164 Sir William H. Wliite on Submarines. [June 9^ 



below the surface, and could effect its destruction by dropping high 

 explosive charges upon the helpless vessel. Here again, the inventor, 

 in his eagerness to do mischief, has not appreciated adequately the risks 

 which the airship would run if employed in the manner proposed, as 

 submarines are not likely to be used without supporting vessels. 

 Hitherto, submarines themselves have been armed only with torpedoes^ 

 but it has been proposed recently to add guns, and this can be done, 

 if desired, in vessels possessing relatively large freeboard. No doul^t 

 if gun armaments are introduced, the tendency will be to fm-ther 

 increase dimensions and cost, and the decision will be governed by 

 the consideration of the gain in fighting power as compared with 

 increased cost. As matters stand, submarines are practically helpless 

 at the surface when attacked by small swift vessels, and it is natural 

 that advocates of the type should desire to remedy this condition. 

 Surface boats, if built, will undoubtedly carry guns as well as 

 torpedoes, and in them the gun fittings would be permanent, whereas 

 in submarines certain portions of the armament would have to l)e 

 removed when vessels were prepared for diving. 



Apart from the use of submarine vessels for purposes of war, their 

 adoption as a means of navigation has found favour in many quarters. 

 Jules Verne in his " Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," has 

 drawn an attractive picture of what may be possible in this direction, 

 and others have favoured the idea of combining the supposed advan- 

 tages of obtaining buoyancy from bodies floating at some depth below 

 the surface with an airy promenade carried high above water. Not 

 many years ago an eminent naval architect drew a picture of what 

 might be accomplished by utihsing what he described as the " un- 

 troubled water below " in association with the freedom and pure air 

 obtainable on a platform carried high above the waves. These 

 suggestions, however, are not in accord with the accepted theory of 

 wave motion, since they take no note of the great depths to which 

 the disturbance due to wave-motion penetrates the ocean. The 

 problems of stability, incidental to such plans, are also of a character 

 not easily dealt with, and consequently there is but a remote prospect 

 of the use of these singular combinations of submarine and aerial 

 superstructures. There is little hkelihood of the displacement of 

 ocean steamships at an early date by either navigable airships or 

 submarines, and the dreams of Jules Verne or Santos Dumont will 

 not be realised until much further advance has been made in the 

 design and construction of the vessels they contemplate. 



[W. H. W.] 



