Deadly Wave - Naval Battles of the Future to Be Fought by Water Power

Dynamite, Discharged Beneath the Surface of the Sea, Will Create a Tidal Wave That Could Engulf a Fleet.

The time is not far distant when all the tremendous wastes of naval war will be stopped, and then, if there are battles, they will be fought with water power and electric waves. That humanity is moving fast towards this realization is evident from many indications.

What is most to be regretted in the present war regime is, that the effect of so many exquisite intelligences must be uneconomically applied, since it cannot be steadily directed toward a scientific truth, unaltered and of permanent usefulness, but must be entirely governed by the wavering struggle of opposing principles. This feverish striving to meet the instant demand, to create type after type, one to devour the other, to merge into one contrasting element, leads, like a nightmare, from one to another absurdity. Such a monstrosity is the latest creation of the naval constructors — a 20,000 ton battleship. In theory it is condemned by competent authorities.

Everything points to the development of a small vessel with internal combustion engines, extreme speed, and few weapons of great destructiveness. But the new leviathan is admirably adapted to the practical requirements of the day. In attack it can alone annihilate a nation’s fleet. It is equally effective in defense. If equipped with proper acoustic and electrical appliances, it has little to fear from a submarine, and an ordinary torpedo will scarcely hurt it. That is why the first of these monsters, built in England, has been named the Dreadnought. Now, there is a novel means for attacking a fortress of this kind, from shore or on the high seas, against which all its gun power and armor resistance are of no avail. It is the tidal wave.

Such a wave can be produced with 20 or 30 tons of cheap explosive, carried to its destination and ignited by a non-interferable telautomaton.

The tidal disturbance, as here considered, is a peculiar hydrodynamic phenomenon, in many respects different from the commonly occurring characterized by a rhythmical succession of waves. It consists generally of but a single advancing swell succeeded by a hollow, the water if not otherwise agitated being perfectly calm in front and very nearly so behind. The wave is produced by some sudden explosion or upheaval, and is, as a rule, symmetrical for a large part of its course. Those who have encountered a tidal wave must have observed that the sea rises rather slowly, but the descent into the trough is steep. This is due to the fact that the water is lifted, possibly very slowly, under the action of a varying force, great at first, but dying out quickly, while the raised mass is urged downward by the constant force of gravity. When produced by natural causes these waves are not very dangerous to ordinary vessels, because the disturbance originates at a great depth.

To give a fairly accurate idea of the efficacy of this novel means of destruction, particularly adapted for coast defense, it may be assumed that 30 tons of nitro-glycerin compound, as dynamite, be employed to create the tidal disturbance. This material, weighing about twice as much as water, can be stored in a cubical tank eight feet each way, or a spherical vessel of 10 feet diameter. The reader will now understand that this charge is to be entrusted to a non-interferable telautomaton, heavily protected and partly submerged or submarine, which is under the control of a skilled operator far away. At the propitious moment the signal is given, the charge sunk to the proper depth, and ignited.

The water is incompressible. The hydrostatic pressure is the same in all directions. The explosion propagates through the nitro-glycerin compound with a speed of three miles a second. Owing to all this, the whole mass will be converted into gas before the water can give way appreciably, and a spherical bubble 16 feet in diameter will form. The gaseous pressure against the surrounding water will be 20,000 atmospheres, or 140 tons per square inch. When the great bubble has expanded to twice its original volume, it will weigh as much as the water it displaces, and from that moment on, its lowering end tapering more and more into a cone, it will be driven up with a rapidly-increasing force tending towards 20,000 tons. Under this terrible impulsion it would shoot up to the surface like a bullet were it not for the water resistance, which will limit its maximum speed to 80 feet per second.

Consider now the quantity and energy of the upheaval. The caloric potential energy of the compound is 2,800 heat units per pound, or, in mechanical equivalent, almost 1,000-foot tons. Of course, only a part of this immense store is transformable into mechanical effort. Theoretically, 40 pounds of good smokeless powder would be sufficient to impart to the Dreadnought’s 850-pound projectile the tremendous velocity mentioned above, but it actually takes a charge of 250 pounds. The tidal wave generator is a dynamic transformer much superior to the gun, its greatest possible efficiency being as high as 44 per cent. Taking, to be conservative, 33 per cent instead, there will be of the total potential store about 25,000,000 foot-tons obtained in mechanical energy.

Otherwise stated, 25,000,000 tons — that is, 860,000,000 cubic feet of water — could be raised one foot, or a smaller quantity to a correspondingly greater elevation. The height and length of the wave will be determined by the depth at which the disturbance originated. Opening in the center like a volcano, the great hollows will belch forth with a roar. Some 15 seconds later a valley of 600 feet depth, counted from normal ocean level, will form, surrounded by a perfectly circular swell, approximately of equal height, which will enlarge in diameter at the rate of about 220 feet per second.

It is futile to consider the effect of such an eruption on a vessel situated near by, however large. The entire navy of a great country, if massed around would be destroyed. But it is instructive to inquire what such a wave could do to a battleship of the Dreadnought type at considerable distance from its origin. A simple calculation will show that, when the outer circle has expanded to three-quarters of a mile, the swell, about 1,250 feet long, would still be more than 100 feet in height, and when the circle is one and one-quarter miles in diameter the vertical distance from crest to trough would be over 100 feet.

The first impact of the water will produce pressures of three tons per square foot, which all over the exposed surface of, say, 20,000 square feet, may amount to 60,000 tons, eight times the force of the recoil of the broadside. That first impact may in itself be fatal. During more than 10 seconds the vessel will be entirely submerged and finally dropped into the hollow from a height of about 75 feet, the descent being effected more or less like a free fall. It will then sink far below the surface, never to rise.