The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-01-05
ERICssON'S LATEST INVENTION.
A NOVEL TORPEDO BOAT THAT CAN SINK
THE GREATEST OF IRoN-CLADs.

A successful trial of Captain Fries.
sons torpedo boat, Destroyer, took
place at the navy yard yesterday.
The strong tide of the ordnance
dock compelled a change of plan,
and the target, square frame COW
cred with wire netting, was success
fully placed in the cove. The De-
stroyer was made fast to the old
Constitution. The target was sub
merged three hundred yards away.
Everything being in readiness, Mr..
Larroe, the representative of the
Delamater iron works, the builders
of the Destroyer, notified Cap
tain Selfridge and Comman-
ders Pythian and Crowninshield,
the board appointed to exam
inc the tests. At o'clock the sig
nal was given and the gun fired.
There was but n slight report, and
all that could be noticed from the
outside was a tritling disturbance
of the waters under the bow of the
vessel. Almost instantly the por-
ton of the target which was above
the water was seen 10 vibrate, and
a second later the projectie, q
wooden log fifteen feet long, leaped
from the wafer some three hundred
yards beyond the target. with mo-
ton exactly similar to that of a por-
poise playing under the bow of a
ship at sea. From this point it
ricochetted along the surface of the
water for some two hundred yards
further before it lost its momentum.
The target having been raised it was
found that the netting had been
pierced almost exactly in the centre
and about five feet under water.
The officers promo need this
trial eminently successful and or
dered another for this morning at
10 o'clock. The Destroyer is an iron
boat with hall almost entirely sub
merged. Upon this hull, placed
well ait, Is a deck-house Of sheet
iron. The hull is $50 feet long, II
feet wide and IL feet deep. She is
a double-ender and is propelled by
an engine of 1000 horsepower. The
steering apparatus and the torpedo
gun-in fact, oil of her effective APP
pointments-are below the water
level. The armament consists of a
single gun placed just above the
keelson in the forward part of the
boat, its muzzle opening directly
into the water, which is excluded
from 1t by u permanent valve hung
by an elbow JOINT to the stem and
opened or closed by q piston ope-
rated at the breech of the gun.
When the gun is to be fired
the valve is raised out of the path of
the protectile and its place is taken
by a temporary valve of wood and
rubber cloth, which fits the muzzle
tightly, and is placed i'll the gun af-
ter it is loaded. This is shattered
when the gun is fired. As the pro-
jectile leaves the muzzle the per-
manent valve again comes in posi-
ton. The little water that rushes
in runs through the breech to the
bilge, and is pumped out by a steam
siphon. The torpedo, which it is
proposed to use in actual warfare,
is a chamber of iron or copper,
large enough to contain $40 pounds
OF dynamite, and it is claimed that
against this little vessel the most
powerful iron-elads will be helpless,
as the submerged gun will penetrate
them beneath their armOr, and her
great speed and facility of maneu-
vering would enable her 10 get in
her work among a fleet of ships al
most at will and with entire safety.