k to a required depth. The great thing about this boat is that, should there be a failure of the engine, the boat, from its own buoyancy, would rise to the surface. Experiments were conducted in 1910 with he British submarine "D1", the largest in the British Navy. These experiments were successfully carried out. What were these experiments. Well, the "D1" was able to maintain communication while submerged. The "D1" replied from below the surface. The tests were conducted at a level deep enough so that the periscope would be kept just above the water line and the rest of the boat was submerged. The periscope was half way up the mast. To compare the American technology to that of the European world, in 1913, the largest submarine built for the United States Navy was just short of 500 tons displacement submerged. The submarine proposed for the Russian's Czar's Navy was to be nearly 10 times as great, 5,400 tons of displacement submerged. The tendencies in the construction of early submarines was mainly toward an increase in their displacement. In 1913, the idea to equip submarines with defensive and protective weapons, in addition to torpedoes, came about. These guns could be used in defense against enemy submarines or even against enemy planes, to give you an example of their necessity. In order to reduce as much as possible the water resistance in traveling below the surface, tapering-carriage guns of non-rusting nickel steel were chosen in the case of small caliber weapons. On the other hand, medium caliber guns needed to be stowed away while submerged. However, since this is a defensive weapon, it is clear that the gun needed few manipulations and be able to be quickly prepared for use. For early guns, twenty seconds were required to get the gun into fighting order and to attach the breech sight and shoulder rest, and the same time was required to remove these parts and stow the gun away below the deck for submergence. "T...
