Courtesy of Leslie’s Weekly
THE CREW OF A SUBMARINE. (NOTE SAILOR GOING BELOW THROUGH HATCH IN AFTER-DECK.)
The submarine is kept in constant touch with the mother ship, as the base-ship is sometimes called, and as the latter has a much more powerful sending apparatus it can, in turn, communicate with the land either directly or by relaying the message by another ship.
The wireless operators also keep busy listening for the first faint signals sent out by enemy ships which may come within range of their instruments, and though they will not be able to read the messages if they are sent in cipher code[31] they can at least know of the proximity of the ship.
Breaking in Raw Recruits.—When there is peace on earth and good will toward men the submarine never gets very far away from its base-ship, about its only excursions being for drill and practice, which is made up of maneuvering the submarine and torpedo practice.
To maneuver the craft means to make adroit moves and changes of position, that is, the boat is put from the afloat into the awash, submerged, and totally submerged conditions by and for the benefit of both the new men and old hands.
The submarine’s place at sea—that is, her longitude and latitude—is found solely by log distances and compass courses while the boat is running submerged, and her course is corrected for drift and leeway; navigating the submarine by these means is called dead reckoning.
Torpedo practice consists of firing torpedoes with dummy heads, that is, heads which do not contain a charge of explosive, at floating targets which the submarine or a lighter tows out to sea and anchors fast. Whether the torpedoes hit or miss they come to the surface after having been shot and are picked up again and returned to the submarine.
By constant practice the men of the torpedo-crew become highly skilled in hitting the target with the cigar-shaped projectile, and they are not allowed to get rusty for want of constant practice.