Supplying Submarines by Trailer 



Carrying fuel and supplies in a tender, a 

 submarine is made lighter and more mobile 



Armored electric 

 cable 



Periscope 

 Oil tank 



.Storage 

 compart- 

 ment 

 Winch 



AUTOMOBILES have trailers, motor 

 r\ trucks have trailers — why not sub- 

 marines? Apparently acting on 

 such an idea, Philippo L. E. del Fungo- 

 Giera, of New York city, has patented a 

 tender or trailer which submarines may 

 frisk over the high seas as unconcernedly 

 as a farmer hauls his milk cans in a two- 

 wheeled vehicle behind his Ford. 



The tender, which is about thirty feet 

 long, can be submerged 

 a convenient distance 

 from the field of opera- 

 tion and thus concealed 

 from the enemy. In 

 it, fuel supplies, com- 

 pressed Oxygen, oil 

 and other stores are 

 carried. When the 



submarine runs out of 

 such necessaries it can 

 return to the tender 

 and renew its store. 

 The frequent long trips 

 to and from a naval 

 base are largely elimi- 

 nated. 



Of interest about an 

 invention of this kind 

 is the fact that while 

 the Allies might use it, it is improbable 

 that the Germans could. The North Sea 

 is patrolled by several thousand subma- 

 rine-chasers of various types for which 

 reason it seems unlikely that the Germans 

 could use the idea. 



Upon approaching the scene of action 

 the submarine vessel would attempt to 

 reach shallow water if possible. There 

 she would submerge and anchor the 

 tender. For this purpose an armored 

 cable connects the electrical machinery 

 within the tender with the controlling 

 mechanism inside a marking buoy above. 

 The crew unbolt the cover of the buoy, 

 insert an electric plug which is connected 

 with the submarine's dynamos, and turn 

 on the current. Four anchor cables are 

 released instantly. Electric motors drive 

 the four winches which partially wind up 

 their respective cables again. The tender 



^Marking buoy 



Water-tight cable 



Inlet 



Compartment manhole 



Storage 

 compartment 



Electric 

 motor 



Storage 

 compart 

 ment 



jg waU 



is thus made to sink to the desired depth, 

 while the buoy cables automatically pay 

 out a corresponding amount. After con- 

 cealing the marking buoy with seaweed, 

 observations are taken to determine its 

 position, and the submarine proceeds 

 upon its way. 



Allied submarines which operate in the 

 Baltic sea, perhaps a thousand miles from 

 their naval bases, ordinarily have to spend 

 a week's time in travel- 

 ing to the scene of 

 action and returning. 

 Fuel and provisions are 

 used up so rapidly that 

 the submarines have 

 little more than a week 

 and a half in which to 

 raid Germany's ships. 

 However, advocates of 

 the new invention be- 

 lieve tenders are capa- 

 ble of improving this 

 situation. While pull- 

 ing a trailer may slow 

 up a submarine's prog- 

 ress to and from bases 

 somewhat, this is made 

 up for by the longer 

 time the store of sup- 

 plies brought along permits the craft to 

 stay at sea. It would clearly be out of 

 the question to haul supply tanks through 

 the North Sea, around the north of Scot- 

 land, and to plant them in the Atlantic 

 Ocean itself. 



Obtaining supplies from the tender is 

 accomplished by first manipulating the 

 anchor cables in such a way that the craft 

 may rise to the surface. "Then one of the 

 crew opens and enters a manhole, after- 

 ward taking out through this opening any 

 package stores the submarine may desire. 

 The stored oxygen, which is used for 

 breathing when the submarine travels 

 imder water, is discharged into the sub- 

 marine by means of suitable hot^e con- 

 nections. The oils are likewise pumped 

 across through hose. A man may be 

 loft permanently on the tender to lower 

 it still farther if in danger. 



I Water-tight cable inlets | 



Compressed ox- 

 ygen tank 



Auxiliary 

 anchor 



Bell suction anchors 

 Cross-section of the tender, 

 showing the storage compart- 

 ments and apparatus used 



18G 



