The Submarine in War and Peace: Its Development and its Possibilities

by Simon Lake

Sketch showing the submarine "Argonaut III" on the bottom and operator in diving compartment inspecting the waterbed through the open diver's door.

There is also a very numerous class of persons who hold that the submarine is a very risky and dangerous mechanism; they feel that the principles of its operation have not yet been brought to a point of safety or certainty. The facts upon which they base this judgment are found by them in the accounts of the many accidents which have occurred to submarines in recent years. As a matter of fact, these accidents have been due, as a rule, to either of two causes; namely, faulty construction or carelessness. There is not a case on record of a properly constructed, well-handled submarine coming to grief through any cause related to the principle of her operation. The principles of successfully navigating under the water were discovered twenty years ago, and have been applied with perfect safety ever since. Many designers since that time have failed to recognize the correct principles, and their incorrectly built boats have given trouble; hence accidents have occurred. To-day, however, the true principles of construction are universally recognized. The modern submarine has passed the stage of experimentation.

Another source for notions of this same sort, as to the unreliability of submarine navigation, is the constant repetition in the daily press that our submarines are not operating satisfactorily. These complaints also lead people to conclude that the mechanical demands of under-water navigation are not completely fulfilled. Now, submarine vessels may be constructed to-day which are a great deal more trustworthy in their operation and considerably less dangerous to go about in than are certain well-known United States railroads. Nearly every submarine in use in the navies of the world at the present day is capable of functioning in perfect safety, so far as submergence and emergence are concerned. They may be operated with almost exact precision while located many feet beneath the surface. If given sufficient static stability, there is no danger that they will dive to the bottom or that they will not come up again.

The cause of all these complaints about our submarines is traceable to a single difficulty. The reader by this time realizes that the difficulty is with the engines, and not with the principles of submarine construction. The modern submarine builder cannot find an engine of sufficiently light weight to install with safety in a submarine hull which will give all the speed which the government demands that his boat should produce. On attempting to attain speed much engine trouble has developed, due to experimentation and trial, and from this source have sprung all the criticisms of the operation of our vessels. There is no such natural limitation to the possible utility of the submarine as many people believe; the only limitation is that of speed. Our boats are safe, they are seaworthy, they are capable of a tremendous radius of action. Sooner or later a reliable engine will be developed which will meet the needs of military submarines and which will deliver power sufficient to give the submarine battleship speed. This is at present the only limitation upon submarine development, and it is not an insuperable obstacle.

Those critics of the submarine who base their opinions upon moral and humanitarian notions are as self-deceived as those who disparage the mechanical success of the under-water vessel. People in this latter class, however, are not afflicted with a distorted vision of the truth, as are those of the other group, but rather, we may say, they suffer from nearsightedness. They do not look far enough ahead to judge as to the permanent utility of the submarine. They base their inferences entirely upon the use which one of the belligerent powers has made of its submarines. It is true, indeed, that the activities of a great many submarine commanders, and the policy of frightfulness which has been so consistently maintained throughout the course of the war by a certain group of autocrats, have temporarily put a moral stigma upon the submarine as a justifiable naval weapon. They have made it appear that the submarine cannot play a humane and legitimate part in warfare. While I have firmly maintained, and still believe, that a submarine blockade is a legitimate use of this weapon in warfare, I do regret that many acts committed by the submarines of one of the belligerents in the present war have been little short of outright piracy.

Strange to say, from the time when I first went into submarine work a fear has always possessed me that the submarine might be turned to piratical uses. I have often thought that some unscrupulous and adventurous group of men might terrorize the commerce of the world in times of peace by taking advantage of the invisible qualities of submarine vessels. Such a group of men with the use of such a weapon might make submarine attacks on peaceful merchant vessels and escape detection and capture for years. I did not, however, nor did any other submarine inventor, anticipate that any of the world's recognized governments would sanction piratical and barbarous actions on the part of their naval officers. In fact, it has been the aim of submarine inventors, from Fulton's time to the present, to devise a weapon that would ultimately bring war between maritime nations to an end. They have not had in mind the murderous designs which have been accredited to them from the very outset. It is my firm conviction that it is the destiny of the submarine to put an end forever to the possibility of warfare upon the high seas, and to eliminate warfare between nations which have no other access to each other except by sea. This is the wonderful opportunity of the submarine, and the submarine inventor has been and will be a laborer in the cause of peace, and not the cause of war and bloodshed.

Robert Fulton pointed out this possibility when he was working upon his own devices. In a letter upon the subject he stated:

"All my reflections have led me to believe that this application of it (the use of the mines placed by submarines) will in a few years put a stop to maritime wars, give that liberty on the seas which has been long and anxiously desired by every good man, and secure to Americans that liberty which will enable citizens to apply their mental and corporeal faculties to useful and humane pursuits, to the improvement of our country, and the happiness of the whole people."

Later on it was Josiah L. Tuck who recognized the same fact, and entitled the vessel of his construction The Peacemaker.