The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-07-25
TORPEDO BOATS REPULSED.
A Daring Enterprise that Resulted In Di
nhter for the RuHhinnH.

ubtcT vi u
A war correspondent, writing from
Pera, says: The admiralty commission
has Just closed it's examination of the
seven Russian prisoners who arrived
here in the Ismail from Sulina. These
are the net proceeds of the torpedo affair
which took place off that port. It had
been stated here that the commander of
the torpedo expedition was an English
man, and the unlucky officer was hardly
in the harbor before the specials marked
him for their own. Interest faded some
what when it turIed out that he was only
a Russian after all, though he proved to
be well informed, gentlemanly and frank,
and equally interviewable in English,
French or Russian. His name is Puschin,
and he has been sixteen years in the
Russian navy. At the examination he
gave m interesting account of his hotilla
and of the unsuccessful attack upon the
Turkish fleet. The lotilla is composed
of sixteen steam barges, built to steam
at great speed and to draw little water.
The mode of using them is to approach
to within q few yards OF the object Of
attack, and then launch the torpedo at
it, steaming away in an opposite direc-
ton to avoid being buried under the
mass of water thrown up by the explo-
sion.
For the attack at Sulina mouth five
boats we're used, which were towed down
from Odessa to within eight miles dis
lance of anchorage of the Turkish squad
ron, and then were turned adrift in the
darkness of the night to work out their
deadly scheme. They made direct for
Sulina, and when the hulls Of the Turk
ish iron-clads doomed in the black dis
lance they steered straight down upon
them. They we're already within a few
yards Of their prey when q sudden check
was felt, which the men on board the
boats could not understand. After a
second or two the boat which Puschin
commanded, and which led the way,
struggled over the hidden obstacle, and
Puschin was just preparing to launch his
torpedo against the iron-clad corvette
[jadie, when that vessel opened such an
Internal fire that Puschin said it sur
passed anything he could have imagined.
What became of the other boats Puschin
has no idea. He saw their progress
checked like that of his own boat, and
then he saw the other iron-clads pouring
out thunder and Lightning upon them.
Just OF that moment, when he had his
torpedo in the water, and was on the very
point of propeiling it against the Ijadie,
a shot from that vessel struck it and it
exploded. High aloft in the air rose n
column of water, which as it sank bacl,
nearly swamped his boat, and put hisires
almost out. He tried to steam away, but
his machinery vas damaged and the boat
would not 60. There and then accord
ingly Puschin scuttled her, and he and
his crew, girt with cork belts, threw
themselves into the stream amid q hail
storm of shot, both small and great.
When the launch sank the firing ceased,
and boats were put off from the feet and
picked up Puschin and his crew, and con-
veyed them on board the Ijadie, whence
they we're transferred to the Ismail and
sent to Constantinople.
The check which defeated the Russian
scheme was due to a PROBATION of Ho-
bart Pasha's device. Sentinel boats
were placed round the feet, and between
each of these hung a slack rope, forming
n Gordon all round the squadron. These
ropes caught the launches, gave the
alarm, and enabled the fleet to open fire
intime. In the course of his examination
Puschin remarked several times upon
the excellent lookout kept on board the
Turkish men-of-war, but for which, as
he Justly observed, the whole squadron
would now have been at the bottom of
tha sea