Warships and their story

by R. A. Fletcher

Though the Davids proved as destructive to themselves as to the enemy, they demonstrated as nothing else could have done that a small boat approaching noiselessly under cover of darkness could destroy by means of mines or torpedoes a hostile ship.

The most inappropriately named submarine was the Resurgam, invented by an English clergyman named Garrett, for during an experiment off the Welsh coast, in 1879, it never returned to the surface after diving.

The first submarine as a locomotive engine of warfare was invented by John P. Holland, and it is to his boat, known as the Holland the First, that all the modern submarines and submersibles owe their parentage. It was a one-man affair, just big enough to allow him to sit down in it and work with his feet the paddle arrangement that turned the propeller shaft. It carried five small torpedoes, which could be placed outside through a chamber in the dome or conning tower, and were discharged by electricity. This marked the introduction of one of the means which made modern submarine vessels possible, for until it was discovered how to use electricity in this way, a clockwork arrangement was the only reliable method by which a torpedo could be exploded. The application of electricity rendered it possible to eject the torpedo a considerable distance from the ship, comparatively speaking, and by means of connecting wires discharge it when thought advisable. This vessel was only 16 feet in length. The second Holland, built in 1877, was only 10 feet long. A small gas or oil engine was introduced to drive the screw propeller of a third submarine built by Holland two years later. This boat was 31 feet long, 6 feet in diameter, and cigar-shaped. The experiments he conducted with it showed that it was impossible to depend on ordinary vision when travelling in any depth of water on account of the darkness. She carried a pneumatic gun discharging a 9-inch projectile, the range of the weapon being 130 feet. It was not until 1884 that Holland’s fourth boat appeared. In the following year he tried again with a rather larger vessel, 40 feet long and 7 feet in diameter, often called the Zalinski, because it was fitted with pneumatic guns of the type invented by an American army lieutenant of that name. Again there was a long silence in regard to Holland, until he submitted the designs of his seventh boat—the sixth was planned but never built—to the American Government, which had decided to adopt the under-water torpedo boat as a definite part of the navy. The Holland the Seventh, as designed and launched, was to be 85 feet long, of 100 tons displacement, and to carry three torpedo tubes and two steel armoured gun turrets. The Holland Company had meanwhile designed a vessel they considered much superior, and the Government consented to adopt it in place of No. 7. She was something like a porpoise, and above a semi-cylindrical hull carried a flat-sided superstructure, which has been one of the distinguishing features of the Holland type of submarines from that day to this. Her aerial torpedo was to carry 100 lb. of gun-cotton. After discharging it she was to dive, approach the vessel she sought to destroy, and fire her Whitehead torpedo. If this missed, she was to go under the vessel and discharge her after submarine gun immediately after passing underneath. The Holland was altered and improved, and when the French announced that they had become possessed of types of submarines and submersibles upon which dependence could be placed in time of war for destroying an enemy’s vessels, the British Admiralty abandoned the attitude of scepticism and watchfulness combined it had maintained for so long, and ordered five boats from the Holland Company for experimental purposes. The experiments which were made with these boats resulted in the Government becoming possessors of what were known as the A class of submarine.

BRITISH SUBMARINE A13.

Photograph by E. Sankey, Barrow.

BRITISH SUBMARINE C22.

Photograph by E. Sankey, Barrow.

Very little has been revealed of the details of modern submarines, for if there is one subject more than another upon which the admiralties of the world are agreed, it is that they should not let one another know the secrets of the mechanism of these under-water craft. That, at least, is the theory, but it is very questionable if all the governments are not quite well informed as to the constructional details of each other’s submarines, and probably know almost as much about them as they do about their own. The experiments at Barrow and elsewhere with the Holland boats and their successors have been responsible for the introduction of several classes of submarines, every one of which embodies improvements upon its predecessor. The five boats built for Great Britain at Barrow, in 1902, were 63 feet 4 inches in length by 11 feet 9 inches breadth, by 12 feet 1 inch depth, and had a surface speed of ten knots and a submerged speed of seven knots. The A class, which appeared in 1902, began with a vessel of 180 tons displacement, and 100 feet in length by 12 feet 8 inches beam. Larger vessels of this class were built from 1904 to 1907 of 204 tons displacement, but varying considerably in dimensions. The B class of 313 tons submerged displacement was introduced in 1903-4. These vessels were 135 feet by 13 feet 6 inches, and had a cruising speed of fourteen knots and a submerged speed of nine knots. The C class, which resembled the B class in many particulars, appeared in 1906-7, as did also the D class, but the latter were of 500 tons submerged displacement and of fifteen knots cruising speed. The five boats built on the Holland designs were each propelled by a 4-cylinder 190 h.p. petrol engine besides an electrical engine of 70 h.p. The armament was an 18-inch torpedo tube in the bow, and each carried five torpedoes. These vessels were divided into seven compartments. The deck was 31 feet 4 inches by 4 feet 5 inches. There were two diving rudders at the stern, and the conning tower, of 32 inches diameter, was formed of 4-inch armour. The A type, the first of which sank in March, 1904, off Spithead, had a 12-cylinder 600 h.p. gasolene engine. The B type had engines of 850 h.p., and could carry 15 tons of fuel structurally, and were provided with a forward superstructure. The D type have heavy oil engines, and can carry 15 tons of fuel. Yet another and more advanced type of submarine is stated to be under consideration and possibly under construction. It is to be larger, according to report, than any existing submarine, and is to carry a gun, which it will come to the surface to discharge. Is this to be the forerunner of a new cruiser, to be equally at home and equally dreaded, whether it be operating at the surface or beneath the waves, advancing stealthily upon its foe?