"In time of war the scouting aeroplanes will always be high above on
the lookout, and the submarines in constant readiness. If an enemy is
sighted the gong sounds and the leash of a flotilla of submarines will
be slipped. Whether it be night or day, fine or rough, they must go out
in search of their quarry; if they find her she is doomed and they give
no quarter; they cannot board her and take her as prize as in the olden
days; they only wait till she sinks, then return home without even
knowing the number of human beings they have sent to the bottom of the
ocean.
"Not only is the open sea unsafe; a battleship is not immune from attack
even in a closed harbor, for the so-called protecting boom at the
entrance can easily be blown up. With a flotilla of submarines commanded
by dashing young officers, of whom we have plenty, I would undertake to
get through any boom into any harbor and sink or materially damage all
the ships in that harbor."
A PRACTICAL MAN'S VIEWS
This is not a mere theorist or dreamer talking, says Burton Roscoe in
commenting on Admiral Scott's statements; it is the one man in England
most supremely versed in naval tactics, the man to whom all nations owe
the present effectiveness of the broadside of eight, twelve and fourteen
inch guns and the perfection in sighting long range guns.
The newest type of submarine torpedo is 100 per cent efficient. The
torpedo net of steel that used to be the ship's defense against
torpedoes is now useless. The modern torpedoes need only to come in
contact with a surface like the torpedo net or the armor plate of a
battleship to discharge a shell which will burst through a two-inch
armor caisson, rupture the hull of a battleship, and sink it in a few
minutes.
The torpedo submarines of the modern type have a submerged speed of from
eight to ten knots an hour. Only a small surface, including the bridge
or conning tower, is exposed, thus making it almost impossible to
hit them with the clumsy guns aboard ship. The highest type of submarine
has a submerged tonnage of 812 tons and its length is 176 feet.
Each submarine carries from one to six torpedoes, each of which is
capable of sinking the most heavily armored vessel afloat. The sighter
in the conning tower moves swiftly, up within range of the vessel he is
attacking and gives the signal for the discharge of the torpedo. The men
aboard the attacked ship have no warning of their impending death except
a thin sheaf of water that follows on the surface in the wake of the
submerged torpedo and which lasts only an instant.
RUN BY COMPRESSED AIR
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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