It is less than twenty years agone that the first five baby Hollands were built in this country for, and delivered to, England, and from that time dates the beginning of the art of modern submarine construction.
Since then the size, speed, and cruising radius of each succeeding type of submarine has grown greater and ever greater, until from a craft hardly larger than a power pleasure boat there has been evolved a truly wonderful undersea vessel of magnificent proportions.
Uncle Sam’s Latest Submarines.—The result of this marvelous development is that the latest of Uncle Sam’s submarines are of the 1200 and 1500 tons displacement type and they have a speed of 21 knots on the surface.
These giant submarines have a cruising radius of about 4,000 miles and are fitted with every instrument, device, apparatus and machine that human ingenuity can think of, or at least that has been invented, which goes to make for their operating and fighting qualities and for the safety and comfort of their crews.
From this you will see that since the year of 1900 the size of these craft has been increased about four times, their speed doubled, and their efficiency raised to half again as much. Based on the rapid strides that have been made since the war has been going on, it does not take any great foresight to predict that in the near future, if the U-boat blockade is not broken, submarines of upwards of 500 feet in length and 10,000 tons’ displacement will form the merchant fleet of the United States.
The Great Blockades of the Warring Nations.—The great blockades by which the Allies have bottled up the German Empire by their superior naval forces, and by which Germany is trying to shut off the trading of other countries with the Allies by her U-boat warfare, have prevented either side from scoring a victory.
But with Germany’s usual dogged determination for overcoming the difficulties that beset her, she built a submarine which could travel without a convoy, that is, without any base-ship to go along with her to provision and supply her needs, for 5,000 miles at least.
This giant submarine carried a cargo worth a million dollars or more, sunk out of sight as she left her home port, slipped underneath the grim warships of the Allies which menaced German shipping, and in this way ran the blockade.
Then one fine day there bobbed up in American waters near Chesapeake Bay a monster merchant submarine—the largest underwater craft ever built and the first of her kind ever seen. She was in very truth a nine days’ wonder.
The First of the Merchant Submarines.—The Deutschland, as she was named, was a marvel of engineering skill, and she was hailed as the first of a great fleet of merchant submarines which was to break the Allies’ blockade.
Starting from Bremen, Germany, and traveling underwater through the English Channel for a distance of 90 miles without even once coming to the surface, she made the entire voyage without mishap and docked at Baltimore just 16 days later.
When you think of how carefully she had to be handled and how cautiously she had to proceed so that she might escape destruction at the hands of her surface enemies, you must admit that she made the run in really remarkable time.
Some Facts About the Deutschland.—This great merchant submarine is 315 feet long, 30 feet through the beam, and draws[40] 17 feet of water. She is, therefore, as large as many of our coastwise steamers, so that she is something more than a mere underwater boat—indeed, she is a veritable submarine ship.
Her hull is shaped more nearly like that of a real ship than any submarine craft that was ever built before her, as Fig. 69 shows; but she has a conning tower, periscopes and wireless masts like any of the other of the tribe of submarines.
Her wireless aerial is held in place between two steel masts, each of which is 50 feet high and both of which can be folded down on the deck. The mast on her for’ard deck is fitted with a crow’s nest for a lookout, as though she were a real ship.
Her Captain and His Crew.—The inside of her hull is very much like an ordinary merchantman. For’ard are large and comfortable quarters for the officers, of whom there are nine, including Captain Koenig—a man you can’t help but admire. Abaft the ship are the quarters for the crew, and both fore and aft in her hold are compartments for the cargo she carries.
Her Valuable Cargo.—In making her first trip over from Bremen her cargo consisted of dyestuffs, medicines, synthetic stones[41] and other merchandise which took up small storage room and yet which was very valuable.
These she unloaded in Baltimore, and her return cargo was made up of crude rubber, tin, and nickel—materials much needed by the German Government for purposes of warfare.
She also served the very useful purpose of a packet, for by means of her Captain Koenig was able to hand personally to Count von Bernstorff, the German Ambassador to the United States at that time, important instructions which would otherwise have been hard to get through.
Again, what was of even greater urgency was that the Count was able to get rid of certain documents which would have made matters quite uncomfortable for him if they had been found in his possession some months later when the break came between the United States and Germany.
Her Great Engines.—The Deutschland is driven by two 600-horsepower Diesel engines, each of which has four cylinders. She is able to make a speed of 14 knots on the surface, but when submerged her speed is only about half as much.
She is supplied with enough liquid fuel and solid foods to enable her to cruise for 5,000 miles without making port.
Such is the Deutschland, and to her belongs the distinction of being the first underwater merchantman. Under the skilful command of her captain, she served her country nobly and well for the purpose for which she was built.
How the United States Can Break the Blockade.—Right now the United States and the Allies have to face the same gigantic problem that was forced upon Germany at the beginning of the war, and that is to break the enemy’s blockade.
The scheme of keeping the sea-roads clear for shipping by destroying the U-boats has proved a slow and hard process, and so new plans have been mapped out by our naval engineers and others with which to defeat the blockade.
The Wooden Ship Idea.—The first plan, and one which is being carried out with great energy, is the building of hundreds of little wooden ships, each of which is 25 feet shorter than the Deutschland and has a cargo carrying capacity of 3,500 tons, and a speed of 4 knots less than the surface speed of the great German submarine.
The main idea seems to be to turn these little boats out fast enough so that the number the U-boats sink will be so small that the loss will not be felt. The glaring fault of this idea is that while the U-boats are sinking 500,000 tons of shipping a month, American ship-builders can build only 200,000 tons a month, and this is figuring it out with a liberal margin.
While these small wooden craft of the vintage of 1850 would relieve the stress that is now felt in shipping circles they would not by any means remove it.
The Submarine Plan.—Simon Lake, the inventor of the submersible, has enlarged upon the German plan, and his plan is one which our Government ought to carry out, because, in the humble opinion of the writer, it is the only feasible one thus far advanced.
Mr. Lake has organized a company to build a fleet of undersea merchantmen, each boat of which will be ten times as large as the Deutschland and can carry a cargo of 7,500 tons. Mr. Lake says that with the co-operation of the Government he can build 100 of these giant craft in the first year, and that at the end of three years he can have a fleet of 500 of them built and in service. That is to say, in this short time he can have 4,000,000 tons of cargo sailing the seas with absolute safety.
This plan of the great submarine builder is the key which will unlock the horns of our dilemma. The only drawback seems to be the ability of a company to turn out so complex a mechanism as the submarine, and of such an enormous size, fast enough to make up for the rapidly disappearing tonnage of the Allies.
In the meantime the submarine chasers and the wooden and steel ships that are now being built may help to some extent to take care of our shipping until the great commercial submarines of Lake can be built and put into the trans-Atlantic service.
When Submarine Meets Submarine.—When Greek meets Greek then comes the tug of war, so the old saw goes, and it is just as true that the way to break the blockade of the U-boats is to pit the cunning of submarines against them.
With all our shipping going by the undersea route, the U-boats will lose their sting, the blockade will be broken, the power of the Allies will outweigh that of Germany, and the war will speedily come to an end.
And may that time come soon!
THE END