The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-07-01
q @rnlrg Star and Catholic messenger.
sRw oRIEAMs. suNpAy, JULY !. lsa7.
A VERY BRILLIANT EXPLOIT.
THE BLOWING UP OF TURKISH MONITOR
By THE RUSSIANS.
tFrom the London News.

with handful or men, steamed bOidt
into the midst of the Turkish fotilla
monitors, and succeeded in blowing it ~
and completely destroying it. The littl
expedition which succeeded in blowing uI
the Turkish monitor was composed of fou
small steam launches, two of which wer,
to make the attack, and the two others tx
hold themselves in readiness to render as
S1stance IN case, as was probable, of an &C
cident to either of the attacking ones. The
two launches which were to make the at
tack were commanded by Lieuts. Dubasofl
and Sbeetakoff, and manned, one by four.
teen, the others by nine men. The crewe
were protected by an iron screen or awning,
which covered the boat completely over from
stem to stern and which was sufficiently
thick to stop bullet. This screen, as
well as the boat, was painted black, so as
TO be scarcely distiDguishable at night, and
the crew were thus protected against the
hre OF small arms, except the man at the
wheel, who directed the movement of the
boat. and who was necessarily exposed.
The crews embarked in the boats little
after'I2 o'clock on Friday night, at q dis
tance of about seven miles from where the
Turkish mopitors were lying. The night
was dark and rainy, and the clouds COM
pletely obscured the moon, which never
theless prevented the night from being
one of complete pitchy darkness. There
was just enough light to enable them to
distinguish che dark masses of the Turkish
gunboats without themselves being easily
seen. After an hours steamipg they came
within the immediate neighborhood of the
enemy's fotilla. The engires of the
launches were so constructed as to make
very little noise, and when they were
slowed down all the saund they made was
a dull kind of throbbiDg noise that was
almost drowned by the continual croeking
of the frogs, which are very large and very
numerous along the marshes of the Danube.
Nevertheless, the quick ear of Turkish
eeDtinel caught the unusual sound and he
cried out: "Who goes there 2" in Turk
ish. The boats advanced without reply
ing. TIE sentinel again called out and
again remained without an answer. He
called out the third time, and as it was be-
coming evident that the ship would be
alarmed Lieut. Dubasoff replied in Turk
lsh, "Friends ~ and continued to advance.
The sentinel, however, was by no means
Satisfied, and after calling out again two or
three times he finally fred. Then the
Russians, who were by that time very near
the doomed monitor, heard q noise in the
ship: There was a scuffl!ng of feet, the
rushing about of sailors, cries and shouts,
and the voice of an officer commanding
them to prepare the guns for action. They
heard the order given for the gun in the
bow to be fred. They heard it given
three times, and three times they heard
the click of the hammer, showing that an
attempt had been made to fire, and that
the gun had refused to go eff. Fiually,
the third time the order was given u
globe of fame leaped over the side of the
gunboat and O shell went whisilipg over
their heads. They were evidently eeen by
the Turks. One of the boats, that of Shes
takoff, now drew off, while that of Dubas-
off continued to advance. Each boat was
armed with two torpedoes, attached to the
end of a long spar that projected from the |
bow. These spars were arranged to move |
on pivots, and could be swung round 30 as
to describe a half circle. The torpedoes
were 90 placed that they could be detached |
from the spare at any moment, and, in ad |
dition to this, long, light chains were at
tached to them, by which they were to be |
tied on to any projecting part of the at.
tackled ship, and they were connected with
the boat by q fiDe flexible wire about 100
yards long. The officer in command car
RED small electric battery fastened round
lis chest.
A lively fusilade had now been opened
upon the boat by the Turks, but, in spite
VI this, the launch of Dubasof shot under
he bow of the monitor, the chain which
vas fastened to the torpedo was flung
,ound chain or rope that was hanging
rom the bow of the ship, the torpedo was
iropped from the spar, aud the current of
he river carried 1t against the bottom of
he ship. Tho launch then shot away
again until the full length of the electric
wire had been reached. The officer applied
t to tie battery round his chest, and at
he same instant huge volume of water
'oee up into the air, which half filed and
nearly swamped Dubasoffs launch, and a
earfnl explosion was heard, which com
pletely drowned the shouts aud cries aud
iring of the Turks. In the mean time the
'ther monitors became alarmed, aud with
'ut knowing the cause, fred at random,
md fearful scene of terror and confusion
'nsued. They not only fired on the Rus
'ian launches, that still kept dodging about
ike mosquitoes, but in their panic and
confusion, fred into each other. The
outlets ratified over the iron awnings of
he launches, but did them no harm. They
we're not once struck, although the bow of
,ne was pierced and sunk by piece of
hell that exploded near it.
The two launches were now on opposite
ides of the doomed chip Dubasoff per
'elved that the monitor was sinking down II
before, but very slowly; while the Turks
continued to fro away blindly, bnt inces-
antly, both with small arms and cannon. |
In ~ -.AE