"George Griffith - The Raid of Le Vengeur" - читать интересную книгу автора (Griffith George)

Title: The Raid of Le Vengeur
Author: George Griffith
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Date first posted: July 2006
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The Raid of Le Vengeur
by

George Griffith
I.--THE DREAM OF CAPTAIN FLAUBERT.
It was the third morning after the naval manoeuvres at Cherbourg, and since their conclusion Captain
Leon Flaubert, of the Marine Experimental Department of the French Navy, had not had three
consecutive hours' sleep.

He was an enthusiast on the subject of submarine navigation. He firmly believed that the nation which
could put to sea the first really effective fleet of submarine vessels would hold the fleets of rival nations at
its mercy and acquire the whole ocean and its coasts as an exclusive territory. To anyone but an
enthusiast it would have seemed a wild dream and yet only a few difficulties had still to be overcome, a
few more discoveries made, and the realisation of the dream would be merely a matter of money and
skilled labour.

Now the Cherbourg evolutions had proved three things. The submarines could sink and remain below the
surface of the water. They could be steered vertically and laterally, but once ten feet or so below the
water, they were as blind as bats in bright sunshine.

Moreover, when their electric head-lights were turned on, a luminous haze through which it was
impossible to see more than a few metres, spread out in front of them and this was reflected on the