CHAPTER XXIX
THE DEADLY SUBMARINE AND ITS STEALTHY DESTRUCTION
[NEW COMPLICATIONS IN NAVAL ATTACK] — [ATTACK ON LINER DESCRIBED] — [OPERATION OF TORPEDOES] — [NETS TO TRAP SUBMARINES] — [HOW CRAFT SUBMERGE.]
What is the value of the submarine in war? Is it so great that all our theories of naval attack and defense will have to be revised? Are the great battles of the future to be fought under water? Is a little vessel of a few hundred tons to make the dreadnaught useless? German naval tactics in the present war have made these questions interesting alike to the expert, who has his answers to them, and to the layman, who is profoundly ignorant on the whole subject.
Simon Lake, an inventor who has done much to bring the submarine to its present degree of efficiency, says that “it is the first weapon which has a potential power to destroy an invading force, and also to prevent an invading force from leaving its own harbors or roadsteads, but which is itself useless for invading purposes.” This is at once an exaltation and a limitation of its effectiveness. Yet Captain Lake believes that it will be “the most potent influence that has been conceived to bring about a permanent peace between maritime nations.”
Heavy armament would have availed the Lusitania nothing, even if the vessel had been so equipped, declared Captain Lake. Even if the Cunarder had been bristling with guns from bow to stern, she could have done no damage to the under-water craft that attacked her. She was doomed when the submarine approached her.
The submarine with its periscope three feet under water could not have been seen fifty feet distant from the liner’s side, and the chances were she was 1,000 yards distant. No shot from the vessel could have located her, though aimed by trained officers.