Ralph Henry Barbour

“ You see, you've got to maintain the same stability. When you fill around the torpedo with water from the tank you're not taking on any more weight, you're only shifting it from one place to another, and without changing its longitudinal position. Get that?" Nelson nodded.
"Then we open the outer cap and we're ready for firing. We report Number One or Two, or whichever it may be, ready over the tube, and the Old Man just presses a button. Air compressed to a hundred pounds to the square inch butts in through here behind the torpedo and out she goes at thirty knots. ”

“ He did get away with one or two interesting facts, however: as, for instance that the Diesels burned crude oil instead of kerosene or gasoline, at a vast saving, and that instead of having the charges in the cylinders ignited by electric sparks, in the only way he had ever heard of, the engines produced their own heat for ignition by compression. ”

“ Nelson explained and his friend chuckled. "That's not so bad, either. Guess I'll have to call you that, too. This we call the after quarters, but technically it's the after battery compartment. About half the storage batteries are underfoot here. You can see the cables leading forward there. These gratings lift up when you want to get at the cells. That's my bunk there. Those cupboards are where we stow our gear. Next is the central station. Can't show you around there, though, for the Old Man doesn't like us hanging about. Everything's controlled from there, you see." ”

“ These obtained their energy from storage batteries located beneath the deck on which they stood. The petty officer in charge explained the working of the contractor gear by which the control of the motors is effected in the central station. The main motors compartment, like every other section of the submarine, was painted white and was as clean as a Dutch kitchen. ”

“ When we want to load a tube we close the outer cap first of all. Then we open this inner cover, like this." He suited action to word and Nelson, stooping, peered into the tube which already held a torpedo. ”