SUBMARINE NAVIGATION. 157 



it since, that if they (the Spanish) had had two of those things in 

 Manila, I never could have held it with the squadron I had." 



Rear-Admiral Philip Hichborn, Chief of the Bureau of Construc- 

 tion, writes in 'Engineering Magazine' for June, 1900: "Submarines 

 can secure our coasts more perfectly than they can be secured in any 

 other way at present practicable." 



Mr. W. E. Eckert, consulting engineer of the Union Iron Works, 

 of San Francisco, which built the 'Oregon' and the 'Olympia,' said, 

 after the trial of the 'Holland' of September, 1899, in Peconic Bay, 

 Long Island: "I have been on the trial trips of many of the new 

 vessels built for the Government, and would say that I would feel safer 

 in the Holland boat when under water than in the engine or fire rooms 

 of any of the fast torpedo boats." 



Rear-Admiral Endicott says: "The Holland submarine torpedo 

 boat will revolutionize the world's naval warfare. It will make the 

 navies of the world playthings in the grasp of the greatest naval engine 

 in history." 



However successful or safe submarine navigation may be to-day, 

 the story of its development shows sufficiently that the risks to be 

 taken have been very great, even though the actual loss of life incurred 

 has been, on the whole, remarkably slight. To the venturesome spirits 

 who have sought thus to master the ocean depths the risk involved has 

 only added a new fascination. 



The history of man's attempts to penetrate the depths of the ocean 

 is not brief. The diving-suit, indeed, is modern, but the diving-bell 

 appears to have been known in the time of Aristotle and diving itself is 

 as old as man. 



But essential mastery of the depths can never be attained by these 

 means. The expert diver can remain below but two minutes or so, 

 at the most. The tenant of a diving bell or suit is not, indeed, so 

 limited in time, but, because absolutely dependent upon the flexible 

 tube by means of which air is pumped down to him by companions 

 at the surface, he is limited in space, and, by conditions of weather 

 and sea, is limited also as to times. In no such sense is he independent 

 as is the captain of an ocean greyhound or man-of-war, or even as 

 the lone lobsterman at the helm of an undecked boat. To be master 

 under water one must navigate under water, and any contrivance 

 deserving the name of submarine boat must be able not only to sink 

 beneath the surface, but also by its own power to move about under 

 water for a reasonable time freely and independently. They who go 

 down to the sea in suits and bells are not navigators. 



The number of recorded attempts truly to navigate under water is 

 surprisingly large. In a report of the United States Fortifications 



