately the position of the approaching ap-proaching U-boat. At the psychological psycholog-ical moment the submarine flashes on its strongest reflectors, tho U-boat is caught full in the glare of the piercing rays, a torpedo speeds from the submarine sub-marine and, presto! the U-boat re-; ceives its death wound! A lland-to-Hand Underseas Battle Or picture two submarines In a great, grappling, hand-to-hand contest, 'a submarine duel, if you please something some-thing like the battle between the Monitor Mon-itor and the Merrimac. Maneuvering like two giant swordfish the two craft try to ram each other, the conning tower of each a vulnerable target, the thin skin of each hull the softest tissue tis-sue before the impact of a steel nose flashing along at twenty knots an hour or better. These are not unreasonable things to expect when one considers the marvelous mar-velous development of the submarine from a mere cheesebox to a huge cruiser capable of carrying scores of men and tons of freight. The longer the war lasts the more marvelous will be the application of science to perfection perfec-tion of those agencies of battle now already so potent. Since the war began and the submarine sub-marine proved a feasible method of navigation there, has been much talk of submarine freighters as a means of outwitting blockades and carrying much-needed food and munition supplies sup-plies to beleaguered nations. But with the advent of the electric headlight for the submarine such a plan seems not so easy. A submarine cruiser so illuminated could cut down the underwater under-water freighter and mete out the same ruthless brand of spiirlos vrrsrnkt as is accorded the surface traveler. At any rate, we are likely soon to nee! the submarine pitted against the submarine. Although Germany's merchant mer-chant marine has been swept from the pea and her fleets are bottled up in the Kiel Canal, the United States is building build-ing submarines by the wholesale. Only a short timo ago, Kpeaking in St. Louis, Chairman radgett, of the House .? : v '; ;; :' ; -;..: I -:: ',.. ; ', . :-, :::;A .' W;: ;rufe---5.; ri--1 il' l-Jil iSii f N i N 11 v -..q I. , . v , ' , - - ( , 3 r ': ' t ' . - '" : J ' - s' ' ' '" :: -''-S- v :' v , V:''. . ' : w r?.'?. r .r .'' -,:;- -V 1 , , - -' v ' ' - ' v.'-' : "' :,- -v - - :n2 h - K - . ? - ' x - - - x J f ' . ' " , . N f h ' - t - j . - t - ' , ' h . l ?r - 1 , ' VJC' ' N J F "N ' 'T x"- As.lt" ' , ' , 1 ? - . , ' A55 , v . -i I 1 ' - - lxl " s 1 ; " ' - ' 1 , : ' - , - , :, 1 1 " , ' Z-a 1 Picture two sttbmarines in a great, grappling, hand-to-hand contes t, something like the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac! Naval Committee, said that within a year the-United States would have a submarine fleet every whit as good as that of Germany, or better. "The number of submarines under construction," said Chairman Padgett, "is a naval secret, and all that can be said is that the 138 which are being built under the authorization of the program of August, 1916, are only a part of the whole number." What are we going to do with them? asks the layman out in Missouri, who cannot quite associate the ravages of the German navy with the inland security se-curity of the. Ozark Mountains. There's a reason. Many of the submarines under construction for our Government are small submerslbles intended for home defense. They will be distributed at the mouths of all large rivers, at the big bays leading to the Atlantic and Pacific cities, and at other strategic points. Woe to the enemy who ventures within range of their torpedo tubes! In addition to these 500 and S0O ton! submarines the Government is build ing many huge submarines of the cruiser type, large and larger than the Schley, at present the largest submarine sub-marine in service with our fleets. These big fellows of ours will be sea-going vessels, or "fleet submarines," .that will proceed from Atlantic ports across the ocean under their own power and become identified with the fleet of Admiral Sims in activities over there. What are they going to do with the 135 new submarines which are "only a part of the whole number" de scribed by Chairman Padgett? asks the landlubber, as- he scans thej sea in vain for sight of a German flag. It remains to be seen; but we can venture a surmise that some of our new ' submarine fleet may take a chance excursion beyond Helgoland into the "sacred waters" that encircle the great German naval base. Furthermore, Further-more, we can venture a surmise that the American submarine and the German Ger-man U-boat are going to run afoul of each other after a while. Lately we have heard something of the newest type of German submarines. subma-rines. They are giant vessels carrying carry-ing sixteen torpedoes and so seawrorthy as to weather the winter gales with ease. They are equipped with "wet guns," which means that the sub-mersible's sub-mersible's weapons no longer are of the old type that had to be raised Into position on deck before they could be fired, but are constructed of material unaffected by the salt water, mounted on stationary platforms and ready always for action the moment their muzzles project above the waves. from their bases six weeks. 