SUBMARINE NAVIGATION. 245 



torpedoes, and in them the gun fittings would l)e permanent, whereas 

 in submarines certain portions of the armament would have to be 

 removed Avhen 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 favor 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 favored 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 utilizing 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 w-aves. These 

 suggestions, how^ever, are not in accord with the accepted theor}^ 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 likelihood of the displacement of 

 ocean steamships at an early date by either navigable air ships or 

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

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

 design and construction of the vessels they contemplate. 



