The Submarine Torpedo Boat
Its Characteristics And Modern Development

vi PREFACE 3800 mile voyage of the German submarine Deutschland. This vessel, unattended, has successfully eluded all surface craft during her long trip which began at Heligoland on June 23 and ended at Baltimore July 9. For a part of her voyage the Deutschland was forced to run submerged to escape detection by the blockading English and French cruisers. Captain Koenig, her commander, has stated that in all she made 90 miles of this trip under the surface. Although this is perhaps slightly farther than any other submarine has gone alone it is not by any means the only long voyage made by this type of vessel. Submarines of the F, II, and K, classes in the U. S. Navy have made the trip from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, under their own power, a distance of 2100 miles, and on the Atlantic coast the K boats have several times made the trip between New York, Pensacola, and Colon, a somewhat longer distance. Ten of the British II boats built by the Fore River Ship Building Company recently made the voyage to England, and from there five of them continued on their way to the Dardanelles, a voyage quite as long as that made by the Deutschland. These British H boats are practically identical with our own II class and are of about 450 tons displacement. To those familiar with this type of craft there is nothing remarkable in just the mere mileage covered by the Deutschland on this voyage, but the performance of this vessel is spectacular because it has succeeded in leaving a well blockaded port and traversed waters abounding in hostile craft undetected to the end. It is very difficult at this time to obtain any exact or reliable information as to the real dimensions of this vessel. It has been variously given out in widely conflicting statements,