This submarine is of the Holland type, similar to the U. S. "Adder" and "Moccasin." This illustration shows the radical change made in naval warfare in one hundred years.
One should not imagine that the Germans are carrying on this campaign at random. It is well organized and systematic. Each vessel that comes in sight of a submarine is a marked vessel, and even if she is the fastest vessel afloat, she may speed unwittingly into a trap set for her by wireless. So long as she cannot disappear she has no real ability to elude. On the other hand, the cargo-carrying submarine of low speed has both these advantages: she has low visibility and the capability of disappearance. She may become invulnerable when danger threatens. She has all of the qualities possessed by her enemies. She may beat them at their own game. Vessels of the ordinary type will suffice in no way to meet the great problem presented by the U-boats. The cargo submarine, however, readily meets all the needs of the situation. This is the sole method of which I am cognizant by means of which a submarine blockade and the destruction of cargo-carrying vessels can be overcome with safety and with certainty. I have expected the Germans would blockade our own ports, as it is easily possible for them to do so; I believe the reason they have not done so thus far is because of political reasons, as it would undoubtedly be to their advantage to have our trade after the war, which they might not have if they arouse our hatred any more than they already have.
[CHAPTER VII]
THE SUBMARINE IN TIMES OF PEACE
So engrossed have been governments, inventors, capitalists, and the public in general, in the development of the submarine vessel for military purposes, and in the perfection and augmentation of its capabilities as a destructive agent, that they have never considered or realized that submarines and submarine appliances possess a wide range of utility as productive instruments in commercial and industrial operations.
This concentration of energy upon the construction of military submarines I believe to have been a very desirable thing, and the success which has been attained therein, I am convinced, augurs propitiously for the future well-being of the world. It is time now, however, to take up the development of the submarine for industrial purposes. The world stands in need, to-day, of services which the submarine is uniquely able to render.
While great publicity has been given to the art of submarine navigation as applied to warfare, little or nothing has been published, outside of scientific journals, as to the productive capacity of submarine devices. It seems desirable, therefore, to devote a few pages to consideration of the submarine in this other field of action. I myself have devoted the greater part of my own efforts to the construction of military submarines. But, in the early years of my work as a constructor of under-water vessels I was greatly attracted to this branch of submarine work, and from that time to the present I have spent a great deal of time and money in developing submarine appliances to be turned to peaceful uses. It is my aim to go into this work quite extensively when peace is restored to the world. At present, however, problems of national defence are occupying the attention of every naval architect.
I shall present in this chapter a few suggestions as to the uses to which submarine appliances may be turned as productive agents, and I shall speak briefly and simply as to the mode of operation of such devices. Many of the things of which I will write have actually been accomplished in vessels constructed by me. Others of which I write are now under process of construction. Still others are as yet visionary, but not at all impossible. Nothing of which I write do I believe to be impractical or improbable. The submarine can do many things in a new, more economical, and more productive way.