Popular Science Monthly 



181 



It looks like a peaceful, dumpy affair, but it can squirt death 



shortly afterward six were shipped to 

 Archangel, before that Russian port 

 closed for the winter. Great secrecy 

 was maintained as to the details, but 

 after the second order was given, proving 

 in the only way possible that the boats 

 were successful, general specifications 

 were admitted. 



Each boat carries three 175-horse- 

 power engines, giving a total of 525 

 horsepower to drive the load. The speed 

 called for was twenty-six miles an hour, 

 but the average, on the trials which 

 could be held, was over thirty miles. 

 The boats are sixty feet long, ten feet 

 beam, and two feet ten inches draft. 

 They weigh twenty-eight thousand 

 pounds. There are accommodations for 

 eight men, si.x 

 bunks forward 

 and two aft, the 

 latter for the 

 engineers. The 

 pilot house, 

 which is practi- 

 cally the only 

 obstruction on 

 the deck. 



armored and has room 

 for a quick firer, which 

 of course was not 

 mounted before the 

 iioats were shipped to 

 Russia. 



The boats are of the 

 \'-type, a design which is 

 but a year or two old in 

 American motor-boats. 

 The bow is sharp, but 

 a few feet back is a 

 shoulder on each side of 

 the hull, which performs 

 the same duty as the 

 steps on a hydroplane, 

 and lifts the hull partly 

 out of the water. The first large boat 

 of this design which was completely 

 successful was the famous champion 

 racing cruiser Flyaway III, which is stilt 

 champion. Were the new Russian sub- 

 marine swatters to compete with Fly- 

 away, a new winner would probably 

 be announced. They are much larger, 

 faster boats, in fact, the largest V-type 

 ever constructed, and it is the success 

 of this development which has so inter- 

 ested Americans. 



As fighters, these motor-boats should 

 be efficacious against submarines. They 

 draw so little water that they can ride 

 safely over the ordinary mine-fields with- 

 out exploding the mines. They are 

 equipped with two rudders so that they 



Equipped with 

 wireless it cuts 

 through the water 

 and rides safely 

 over mine fields 



