much larger than the Greek boat and by 1887 they had reached
Constantinople in sections where they were to be put together. Only
one of them, however, was ever completed. Characteristic Turkish
delay intervened. The most typical feature of this boat was the fact
that it carried a torpedo tube for Whitehead torpedoes. On the
surface of the water this boat proved very efficient, but as an
underwater boat it was a dismal failure. More than in any other
craft that had ever been built and accepted, the lack of stability
was a cause of trouble in the _Nordenfeldt II._ As soon as any
member of the crew moved from one part of the boat to another, she
would dip in the direction in which he was moving, and everybody,
who could not in time take hold of some part of the boat, came
sliding and rolling in the same direction. When finally such a
tangle was straightened out, only a few minutes elapsed before
somebody else, moving a few steps, would bring about the same
deplorable state of affairs. The _Nordenfeldt II._ acted more like a
bucking bronco than a self-respecting submarine boat and as a result
it became impossible to find a crew willing to risk their lives in
manning her. Before very long she had rusted and rotted to pieces.
In spite of this lack of success, Nordenfeldt built a fourth boat
which displayed almost as many unfortunate features as her
predecessors and soon was discarded and forgotten.

[Illustration: Photo by Bain News Service.

_An Anti-Aircraft Outpost._]

In the latter part of the nineteenth century the French Government,
which for so many years had shown a strong and continuous interest
in the submarine problem, was particularly active. Three different
types of boats built in this period under the auspices and with the
assistance of the French Government deserve particular attention.
The first of these was the _Gymnote_, planned originally by a
well-known French engineer, Dupuy de Lome, whose alert mind also
planned an airship and made him a figure in the history of our
Panama Canal. He died, however, before his project could be
executed. M. Gustave Zede, a marine engineer and his friend,
continued his work after modifying some of his plans. The French
Minister of Marine of this period, Admiral Aube who had long been
strongly interested in submarines, immediately accepted M. Zede's
design and ordered the boat to be built. As the earliest of
successful submarines she merits description:

[Illustration: