The Rival Submarines Read online

  Produced by Al Haines.

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  "LIKE AN ARROW THE SNAKE-LIKE MONSTER DARTED FORWARD!"p. 175.]

  THE RIVAL SUBMARINES

  BY PERCY F. WESTERMAN

  AUTHOR OF "A LAD OF GRIT" ETC. ETC.

  ILLUSTRATED BY C. FLEMING WILLIAMS

  _THIRD IMPRESSION_

  LONDON S. W. PARTRIDGE & CO., LTD. OLD BAILEY

  CONTENTS.

  CHAPTER

  I. Captain Restronguet leaves Cards II. Sub-Lieutenant Hythe Discovers the Submarine III. The Man Who Walked out of the Sea IV. The Signal from the Depths V. Captured VI. Face to Face VII. In the Conning-Tower VIII. Explanations IX. The First Day in the "Aphrodite" X. The Second Officer Returns XI. Concerning Captain Restronguet's Rival XII. The "Vorwartz" is Sighted XIII. The Missing Submarine XIV. "La Flamme" XV. A Visit to Gibraltar XVI. Over a Volcano XVII. The Rescued Italians XVIII. The Rivals pass through the Suez Canal XIX. Struck by Lightning XX. Rammed Amidships XXI. Captain Restronguet learns the News XXII. Beset by Somalis XXIII. Over the Bar XXIV. The Aero-Hydroplane XXV. The Approach of the "Vorwartz" XXVI. The Sinking of the "Topaze" XXVII. A Pilot under Compulsion XXVIII. In the Ballast Tank XXIX. The "Pride of Rhodesia" XXX. Captured. XXXI. The Unsuccessful Competitors XXXII. The Fate of von Harburg XXXIII. Hythe's Masterstroke

  THE RIVAL SUBMARINES.

  CHAPTER I.

  CAPTAIN RESTRONGUET LEAVES CARDS.

  The garrison port of Portsmouth was mobilized. Not for the "real thing,"be it understood, but for the quarterly practice laid down in the jointNaval and Military Regulations of 1917.

  Everything, thanks to a rigid administration, had hitherto proceededwith the regularity of clockwork; the Army officials were pattingthemselves on the back, the Naval authorities were shaking hands withthemselves, and, in order to cement the bond of unity, each of the twoServices congratulated the other.

  To the best of their belief they had reason to assert that Portsmouthwas once more impregnable. A series of surprise torpedo-boat attacksupon the fortress had signally failed. The final test during themobilization was to be in the form of a combined attack upon thedefences by the battleships then lying at Spithead and the airships andaeroplanes stationed at Dover, Chatham, and Sheerness.

  At eight o'clock on the morning of the day for the grand attack thefleet at Spithead prepared to get under way. Forty sinister-lookingdestroyers slipped out of harbour in double column line ahead, and assoon as they had passed the Nab Lightship a general signal wascommunicated by wireless for the battleships to weigh and proceed.

  The Commander-in-Chief and the Admiral-Superintendent of PortsmouthDockyard had breakfasted ashore on that particular morning, and bothofficers, with the Military Lieutenant-Governor of the Garrison, were toproceed to Spithead on a cruiser to witness the departure of the fleet.It was a fine day, but the beauties of the morning were lost upon them;to have to breakfast at an unearthly hour had considerably ruffled theirtempers.

  "Come along, Maynebrace," exclaimed the Commander-in-Chief irritably."It's six bells already."

  "Coxswain! Coxswain! Where in the name of thunder is my coxswain?"shouted Rear-Admiral Maynebrace.

  "Here, sir!" exclaimed that worthy, saluting.

  "Has the Lieutenant-Governor arrived yet, coxswain?"

  "Yes, sir. The police at the Main Gate have just telephoned through tosay that Sir John Ambrose has arrived, sir, but being rather lateproceeded straight to the jetty."

  "And kept us kicking our heels here," grumbled Sir Peter Garboard, theCommander-in-Chief. "Look alive, Maynebrace, or----"

  At that moment a flag-lieutenant, red in the face and well-nighbreathless with running, dashed up the steps of the portico of theAdmiralty House.

  "Sir!" he exclaimed. "Sir, this message has just come through."

