Simon Lake

“ I have often thought that some unscrupulous and adventurous group of men might terrorize the commerce of the world in times of peace by taking advantage of the invisible qualities of submarine vessels. Such a group of men with the use of such a weapon might make submarine attacks on peaceful merchant vessels and escape detection and capture for years. I did not, however, nor did any other submarine inventor, anticipate that any of the world's recognized governments would sanction piratical and barbarous actions on the part of their naval officers. ”

“ Without a fresh supply of fuel oil and more food and munitions of war the submarine is ineffective, and when her objective is a distant one she must draw heavily upon her stores to get her there and to carry her safely back to her revictualling base. Indeed, she may overreach herself through her commander's desire to strike his remote enemy and then find herself forced back to the surface and without the means to take her home again, floating impotently upon the sea, an easy target for attack, and certain to be sunk or captured. ”

“ Imagine, if you can, these under-sea gardens with masses of vegetation, swaying to the current and waves of the sea, of a great variety of form and color and with myriads of many beautiful and variously colored fishes swimming among them, with perhaps a background of a wonderful coral reef of fantastic shapes, with the octopus, or devil-fish, lurking at the mouths of dark caverns, and the long, gray man-eating shark, like a ghost now and then flitting within one's range of vision. ”

“ All of my submarine work has been in the more northern waters, covering the Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound, on the Atlantic coast north of Virginia Beach, and in the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland. The range of vision in any of these waters did not exceed forty feet, but that has been sufficient to create a zest for more. The beauties of under-sea life can be described only by a poet. It is impossible [265] for me to convey to the imagination the wonderful beauty of some of the under-sea gardens when seen through the windows of a submarine automobile. ”

“ When the day comes that submarines are equipped with engines of battleship speed, and thus take away from the battleships the only means of defence which they now have—namely, the ability to run away from the submarine—the submarine will dominate the surface of the high seas. Submarines may be built of almost any conceivable size, and carry large-calibre disappearing guns and ten, fifty, or one hundred torpedoes. The battleship will be powerless before the submarine of the future; the advantage will always be with the submarines, as they are invisible. ”

“ Most every one knows of Mr. Edison's perseverance in his early days in getting his inventions upon the market. A great many people know that he himself has not received a fraction of the reward that he is entitled to because of his great inventions. He is, without doubt, the greatest inventor the United States has produced. While I have never met Mr. Edison personally, I have always been a great admirer of him, because he is the man most responsible for raising the title of 'inventor' from that of crank to that of honor. ”

“ I have tried, in the interest of this country, to impress this fact upon the people (that the submarine, because it is invisible, is invincible) , but I find in talking with many intelligent people, that they do not and cannot comprehend the possibilities of the submarine when it is taken seriously and the effort is made to get all there is out of it, without reference to political, financial, or prejudiced interests. The destructiveness of the submarine is growing; devices which were effective in detecting and trapping submarines early in the war are now becoming useless. ”

“ In the interest of public policy I do not think that any device hitherto unknown which offers a chance of success if used against an enemy U-boat should be described, and therefore I should not describe any such device if such were known, but shall limit my remarks to a discussion of some of the devices that have been proposed and described publicly. Trying to serve the country by developing a certain idea, when that idea is itself old or impractical, is evidently a waste of mental energy and money. ”

“ Offensively the submarine will be of little value when brought to its highest point of development, for when every nation is fully equipped with submarines the menace of these vessels will keep enemy surface ships from venturing on the sea. There will be nothing for the submarines to attack except ships of their own kind, and that, of course, will be impossible. Thus wars between maritime nations will come to be nothing more than a mutual check; no surface ships or transports will dare to move in any direction. ”

“ Therefore the submarine would rise to the surface to perform these services during the night time, and boats seeking submarines after dark have a task cut out for them pretty much like that of hunting for the proverbial needle in a haystack. If the commander of a submarine recognizes that the first principle of successful submarine raiding is never to betray his position by exposing his periscope while under way when within sight of the enemy, his vessel becomes invulnerable, because it is an invisible object. ”

“ There are two classes of patent attorneys, one class consisting of conscientious, honorable gentlemen, who consider it their duty, when an unsophisticated inventor comes before them with an idea which the inventor considers new, to tell him the truth about his invention and to inform him whether it is really an original invention or not, or merely a slight modification of some old idea on which no protection can be secured. There is another class of attorneys who have been more properly termed patent sharks, who will get a patent on anything brought to them ”