1. Such is the perfected InsujT I rU of warfare against which the tnl. -(j States navy must contend. It B exactly three and a half year. jvjo-ih Binci star the war began. It Is now 1ui J a Oil n CI year since Germany let loose k unrestricted U-boat warfare. Iw' n the mobilization of all the brains '' t the allied nations, the U-boat is 'an an enemy unconquered. It still tt. aii mains for some supersclentlst to 11 evolve a way by means of which a, a ' ocean-going merchantman or Trarshh hill can be made Immune to the ittaii the of the underwater scorpion. of , It is useless to delve into figura PIn in a discussion of the question, when a,e one expert shows that the U-boat sink. bus ings are decreasing another pops p oth to say that while a less number o( t' '1 ships are being sunk, the shipj that are going down under Hun torpedojs of are the very largest food-supply ehips. slu Where one expert emphatically jj. sui clares the U-boats are being sunk ky del the allied navies, another report com along to the effeot that Germany !i De building more of them, "bigger and an better than ever before." rrI Still the Big War Factor -T The truth remains, after giving at. ia tention to all the statistics, that the submarine, after three and a half years of war and a full year of unrestricted unre-stricted warfare. Is still the big factor In the war. It is the thing the Allies must overcome in order to insure the freedom of the seas; for, .unless Germany Ger-many Is squarely pinned to the mat on land and sea and the U-boat clr- cumvented, the seas will never be free from the ruthless Prussian barbarism. Put the U-boat out of business and Germany is licked. Tales from the interior of the Central Powers brought home by persons who have lived there some time and have been In contact with the state of the Teutonic national mind show that the subjects of the militaristic Kaiser are "fed up" with stories of the great feats of the U-boats. U-boats. Just when starvation and cold are depressing the souls of these enslaved en-slaved Germans the people are "Jollied along" with the yarns about the submarines. sub-marines. When will the T7-boat be beatenT It is a question to be answered only by saying that it will be done when the full strength of our resources are thrown into the fight. What has the U-boat been able to do In the way of preventing the transportation of our army to France? Not a thing, with the exception of the sinking She transport Antilles, homeward bounSv ' Thousands of men were moved from the United States to France, with all the supplies necessary to sustain therrr, and not a troopship was sunk. Tiy that army is being maintained more , than S500 miles from its home base because the United States navy is keeping the sea open and the U-boat under cover. During these three and a half years of war but nine English troopships have been sunk and not more than 2000 lives lost due to the ravages of the U-boats. Frequently a quarter of a million troops have been on the water on transports at one time. All in all, more than 11,000,000 troops have been transported without mishap of any kind. This Is accounted for by reason of the fact that strong convoys attend the movement of troopships. Consider Consid-er the heavy movements from Canada, from Australia, from Africa and other points to the European battlefields. Very effectually it has been shown that where there are sufficient convoy con-voy units the U-boat dare not trust its face above the waves. In our own case, the accuracy of the Yankee gunners gun-ners and the puissance of the depth bombs dropped from our destroyers have had their deadly effect upon the "herr kommanders" of the U-boat and their "unterseeboot" sailors. Convoy 8 Furnish the Answer ' It would seem, then, tiat the matter mat-ter of sufficient convoys might eventually eventu-ally solve the problem of U-boat sinkings. sink-ings. It Is very infrequently that" convoyed merchantman Is sunk-tere is always exception to the rule. A 1 submarine lying In wait occasionally, rises silently and unexpectedly to smite the merchantman before the convoy gets Into action; but as & rule the guns of the destroyer get into action and tho submarine is routed in short order. Undoubtedly the convoy facilities will be greatly improved during the year 1918. In the Delaware Elver alone at the present time half a hundred hun-dred destroyers are building for I Uncle Sam. England and France are I adding to their fleets all the time. When the United States finally gets t thousands of airplanes in action there I Is no doubt" this branch of the service I will contribute much to the mitigation 1 of the U-boat peril, since the seaplane ; ' has been proved a vital weapon in ' overcoming the U-boat the battle j between tho hawk and the shark., Xes, it Is true that many of th i instruments with which we hops to ' j overcome the U-boats have yet to be j finished and put into operation.. But ( it is a time for patience and con- verted national action, more "doing" than "talking" and less grumbling- ' j It is just one year since the Gorman U-boat shot Its first insulting broadside , our way and only ten months since t we jumped into the fray. Much has been done in that time, and much 1 moro will be done In 101 S. ; The U-boat Is no longer the nemesis that it formerly was. Slovibut surely the tentacles of science j Yankee ingenuity are closing around it. Eventually it will be overcome-" onlv, hao a bit of patience please. ,i I |
