The Electrical experimenter
The Electrical experimenter
The Electrical experimenter
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20 THE ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTER May, 1917<br />
LlEUTEXAXT Commander Parker,<br />
U.S. submarine F-609.' Our<br />
torpedoes useless. Proceed at<br />
mce and see if you can do anything.<br />
Enemy's defense perfect.<br />
-Admiral Gregg, U.S.X.,<br />
Commanding Flotilla."<br />
I glanced up from reading this message,<br />
scrawled on a scrap of paper, to ask Parker<br />
what it meant, but lie was not there. I<br />
heard him in tlie forward compartment<br />
issuing orders in his rapid-fire manner.<br />
It puzzled me, this brief dispatch which<br />
Parker had translated from the muddle of<br />
code words that had come in over my<br />
wireless. Could it be that the great fleet<br />
of submarines now in mid-Atlantic, supposed<br />
to be torpedoing the enemy's fleet<br />
"Eddy Currents"<br />
By C. M. ADAMS<br />
we went out, thirty-two knots an hour,<br />
headed for the open sea.<br />
As we went I picked up a message with<br />
my wireless which seemed to be related to<br />
the information in the code message Billy<br />
had received. It was a press dispatch and<br />
read<br />
"<strong>The</strong>re is a report that the defensive<br />
submarine flotilla which was to meet the<br />
imperial fleet in mid-ocean, is helpless because<br />
of the excellent defense of the imperial<br />
fleet against torpedo attack. <strong>The</strong> report<br />
says that the submarines have discharged<br />
every torpedo aboard and have not<br />
damaged a single enemy ship.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> imperial fleet was reported by aeroscouts<br />
to be of si.xteen battleships, together<br />
with eight destroyers and followed<br />
by our navy with its present equipment.<br />
How could we save our country from the<br />
invader? How could we stay off the defeat<br />
which seemed iminent when that wonderfully<br />
trained army got into action<br />
against our meager forces?<br />
I voiced these sentiments when, about<br />
nine o'clock I found Billy standing beside<br />
the conning tower on the open deck, looking<br />
forward over the double wave that<br />
marked our bows.<br />
I felt free to ask Billy Parker much, for<br />
we had been old classmates at the Tech.<br />
school before he went into his electrical<br />
engineering work and I drifted off into<br />
mine, not seeing each other until I dropt<br />
into this craft as its v.'ireless operator<br />
when the call came to me from the navy.<br />
Once Again He Called to Start the Alternator. <strong>The</strong> Hum of the Machine Sounded and as Before the Switch Was Deprest.<br />
and Found That It Was Held Down Six and a Half IVIinutes.<br />
as it tried to approach our shores, had failed<br />
in its mission? Were the new powerful<br />
torpedoes. loaded with hundreds of pounds<br />
of high explosive, and the great mechanical<br />
fish which launched them, useless as<br />
far as defense was concerned? I wanted<br />
to ask Billy Parker these and many other<br />
questions but he was busy.<br />
An hour after this message had come<br />
buzzing in we cast off our moorings and<br />
were slipping out thru the harbor dotted<br />
with hurrying navy craft. We did not attract<br />
any Lnusual attention, for submarines<br />
were quite common sights in these times.<br />
Soon we past Sandy Hook, thru the line<br />
of patrolling cruisers, then out into the<br />
open sea. Our turbines were purring<br />
smoothly and our drivin.g motors were<br />
spinning like great smooth-running tops as<br />
by twenty transports carrying the invading<br />
army. <strong>The</strong>re are also several enemy aeroplanes<br />
which accompany the enemy fleet."<br />
Evidently something was wrong with the<br />
defense planned by tlie navy officials. <strong>The</strong><br />
fifty great under-sea craft were not doing<br />
their duty, which had been to sink as many<br />
of the invader's ships as possible. T puzzled<br />
over this as I sat about waiting for my<br />
call and wondered what we would do now<br />
that our chief defense had gone.<br />
What would happen when the army in<br />
those twenty transports landed on our<br />
shore, unprotected save by the scanty coast<br />
defense guns, made scantier by the appropriation<br />
for submarines, and met our volunteer<br />
army in a pitched battle? This truly<br />
was a surprise, an overwhelming, unexpected<br />
contingency which could not be met<br />
Timed It Now<br />
Wireless operator was all I was good for.<br />
owing to my lame leg.<br />
"What will happen now that our submarines<br />
are helpless?" I asked.<br />
"It's up to the coast defense and the fleet<br />
if we can't stop them," he said, looking<br />
away ahead where the sea rolled under the<br />
faint stars.<br />
Billy confided in me. His showing me<br />
the translated code message proved that.<br />
But this was a new turn.<br />
"If we can't stop them?" I repeated<br />
blankly.<br />
It had not occurred to me that we were<br />
going to try to stop them at all. T did not<br />
know why we were going, but it seemed<br />
obviously impossible for us to do anything<br />
in that direction when the rest of the submarines<br />
had failed.