Undersea Fighting of the Future 



II. —Battling with Telephones 



By Edward F. Chandler 



The author of this article has conducted extensive researches in the art of 

 submarine radio transmission, applying the results to defensive and offensive 

 means of warfare. The system of submarine navigation described in this article 

 is the result of conclusive tests. — Editor. 



IF the war has taught us anything it 

 has taught us that the submarine 

 must be reckoned with both as an 

 annihilator of battleships and as a de- 

 stroyer of commerce. Of the dozens of 

 instrumentalities 

 invented for killing on 

 a wholesale scale it is 

 the most terrible. And 

 yet how crude is this 

 new weapon ! Com- 

 pared with what it can 

 be made it is what the 

 blunderbuss of old is 

 to the modern rifle. 



Consider for a mo- 

 ment how a submarine 

 boat is handled. The 

 commander plows 

 along at the surface 

 much as he would on 

 any ship. In the offing 

 he sees a pillar of 

 smoke. Friend or foe? 

 He must investigate. 

 Changing his course, 

 he steers for that 

 cloud on the horizon. In fifteen minutes 

 he has approached near enough to dis- 

 cover that the smoke is pouring from the 

 funnels of a hostile collier. She flies the 

 naval ensign of her country, and she is 

 convoyed by a torpedo-boat destroyer. 

 The submarine commander gives an order. 

 Water surges into tanks in the subma- 

 rine's hold. The craft sinks until only 

 her periscope projects from the water. 

 Heading for the collier the submarine 

 arrives within half a mile of its prey. 

 The commander takes the bearings of 

 the collier by compass and orders com- 

 plete submergence. In another minute 

 the craft is completely under the surface. 

 A sharp command, and a puff^ of com- 

 pressed air starts a torpedo from one 



Edward F. Chandler, whose most 

 important work thus far probably 

 is the development of a subma- 

 rine range-finding system and its 

 application to the detection and 

 destruction of hostile submarines 



of the launching-tubes. In less than 

 a minute it has reached the collier. There 

 is a dull explosion. Fifteen minutes later 

 a cargo of four thousand tons of coal lies 

 at the bottom of the sea, and a hundred 

 brave men have per- 

 ished miserably. 



Why the Submarine 

 Is Crude 



It seems very simple, 

 very certain, this tor- 

 pedoing of a ship from 

 a safe place under the 

 water. But for all that 

 it is unscientific and 

 haphazard. The sub- 

 marine commandei sees 

 nothing below the sur- 

 face ; that is why he 

 must take aim before he 

 submerges. To strike, 

 the target must be large 

 and ver>' near ; other- 

 wise he would surely 

 miss. Suppose that you 

 were told to shoot 

 blindfolded at a mark one hundred yards 

 awa\' and that you were given two 

 minutes to locate the target before your 

 eyes were covered. You would be exactly 

 in the position of a submarine com- 

 mander about to torpedo a hostile 

 ship. Is it any wonder that torpedoes 

 must be fired at close range? Is it not 

 obvious that the submarine could be 

 made still more terrible if the submarine 

 commander could locate his quarry 

 accurately in the inky blackness in 

 which he is immersed? 



To use lights under water is hopeless. 

 Even millions of candlepower would not 

 reveal the presence of a ship a mile off 

 to a submerged underwater craft. But 

 suppose that the commander of a sub- 



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