Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/184

 Handling a Submarine

The success of an attack and the very lives of the crew depend almost entirely upon their ability to act as one man

���Wheel controlling dteerinq fodtfers

��The U. S. S. Compressed air nas just forced out the water from her huge ballast tanks so that she rides awash on the surface

��At left: Interior of the "K-l." During an attack, the com- mander stands at the periscope and directs the men at the wheels of the controls

��Wheels tontrollinq diving rudders

��Battery of compressed-air buoyancy controls of balance tanks.

��EVERY submarine has its commander — generally a captain — who acts as the very brains of the ship. No one else can give orders; for so interconnected are all the machines, that the conflicting commands from more than one officer would almost surely result in an accident. Hence every one reports directly to the captain through the second officer in com- mand, who, by the way, is also responsible for the correct operation of everything

��from the ballast tanks to the torpedoes.

In making the attack, the captain mans the periscope in the main operating room, just beneath the conning tower. The lenses and prisms in the periscope tube transmit the images from the sighting-piece above the water down to the periscope eye-piece.

When the vessel dives, the decks are first cleared. Then the hatches are sealed down and the oil engines are stopped, in

�� �