  Sir Peter took the proffered envelope, fumbled with the flap with hisflabby fingers, and at last untied the Gordian knot by tearing off oneedge.

  "Good heavens, Maynebrace!" he gasped. "Read this!"

  The Admiral-Superintendent, with unbecoming haste, grasped the paper andread:--

  "Vice-Admiral, First Battle Squadron, Home Fleet, to Commander-in-Chief,Portsmouth. On fleet weighing anchor a painted board was found attachedto the anchor of every battleship, the said board bearing the words'With the compliments of Captain Restronguet.' Have ordered fleet toanchor again and am sending divers to investigate. Will communicatetheir report in due course."

  All traces of irritability vanished from the faces of the two Admirals.Instinctively they realized that something of moment had taken place,and that instant action was necessary.

  "A diver has been playing the fool, perhaps?" hazarded Maynebrace.

  "Diver? Humph! Can you imagine a diver leaving his card, in the shapeof a painted piece of wood, attached to the anchors of forty ships? No,no, Maynebrace, it's not that: at least, that's my opinion."

  "Well, then, sir, what is it?" questioned the Rear-Admiral.

  "A menace to our fleet, that's what it is. Although there is no realharm done the moral result is bad enough. It's my opinion that there'sa foreign submarine at work. Moreover, she must have means of directoutside communication while she is submerged."

  "What makes you think it is a foreign submarine?"

  "Logic, my dear Maynebrace, logic. None of ours are capable of such afeat, and there's no knowing what these foreigners are up to. Asinventors they are miles ahead of us. And what is more, thename--Restronguet--doesn't that sound French?"

  "Perhaps," admitted the Rear-Admiral. "But all the same it isexasperating; it is humiliating. And there are some who think that thedays of the submarine are over!"

  Even as the introduction of ironclads propelled by steam machinery hadrevolutionized naval warfare in the middle of the nineteenth century, sohad the vast strides in military aeronautics rendered obsolete, ornearly so, the huge battleships that were the chief features of theworld's navies in the beginning of the present century. For severalyears a fierce war of controversy was waged between the supporters of anall-powerful navy and those who pinned their faith in vessels capable ofsupporting themselves in the air and able to use the terribly aggressivemeans that the researches of science could bestow.

  Not only did the Great Powers take up the question. The lesser statesof the world, realizing that a sudden revolution in warfare might placethem on an equal basis with nations who had hitherto kept them in thebackground, took the liveliest interest in the discussion. They agreedthat since the ill-advised building of the first British Dreadnought hadgiven other Sea Powers a chance to build equally formidable vessels atthe same rate of construction, and that in consequence the predominantNavy flying the White Ensign was practically out-of-date, a drastic andsudden revolution whereby a comparatively cheap means of offence couldbe created might also render obsolete the huge costly leviathans thateven the richest nations could ill-afford to maintain in the race fornaval supremacy.

  In Great Britain the opinion of those qualified to judge was nearlyequally divided. The Blue Water School maintained that a numericallysuperior fleet of ships, capable of defence against aircraft, would meetthe case, provided a supplementary division of airships and aeroplaneswas ready to act in conjunction with the squadron. Battleships couldkeep the sea in all
weathers, while aircraft were at the mercy of everyhurricane.

  On the other hand the supporters of the air fleet deprecated the need ofa huge navy--using the word navy in the strict sense of the term. Allthe warships that Great Britain had at her command could not prevent thepassage by night of airships and aeroplanes--either singly orcollectively--across the comparatively short distance between theContinent and the East Coast of England, while by a judicious study ofthe barometer and climatic conditions generally the dangers of beingovertaken by a heavy gale could be reduced to a minimum. Besides, hadthere not been instances of foreign aircraft manoeuvring over the EastCoast naval ports at night during the progress of a terrible equinoctialgale that had caused, amongst other disasters at sea, the loss ofseveral destroyers taking a doubtful shelter in the badly-protectedAdmiralty Harbour at Dover?

  Up to the present time the result of the controversy in Great Britainwas a compromise. Instead of spending a couple of million pounds upon asingle battleship of between forty or fifty thousand tons, smaller shipswere laid down and completed within eleven months. They were notpleasing to the eye. Even the "ironclads," ugly in comparison with thestately "wooden walls" of the early nineteenth century, were models ofsymmetry and grace beside the latest creations from the brain of theChief Constructor of the Navy.

