A Floating Invitation to Suicide 



It's a mine with an imitation 

 periscope projecting from the water 



PERISCOPE in sight!" calls one of 

 the lookouts on the starboard side, 

 excitedly pointing to a small object 

 a few hundred yards away, which his keen 

 and well-trained 

 eye has just dis- 

 cerned. A dozen 

 glasses are trained 

 upon that object 

 a moment later 

 and as many ob- 

 servers, firmly con- 

 \'inced by what 

 they see, that they 

 have the periscope 

 of a hostile sub- 

 marine before 

 them, begin to fid- 

 get in anticipation 

 of the coming 

 events. The first 

 impulse of the offi- 

 cers of the ship is 

 to head straight 

 for the periscope 

 and to ram the 

 submarine to 

 which it belongs. 



The captain, 

 knowing that in 

 the early months 

 of the war eighty 

 British ships were 

 sunk because their impetu- 

 ous commanders thought 

 that periscopes are always 

 associated with submarines, 

 does not jdeld to the rash 

 impulse of his officers, but 

 decides to try a shot at the 

 periscope first. The second 

 shot hits it squarely and 

 there is a terrific explosion. 



It was a mine — not a sub- 

 marine — a mine, equipped 

 with a seductive imitation of 

 a periscope designed to lure 

 on overbold vessels. An at- 

 tempt to ram the supposed 

 submarine would have been 

 fatal to the ship. The mine 



Ships will do well to steer clear of this imita- 

 tion of a periscope; to ram it means exit 



Imitation periscope 

 Exploder arms 



Sulphviricacid 

 Priming cKarge 



Explosive 



Fir\ to prevent 

 rotdtion — * 



Submersion ueight - 

 Cable eye- 

 Charged with T. N.T., wet 

 giin-cotton or dynamite 



is the invention of a foreign officer now 

 working for the United States Govern- 

 ment and proved to be highly effective in 

 the early part of the war, until the com- 

 manders of vessels 

 had learned to 

 curb their impetu- 

 ous impulse to ram 

 everything that 

 looked like a peri- 

 scope. 



A large metal 

 cylinder holds a 

 firing charge of 

 five hundred 

 pounds of tri-nitro- 

 toluol, wet gun- 

 cotton or dyna- 

 mite. Bolted to 

 the lower end of 

 the cylinder is a 

 weight to keep the 

 mine upright and 

 so far submerged 

 that only the tubu- 

 lar firing device, 

 simulating a peri- 

 scope, s h o.w s 

 above the surface. 

 The trigger ends 

 are in the top of 

 the periscope-like 

 device. The trig- 

 ger is so arranged that any 

 pressure upom it causes it to 

 break a bottle filled with 

 sulphuric acid. The acid 

 sets oflf the priming charge in 

 the lower part of the tube, 

 and this causes the explosion 

 of the main charge of the 

 mine. Of great importance 

 is the vertical fin attached to 

 the outside of the mine. It 

 acts like the rudder of a ship 

 and prevents the mine from 

 spinning around under the 

 influence of wind and wave 

 action, which adds in a large 

 measure to the value of the 

 invention. 



705 



