



Produced by Chris Curnow, Emmy and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)







[Transcriber's Note: Bold text is surrounded by =equal signs= and
italic text is surrounded by _underscores_. Footnotes are located at
the end of the text.]




THE BOYS’ BOOK OF SUBMARINES

[Illustration: _Courtesy of Leslie’s Weekly_

A MODERN AMERICAN SUBMARINE CRUISING IN THE AFLOAT CONDITION WITH
FOREWARD DIVING RUDDERS FOLDED BACK AGAINST THE HULL]




THE BOYS’ BOOK OF SUBMARINES

  BY
  A. FREDERICK COLLINS
  AUTHOR OF “INVENTING FOR BOYS,” “MANUAL OF WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY,”
  “KEEPING UP WITH YOUR MOTOR CAR,” “HOW TO FLY,” ETC.

  AND

  VIRGIL D. COLLINS
  AUTHOR OF “A WORKING ALGEBRA,” AND
  CO-AUTHOR OF “SHOOTING FOR BOYS”

  _WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS AND
  DIAGRAMS_

[Illustration: Emblem: FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY NEW YORK ESTABLISHED
EIGHTEEN EIGHTY-ONE]

  NEW YORK
  FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
  PUBLISHERS




  _Copyright, 1917, by_
  FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
  —————
  _All rights reserved_




  TO
  LESTER BURNHAM COLLINS
  UNITED STATES NAVY




A WORD TO YOU


Submarine! It’s a word that’s in everybody’s mind—on every one’s tongue.

The very sound of it conjures up thoughts of great ships that were and
will be torpedoed and sent to the bottom of the old ocean to rust and
to rot there.

Of all the mighty monsters that ever sailed the seven seas this
piratical craft is by long odds the most daring as well as the most
dangerous to both life and property.

And yet while of course you know that a submarine can travel on or
under the water, dive like a porpoise and destroy an enemy ship by
shooting a torpedo at her, do you know exactly how an undersea boat
works and fights and just how she does all the seemingly impossible
feats for which she is notorious?

At the present time the greatest war in the world’s history is being
fought, and you are more than a mere looker-on for your country is in
it and you may be one of the boys who will be called to the colors to
defend her on, or against, these undersea craft.

If for no other reason than this you ought to follow not only the
battles as they are being fought on the east and west fronts of Europe,
but the warfare that is being waged by the submarines on the high
seas, for on these boats hinges to a very large extent the outcome of
the war.

Ever since the year of 1900 when five of the first really successful
submarines were built in the United States and sent to England the
value of this kind of war-craft has gone forward by leaps and bounds as
the devices for operating them were more and more improved.

Further too the submarine has played a far larger part in the war that
is now going on than the wildest fancies of her inventors of twenty
years ago could have pictured, much less believed, and what is of even
greater import she bids fair to become the champion fighter of the sea
in the future.

Indeed so wonderful is the submarine and so great are her possibilities
that you should by all means know exactly how she is made and works, as
well as her torpedoes. The easiest and certainly the most interesting
way to find out these things is to read this book and then build a
model submarine and torpedo according to the simple directions we have
given.

To open the covers of this book and to read it is the next thing
to going through the hatch in the bridge of the conning tower and
examining the mechanism at first hand. So do it now.

  A. FREDERICK COLLINS,
  VIRGIL D. COLLINS,
    550 Riverside Drive,
      New York City.




CONTENTS


                                                       PAGE
  “A WORD TO YOU”                                       vii

  CHAPTER

   I. THE FIRST OF THE SUBMARINES                         1

    How the Submarine Came to Be.—The Development
    of the Submarine.—The First Submarine Boat.—A
    Submarine of the Revolution.—The First Torpedo Fired
    by a Submarine.—Robert Fulton’s Submarine.—The
    Earliest Steam Propelled Submarine.—The Coming of
   