U.1.
(Completed 1905.)
This U.1 was built as an experimental boat by the famous firm of Krupps. She has a surface displacement of 197 tons, a submerged displacement of 236 tons, and her heavy-oil surface engines are of 250 H.-P. The electric motors for submerged use develop just over 100 H.-P. The speed ranges from 10 knots an hour on the surface to 7 knots when submerged, and her surface range of action is about 700 to 800 miles. The armament consists of one bow torpedo tube and three (17.7) Schwartzkopf torpedoes are carried. The complement is nine officers and men.
The trials of the U.1 extended over a period of a year and a half, and all proved remarkably satisfactory. During the tests which took place in Eckernforder Bay she succeeded, twice in succession, in torpedoing a moving target while travelling submerged at full speed.
The uncertainty displayed for some years previous by the German Naval Authorities regarding the value of submarine boats gave place to a thorough sense of the important part these “mighty atoms” would play in future naval warfare, and to a strong determination that the German Navy should include a powerful submarine flotilla.