Trundle Submarine

At the bottom of Long Island Sound, close to Manhattan Island, sea-exploring Dr. William Beebe last week slapped at a wayward fish, caught a clam and a starfish, without getting his trousers wet by the cold, filthy water. A new-type, little submarine demonstrated for the first time by Simon Lake, submarine pioneer, enabled Dr. Beebe to make his gesture.

The newest Lake product is 22 ft. long, 6 ft. wide, weighs 10 tons, carries a crew of two, has room for two more. Attached to the bottom are sprocketed wheels which enable the vessel to trundle over the sea bottom, under floating structures. A manhole in the craft's bottom opens when internal air pressure exceeds external water pressure, enables a diver to walk outdoors or an investigative Beebe to make comfortable, direct observations of fish life. The device can move a short distance by its own power. But ordinarily a mother ship will tow it to the site of diving operations, will there drag it over the bottom, supply air and electricity. Its maximum working depth is 300 ft.

Mr. Lake, who has been building submarines since 1894, built this one as "the first purely commercial type in the world." His financier is M. S. Moss. Manhattan showman. They expect to sell their machines to the sponge, coral, pearl, nacre and edible shellfish industries. Mr. Lake, who at 66 still hopes to make a stable fortune from submarines, enthusiastically projects "possibilities for the submarine in the recovery of gold and oil, laying of submarine pipes and cables, surveys of harbors and coastal waters, and possibly naval use for life-saving and salvage operations."

Entrepreneur Moss insisted on naming the new vessel Explorer. This disappointed Designer Lake who, because the small submarine can trundle sidewise over the sea floor, ached to call her Crab.

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