Another Destructive Engine
Another Destructive Engine. The S. F. Chronicle contains the following in regard to the “submarine monitor,” a recent invention by one J. H. L. Tuck, an old Californian. Is it by means of such engines of war as this, that the millennium will be brought about? Who can tell? “It is designed for use in naval warfare and harbor defense. It is a cigar-shaped steel boat, thirty feet long, with six feet breadth of beam and six feet depth of hold, and is propelled by electric motors. The monitor is manned by a captain and a crew of two men. The captain, equipped in a suit of submarine armor, is stationed on deck. He has the free use of his hands and arms, and, although invisible himself, can see distinctly any objects around and above him and can communicate with his men by telephone. Seated in the stern of the boat is the helmsman, who, by means of a horizontal fish-tailed rudder, controls the course of the monitor, and by observing an indicator, which is in front of him, can tell her exact depth under the water. The third man is stationed at the pumps. He regulates the ballast of the boat and sees that the captain is properly supplied with air. At any time that it is required he can raise the monitor to within fifteen feet of the surface and take in a stock of fresh air without making any surface demonstration. It is claimed for the boat that it can thus remain under water for an indefinite time, sail wherever it wills and rise to the surface or sink to any depth at the pleasure of its captain. In the event of war the invisible little monitor would, after sailing about and taking observations, rise under the keel of a vessel, noiselessly attach its explosives, fire them by electricity and then, guided by the indicator, retire to a safe distance until the hostile ship was blown out of the water. The plan of the monitor has been highly commended by naval officers and engineers, and it is claimed that, with the services of two of these boats, an attack on our harbor by any naval fleet in the world could be successfully resisted.”