UNDER THE PERISCOPE
Under the Periscope
BY
MARK BENNETT
(LATE LIEUT. R.N.R.)
LONDON: 48 PALL MALL
W. COLLINS SONS & CO. LTD.
GLASGOW MELBOURNE AUCKLAND
Copyright 1919
TO
C. K.
But for whom this book would never have been written.
PREFACE
For those who have no knowledge of the waysand habits of submarines, a preface is unnecessary,and my only hope is that this book may enlightenthem on points on which they were formerly inignorance. One is often asked, ‘What does it feellike to be below the sea?’ and a host of questionsof a similar character, and it is just these questionsthat I have endeavoured to answer. The incidentsrecorded are all founded on fact, and many ofthem are personal experiences.
Of my one-time comrades of the SubmarineService, however, I have a favour to ask. I begthem not to be too critical nor to point out itsdeficiencies, but rather to remember that thisbook was written while the War was still with us,and that a large amount of detail had thereforeto be omitted.
Moreover, the boat described is of one particularclass, and if they themselves have never servedin that class of submarine, ‘more’s the pity.’
All luck to our successors in the next war, andmay they fight in the open air.
M. B.
PREFATORY NOTE
Mr Bennett’s admirable book tells us of theofficers and men of the Submarine Service and ofthe working of that wonderful vessel, the submarine.The author served throughout the war as anofficer in H.M.S. submarine No.——, so that he writesof his own knowledge. Mr Bennett is a professionalsailor; when he is not fighting for king and countryhe is an officer in His Majesty’s Mercantile Marine;and yet there is many a professional writer whomay envy Mr Bennett’s skill in the craft of writing.As a rule, the man who does things is the leastcapable of writing about them; but when hecan write, he is best of all. And of such isMr Bennett.
The naval architect, when (in a rash moment)he gave the submarine to the Royal Navy, offereda new and a perilous enterprise to the indomitablespirit of the seaman. How that enterprise isachieved, with what courage, endurance, cheerfulness,enthusiasm, with what extraordinary skill,Mr Bennett tells us with a seamanlike modestyand precision. The task set to the Navy was howto wield a new weapon, an invisible weaponstriking with the torpedo. It was not until 1910that a British submarine went without escortinto deep water and proved her capacity to cruiseand fight as an independent unit. During thewar, we heard a deal of the German submarine,and very little of our own Submarine Service.Mr Bennett narrates the story of one submarine,and in so doing, informs us more vividly andtruly than all the