St. Landry democrat., 1881-08-27
An Alleged Fenian Torpedo Ram.

MI. IL. 1uDDC, OF l. 10 bFOduWdY, WdS
the engineer that Delamater & Co. put
in charge of the construction of John
7. Hollands torpedo ram when the in
ventor first applied to them in May,
1879. He said yesterday:
q have dissolved my connection with
Delamater Il Co., but know Mr. Hol-
land very well, and did all the engineer
ing work for him on the torpedo ram.
Holland is wide awake, and a very
clever man. The boat is an undoubted
success, and am very glad of it, not
only because her construction was
carried on under my direction, but be-
cause am glad to see that the idea
which Holland has so long champloned
has at last been carried through to a
practical success. This ram is pro-
PEELED by q twenty horse power Brayton
motor which can be run with kerosene,
naphtha, or petroleum. One of these
motors has been put into a launch
which belongs to a friend of mine, and
| he makes ten miles an hour all day long
on less than ten gallons of kerosene.
! The machines are very powerful. There
| is one point about Hollands ram that |
know nothing about-his invention for
purifying the air The very engineer
he has on board of her is ignorant of
his secret, and he's too shrewd to allow
it to slip out, There is no secret. how
! through tube in the bow like ball
from rifle, after the method invented
by John Ericsson. The inside of the
boat is filled with machinery. She is
steered by the aft rudder by means of a
IL -. a. Il
by complicated machinery. These side
or horizontal rudders enable her to
shoot up Or down at any angle in the
water, and are very essential
How long can a man stay under
water with her?"
"About five hours would be the
maximum. The speed attainable is
not more than seven miles an hour be-
low the surface It's very hot inside,
with all the machinery clicking about
ones ears and the steaming motors I'M
der ones very feet; but the water in
side is cold, and serves to equalize the
temperature. The jacket about the
man trap has two windows fore and
aft, and two on each side, so that a
man can put his head up there when
he steers and look right into the heart
of the river. The glass is an inch and
a half thick i'll this jacket to resist the
heavy pressure. The principle on
which the boat is constructed is we'll
known and thoroughly tested"
"Who paid for the boat??''
"The Fenian John j. Breslin was
at the yard every day, and watched
the work with the utmost care but l
am not prepared to state. in fact, I
don't know, whether he paid for her
or not | only know that he was con-
stantly on hand. have been out of
town for some time, or | should have
gone down in her. will go as soon as
| get an invitation from her inventor,
for l believe in her all the way
through
A Paterson Land Lacquer and former
neighbor of Mr. Holland says he has
made a submarine trip with Mr.. Hol-
land in the boat. cit was on the 10th
of July" he said to a San reporter
yesterday. 1--WE started down near
Judge Van Brunt's place, and went
fully half a mile under water Holland
made the boat do just what he wanted
it to do There is q dial on one side
that denotes the water pressure and the
depth below the surface. He can keep
a level course at any depth he desires,
and can ascend or descend at will. An
other gauge indicates the steam pres
sure. Still another shows the speed
and direction of the vessel. 1t was
hot day, but the all was fresh and pure
in the boat, though we were under water
for an hour. The light that came in
thrn1,0t, fbn hull fS-o 1no1-n,,f ,,,oIn
everything plainly visible inside. We
sailed at a depth of sixteen feet from
the surface, and could see everything
in the water for some distance. 1t was
a sort of twilight. We saw the bot
toms of steamboats, and sailing YES
sells beneath which we passed. Only
once was it dark, and then we
ran into mud bank at the bottom.
That sent up clond of sediment that
turned the water into ink, and it was
some minutes after we assembled little
that we ran out into clear water The
are pushed out from the in
side by an ingenious arrangement so
quickly that with six wooden dunn
mics only three quarts of water get
into the forward compartment. That
can easily be pumped out again, for
the boat is raised and lowered by let
ting water into the compartments or
it out again. The exploding
torpedo does M harm to the ram.
Several real tofpedoes have already
been discharged from it. Itcould blow
up any ship that floats. Holland is an
Irishman, and that is probably the
cause of the Fenian story; but that is
all there is in it. Holland could sell
the boat as it floats to one or two Of
three European Governments for $780,
900. His offers have come from five
comparatively small countries