  The modern battleships were vessels of but ten thousand tonsdisplacement, or about the same as the "Anson" class of 1886. Theirdraught was, however, considerably less, being but twenty-two feet whenfully manned and ready for sea. They were propelled by internalcombustion heavy oil engines capable of developing 22,000 horse-power,the maximum speed being forty-two knots. The principal armamentconsisted of twenty-four six-inch guns, that for muzzle velocity, range,penetration, and bursting power of the projectile were more than equalto the fifteen-inch gun mounted on the later Super-Dreadnoughts of theUnited States Navy. The weight saved in engines, armament, andespecially by the absence of coal, was devoted to additional armour.The battleships were veritable steel-clad vessels, for not only were thesides completely encased in Harveyized steel, but the upper decks weresurmounted by a V-shaped roof capable of resisting the mostpowerfully-charged shell that airships could possibly carry.

  Nor was the protection for submarine attack left unprovided for. Thewhole of the under-water surface was armour-plated, not merely by oneskin but by two complete layers of steel, the thickest being on theinside. In the double bottoms thus formed, oil, the food for themotors, was stored. A powerful torpedo might fracture the outerarmoured skin and release the oil in that particular section, but havingthe thickest plating inside it was considered almost a matter ofimpossibility for the latter to be holed and thus admit the burningoil--a source of danger that had long been recognized--into the vitalsof the ship.

  Submarine warfare, in the opinion of many naval experts, had had itsday. At the height of five hundred feet a scouting aeroplane couldeasily detect the presence of a submarine so long as it was daylight.By night a submarine would be fairly safe from observation, butconversely her commander could not with certainty attack a hostile shipthat had taken the precaution of manoeuvring with screened lights. Inaddition to the danger of mistaking friend for foe there was also thepossibility, nay probability, of being unable to see the enemy's ship.It was, however, admitted that the submarine's chance was to attackeither at dawn or sunset, with a fairly choppy sea running, and noaircraft to upset the calculations of the officer at the periscope.

  Nor had the vast changes occasioned by the development of aircraft beenconfined to naval affairs. Fortifications, hitherto consideredimpregnable, were rendered untenable by reason of the danger from attackfrom above; and in this respect the reorganization of the Portsmouthdefences might be taken as an example of what had to be done in othernaval and military towns of the British Isles.

  As is well known Portsmouth, the principal naval arsenal of the BritishEmpire, is defended by a triple line of fortifications; while to preventsubsidized tramp steamers from emulating Togo's feat at Port Arthur bybeing sunk at the entrance to the harbour a line of massive concreteblocks were placed from the shore to the east of Southsea Castle,extending seawards as far as to Horse Sand Fort--one of the three builtupon the bottom of the sea. This form of defence was severelycriticized, for it proved a source of danger to trading and otherprivate ships, while at high tide a torpedo-boat could with impunitypass over the submerged artificial reef.

  Consequently a permanent breakwater, fashioned after the manner of thatsuperb work protecting Plymouth Sound, took the place of the worse thanuseless concrete blocks; a similar one was constructed from Ryde Sandsto the Noman Fort, and thus, with the exception of the main channelbetween these two hitherto sea-girt forts, Spithead was rendered almostimmune from torpedo-boat attacks.

  These breakwaters, and indeed all the fortifications on shore, werearmed with the latest type of air-craft repelling armament; a three-inchautomatic gun, capable of firing one shell per second. The burstingcharge of each shell was proved to have an effective radius of a hundredyards, while the creation of air-waves and "pockets" resulting from thedetonation, would seriously imperil the stability of every aeroplanewithin three hundred yards. At night each of these guns was supplied byan ingeniously constructed searchlight that, projecting a narrow ray oflight almost parallel with the axis of the gun-barrel, rendered a "miss"an impossibility unless the range was greatly miscalculated. As thesights of the weapon were altered the beam of the searchlight wasautomatically adjusted. All the gunlayer had to do was to train thesearchlight upon the hostile aircraft and fire.

  Yet in spite of all these elaborate means of defence the main portion ofthe British Navy, seemingly anchored in perfect security at Spithead,had received a most unpleasant moral blow. Who and what is thismysterious Captain Restronguet?