Under the periscope

Under the Periscope
BY MARK BENNETT (LATE LIEUT. R.N.R.)
LONDON: 48 PALL MALL W. COLLINS SONS & CO. LTD. GLASGOW MELBOURNE AUCKLAND
Copyright 1919
TO C. K. But for whom this book would never have been written.
For those who have no knowledge of the ways and habits of submarines, a preface is unnecessary, and my only hope is that this book may enlighten them on points on which they were formerly in ignorance. One is often asked, ‘What does it feel like to be below the sea?’ and a host of questions of a similar character, and it is just these questions that I have endeavoured to answer. The incidents recorded are all founded on fact, and many of them are personal experiences.
Of my one-time comrades of the Submarine Service, however, I have a favour to ask. I beg them not to be too critical nor to point out its deficiencies, but rather to remember that this book was written while the War was still with us, and that a large amount of detail had therefore to be omitted.
Moreover, the boat described is of one particular class, and if they themselves have never served in that class of submarine, ‘more’s the pity.’
All luck to our successors in the next war, and may they fight in the open air.
M. B.
Mr Bennett’s admirable book tells us of the officers and men of the Submarine Service and of the working of that wonderful vessel, the submarine. The author served throughout the war as an officer in H.M.S. submarine No.——, so that he writes of his own knowledge. Mr Bennett is a professional sailor; when he is not fighting for king and country he is an officer in His Majesty’s Mercantile Marine; and yet there is many a professional writer who may envy Mr Bennett’s skill in the craft of writing. As a rule, the man who does things is the least capable of writing about them; but when he can write, he is best of all. And of such is Mr Bennett.
The naval architect, when (in a rash moment) he gave the submarine to the Royal Navy, offered a new and a perilous enterprise to the indomitable spirit of the seaman. How that enterprise is achieved, with what courage, endurance, cheerfulness, enthusiasm, with what extraordinary skill, Mr Bennett tells us with a seamanlike modesty and precision. The task set to the Navy was how to wield a new weapon, an invisible weapon striking with the torpedo. It was not until 1910 that a British submarine went without escort into deep water and proved her capacity to cruise and fight as an independent unit. During the war, we heard a deal of the German submarine, and very little of our own Submarine Service. Mr Bennett narrates the story of one submarine, and in so doing, informs us more vividly and truly than all the official reports can ever inform us.