Modern ships of warReed, Edward J. (Edward James), Sir
History
Modern ships of war
Reed, Edward J. (Edward James), Sir
Navies; Warships
Submersion to the various depths required is secured by the motion
of the vertically acting screws, S S, driven by small three-cylinder
engines. The boat is so ballasted as always to have spare buoyancy,
and while a few revolutions of the screws will send her under water,
the arrest of their motion is all that is required to bring her to
the surface again. In this arrangement, as even the non-technical
reader will readily understand, there is a great element of safety,
the rising motion being entirely independent of any machinery which
might refuse to act at the required moment. Another advantage is
also gained in the ease with which the horizontal position is
maintained by regulating the speed of the screws. To assist in
keeping this position there is a horizontal rudder or fin, R, at the
bows, which, by a very ingenious arrangement of a plumb weight with
other mechanism in connection with the steering tower, works both
automatically and by hand. The torpedoes are carried on the outside
of the boat, as shown at F. They are Swartzkoph or Whitehead, as the
case may be, and are released by electrical action under the control
of the captain, standing on the platform at P. C is a cupola of stout
glass by which a view is obtained occasionally when the boat is
running submerged.
_Construction Details._—The following are the dimensions of the
Turkish boat: length 100 feet, beam 12 feet, displacement 150
tons, speed 12 knots, and coal endurance sufficient for travelling
900 miles. The engines (E) are of the ordinary inverted compound
surface-condensing type, with two cylinders, and with 100 pound
pressure indicate 250 horse-power. The circulating and air pumps
being actuated by a separate cylinder, the main engine is left free
to work or not, while a vacuum is always maintained to assist the
various other engines with which the boat is fitted. In this respect
it should be mentioned that all the engines are specially designed
with such valve arrangements as will make the utmost use of the
vacuum, it having been found that while the boat is running beneath
the surface as much power can be developed below the atmospheric line
as above it.
The boiler, B, is of the ordinary marine return-tube type, with two
furnaces, and the heating surface is about seven hundred and fifty
square feet. The tanks at each end of the boat contain about fifteen
tons each, and there is a third of seven tons capacity at the bottom
of the central compartment for regulating buoyancy. The coal is
stored around the hot-water cistern as well as at the sides of the
boiler and over the central ballast tank.
Three men and the captain can efficiently work this boat, although
she may carry a crew of seven, who could remain in her for over
seven hours beneath the water without experiencing any difficulty
in respiration. No attempt is made as in some systems to purify the
atmosphere by chemical means, as it is said to be quite unnecessary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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