Honolulu Republican, Volume IV, Number 499, 17 January 1902 — WHIM OF SUBMARINE BOATS. [ARTICLE]

WHIM OF SUBMARINE BOATS.

They Like to Take Dives to Bottom When Nobody Looking. to Bottom When Nobody Looking. An officer of the company which is making submarine boats, in speaking of the involuntary dive to the bottom of Peconic Bay, taken by the Fulton at New Suffolk, L. L. said: "I am not superstitious about many things, but I am getting to be very superstitious about the way in which each one of these boats of ours goes to the bottom at least once before it is commissioned. “Five years ago the Plunger, while at the pier of the Columbia Iron Works in Baltimore, sank without a bit of warning, and we were several days getting her .up. When we investigated the matter we found that a valve had been left open by a workman. Carelessness was of course responsible for this accident. “Three years ago the Holland, while at Nixon's yard at Elizabethport, sank at her dock, and again, when we got her up, we found that a careless workman had left a valve open. Now the Fulton has gone and done the same thing, and once more it was careless workmen who were responsible for it. “When we are testing a submarine boat and every one who sees us make a plunge, holds his breath for fear that we will never come up again, we never have an accident. We have never had an accident yet. and I don't believe we ever will. But the minute we leave a boat alone, down she goes. "In every case it has happened when it was least expected. Fortunately for us there is no kind of craft so easy to get up again, once she has gone down. All we have to do is to get the water out of her dynamo and engine rooms and out of her cabins. "To do this a diver seals her up while she is on the bottom and then we pump her out. To get the rest of the water out of the ballast tanks all we have to do is to release the compressed air which is always carried on a submarine boat. It pushes it out in a hurry. Of course the moment the water is out the boat comes up to the surface again. "I don't want to predict any further calamities of this kind for the company but I am beginning to believe that there is a kind of fate in this thing. I'll know better when I see how the next boat comes out. I wouldn't bet a cent that she doesn't go to the bottom involuntarily, at least once, before she leaves our hands.”