"
As he was talking the boat was being "trimmed" by admitting water
as ballast into the proper tanks.
"The Z99," he went on, "is a submersible, not a diving, submarine.
That is to say, the rudder guides it and changes the angle of the
boat. But the hydroplanes pull it up and down, two pairs of them
set fore and aft of the centre of gravity. They lift or lower the
boat bodily on an even keel, not by plunging and diving. I will
now set the hydroplanes at ten degrees down and the horizontal
rudder two degrees up, and the boat will submerge to a depth of
thirty feet and run constant at that depth."
He had shut off the gasoline motor and started the storage-battery
electric motor, which was used when running submerged. The great
motors gave out a strange, humming sound. The crew conversed in
low, constrained tones. There was a slightly perceptible jar, and
the boat seemed to quiver just a bit from stem to stern. In front
of Shirley was a gauge which showed the depth of submergence and a
spirit-level which showed any inclination.
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