Discovering a Floating Mine Officers looking over the side of an American ship find a mine. length of seventeen feet, but some of the newest type carry torpedoes measuring twenty-one feet. In loading a torpedo a water-tight cap at the outer end of the tube is closed. The torpedo is adjusted for firing and placed in the tube, from within the boat, and the inner cap shut. When the torpedo is to be fired the space in the tube around the torpedo is filled with water from a filling-tank which has already been arranged inside the boat. To discharge the torpedo, pressure from the compressed-air flask is forced into the tube behind the torpedo and it is driven out at a speed of about thirty knots an hour. In leaving the tube a lever on the torpedo is pulled over and this starts the engine in the projectile. HOW A TORPEDO IS OPERATED When once out in the water the torpedo operates like a miniature submarine, having its own engine, steeringgear, and depth-gear. The cigar-shaped torpedo is divided into three sections. The tip end contains the explosive, the center part is filled with compressed air to run the machinery, and in the tail end are the engine and steering and depth gears. When the tip end strikes any solid body in the water a firing-pin sets off the explosive. To prevent any accident to the boat from which the torpedo has been discharged, the firing-pin is locked until a distance of one hundred and fifty feet is reached; a tiny propeller on the pin turns and unlocks it at that distance. Before placing the torpedo in the tube on the submarine, the depth-gear is set. This depth differs according to the object at which one is aiming. For some boats, such as a destroyer, a depth of five feet is required, and for a battleship it is necessary to hit at a depth of fifteen feet to get below the armor belt. The device for setting this depth is There somewhat like an alarm-clock. is a dial with figures on it, up to twenty, and whatever depth is wanted the dial is set at that number. THE GUNS OF A SUBMARINE All the submarines used in warfare have at least one quick-firing gun to defend themselves against small boats and airplanes, and some have two. These are mounted on the deck. In some cases a water-tight box is fitted over the gun. To bring the gun into firing position the cover of the box is Opened and the gun raised. In other boats the guns are left uncovered and open to the sea. A third system of placing the gun is inside the boat; these can be raised and fired and then disappear again. SUBMARINES THAT LAY MINES There are special submarines for laying mines. These boats are different from the ordinary submarine in having two wells or tubes running down through the boat from the deck to the keel. Six These tubes are open to the sea. mines with their anchors and cables are placed in each tube, a device at the bottom holding the mine in until the desired spot is reached. There they are let out one by one. Each mine is fitted with an automatic device for keeping the mine at a certain distance below the surface of the water. When a ship comes in contact with the mine it explodes a charge powerful enough to sink the vessel. Thus the contest between inventors goes on. When the first ironclad was brought out it was considered safe from attack, but the Monitor was invented to destroy it. When the torpedo-boat was developed it was followed by the torpedo-boat destroyer. When the dirigibles were used in war the air-planes were fitted to bring them down. And so when a submarine was perfected nets were spread to entangle it, and soundmagnifiers made it possible to hear its approach. The airplanes could detect it from above and the depth bombs could smash it far below the surface. So the battle of wits continues, and as fast as a deadly weapon is discovered a new defense is perfected to oppose it. WHERE PAT WAS IN a small village in Ireland the mother of a soldier met the village priest, who asked her if she had "Pat has been killed." had bad news. "Sure, I have," she said. "Oh, I am very sorry," said the priest. "Did you receive word from the War Office?" "No," she said, "I received word from himself." The priest looked perplexed and said, "But how is that?" 'Sure," she said, "here is the letter; read it for yourself." The letter said, “Dear Mother,—I am now in the Holy Land.” -The Argonaut. CAPTURING A SUBMARINE SINGLE-HANDED He Thought Being a Marine Policeman Was Dull-Until OLLING slowly on the cold gray ROLLING swells of the English Channel, westward over a certain number of miles of waves, then back eastward over the same miles, steaming steadily to and fro like a policeman over a lonely beat, a trawler was patrolling monotonously, the young lieutenant who commanded her scanning the tossing surface about him as a detective scans the faces of a crowd. Nothing relieved the monotony of the rhythmic rise and fall of the boat and the westward and eastward patrol except an occasional British or French cruiser and the regular exchange of signals with other patrolling trawlers as either end of the beat was reached. The young lieutenant had plenty of time to growl inwardly at his luck. Why was he not on some great battleship where there was at least room to stretch his legs, where one could keep dry, and where there was some slight chance of battle, instead of on this bobbing tub where there was not room to whip a cat, where every wave drenched all on board with spray, and where there was never a show for any sort of fight? What opportunity was there here to do anything that might win promotion, higher pay, a medal, a few days' leave? He had entered the navy because he wanted to have a part in the fighting, and here he was doing the work of a marine policeman! A white streak-different to his practised eye from the white streaks of breaking waves-tore through the water, coming straight toward him. A shock, and it seemed as if an earthquake had struck the trawler. An explosion smashed her to bits in an instant, and the young lieutenant found himself swimming with bits of wreckage and dying men about him. Slipping out of the hampering folds of his greatcoat, he swam. He saw some of his men seize bits of wreckage and drift away. He saw the mangled bodies of others bob up for an instant in the trough of a wave. There seemed no piece of wreckage big enough to support him. But he was a strong swimmer, and he kept afloat. He did not know in what direction he was swimming; he just swam. Suddenly his feet struck something solid. He pushed back on it and gave himself a forward spurt, but as he extended his feet backward again they touched that solid submerged something a second time. He rested his feet against it, and it seemed like a great, smooth rock. But it was moving! It was coming up under him! "The submarine that sank us!" This thought flashed into the swimmer's mind. Turning quickly in the water, he saw already above the surface a pair of periscopes and the top of a conning-tower, with the seawater streaming down them as they rose. He ceased swimming instantly, and braced his feet upon the slippery solid, which he knew now was the deck of the U-boat that had just sent his vessel and crew to the bottom. As it came up he came up with it. A few seconds more, and the conning-tower was out of water and the decks were awash. |