The Submarine Torpedo Boat
Its Characteristics And Modern Development

154 THE SUBMARINE TORPEDO BOAT San Diego, Cal., and at the west entrance to the Panama Canal. Also there should be a group stationed at the Hawaiian Islands, a group at Guam, and at least three groups among the Philippine Islands. This would call for a total number of some two hundred submarines of the coast defense type. The offensive action or attack to destroy, involves problems new and more difficult, and here the province of the submarine is to destroy the fleets of the enemy and all vessels with which it attempts to carry on military operations; to make raids upon the enemy’s shipping and ports, and to carry out an effectual blockade at all his principal harbors; and to constitute a supplemental arm to the battle fleet upon the high seas. The ability to perform these functions calls for a some- what different type of boat from the coast defense sub- marine, inasmuch as it must have a greater cruising radius, be more sea-worthy, and have a much higher surface speed to enable it to accompany without in any way hindering the evolutions of the fleet. In the present European conflict the activities of the submarine have for the most part been restrained to what might be styled merely naval raids. There have however been several occasions in which they have taken no little part in the actual tactical evolutions of the op- posing fleets. It was decidedly the presence of the Ger- man submarines which caused Vice-Admiral Beatty to discontinue the pursuit of the German battle cruisers Seydlitz, Doerflinger and Moltke in the second fight of the North Sea. It was a running fight in which the heavily punished German battle cruisers escaped by leading the British ships into a group of submarines, the mere sight