“ I have had hundreds of impractical schemes sent to me, and the Navy Department and the Naval Consulting Board have been almost swamped by the various suggestions that have been pouring in from all over the country in response to editorials in the newspapers to "Save us from the U-boat!"; "American inventors, rise in your might and strike down this peril which works unseen, like an assassin in the dark!" ”

“ Those critics of the submarine who base their opinions upon moral and humanitarian notions are as self-deceived as those who disparage the mechanical success of the under-water vessel. People in this latter class, however, are not afflicted with a distorted vision of the truth, as are those of the other group, but rather, we may say, they suffer from nearsightedness. They do not look far enough ahead to judge as to the permanent utility of the submarine. ”

“ I do not think the importance of submarines has been fully recognized, neither do I think that it has been realized how completely their advent has revolutionized naval warfare. In my opinion, as the motor has driven the horse from the road, so the submarine has driven the battleship from the sea."
Sir Percy Scott, however, is an inventor, being the man who devised the "spot" method of gun firing, and has, therefore, the type of mind which is able to foresee and to grasp the value of new devices. ”

“ In my opinion, just as the submarine is to-day a power to be reckoned with in the world—an agency the prodigious capacity for destruction of which we realize but too well—so is it to be in the future an instrument the influence of which upon the progress and safety of the nations of the earth will be well-nigh incalculable. ”

“ I well remember my first long submergence of ten hours' duration down at Hampton Roads, near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, July 28, 1898. During this period of submergence the machinery was shut down for a time, and one of the first sensations we experienced was the strange sounds which came to us of the propellers and paddle-wheels of surface vessels passing in our vicinity. The first vessel that we heard was a tugboat; we could tell that by the sound of her puffing exhaust and the characteristic sound of her machinery. ”

“ I have always had some little sympathy for the sensations or fears which those without a knowledge of natural physics might experience on going down into the water; but I have had little sympathy for those who by their education should know and understand the principles of submarine navigation, when operating with a properly designed boat with an experienced crew. ”

“ I know of one case where an inventor of one of the most successful typewriting machines on the market, who spent his life in developing it, is receiving the munificent sum of eleven cents from each machine as a royalty. There is a large number of these machines being manufactured, and of course he is receiving a comfortable income even at this small rate, but the promoter who had nothing to do with its origination and who only happened to know the capitalists to go to, and the capitalists, are receiving a princely income. ”

“ The British fleet dares not invade German waters or attempt a close blockade of German ports. In spite of the mighty English navy, the German U-boats—the invisible destroyers—are venturing forth daily into the open Atlantic and are raising such havoc with merchant shipping that the world is terrified at the prospect. It is the German U-boat which to-day encourages the Central Powers to battle almost single-handedly against the rest of the world's great nations. ”

“ It is very evident that if a diving boat can attain a speed of ten or twelve miles per hour, fire torpedoes at ships moving at full speed, and keep to sea for days together, her sphere of usefulness would be greatly extended. In fact, there is no insuperable objection to the employment of such vessels for coast defence and operations against ships. Submarine mines are not so effective against them as vessels on the surface, because they can pass them unobserved. They can enter a harbor that may be thoroughly defended, should it be necessary to destroy vessels inside the defences. ”

“ After arguments and hearings, extending over a period of over three years, Major Laurenti was finally obliged to accept a patent restricted to details of construction, most of which were in themselves not new to me, as they had already been used in various modifications of my inventions and consisted in such changes as would naturally be worked out by any good hull or engine draftsmen while developing the designs of a vessel.
Our patent laws are too free in allowing the granting of patents on modifications of design while fundamental patents are still in force. ”

“ Each vessel that comes in sight of a submarine is a marked vessel, and even if she is the fastest vessel afloat, she may speed unwittingly into a trap set for her by wireless. So long as she cannot disappear she has no real ability to elude. On the other hand, the cargo-carrying submarine of low speed has both these advantages: she has low visibility and the capability of disappearance. She may become invulnerable when danger threatens. She has all of the qualities possessed by her enemies. She may beat them at their own game. ”

“ Cargo Submarines.—In my judgment, the only way that any nation will be able ultimately to continue its commerce with any degree of safety or certainty when blockaded by submarines will be by the construction of large merchant submarines which will be able to evade the enemy U-boats successfully.
I have pointed out above that "submarines cannot fight submarines," because they cannot see or locate each other. It is this very thing which will enable the cargo-carrying submarine to evade the military submarine. They are also able to evade all surface craft, either friend or foe. ”