Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-05-21
BRITISH TORPEDO BOATS.
Some of tho Latest Devices in Murderous
Small Graft.
From tie London Nelcs.

prunlng hooks there must always be
profound interest attaching to such work
as that in which Messrs. Thornycroft &
90. ars engaged on a pleasant bend Of the
river Just under Chiswick Church. Out
of this bend of the Thames there have
been going for some years a constant
series of the most murderous little craft
that the wit and ingenuity OF modern
times have been able to devise. They
have Just now handed over to the Admit
rally, at Portsmouth, one Of the largest
and most destructive vessels of the kind
ever vet built. 1t is 1l3 feet long and u
feet inches in beam, and it will run at
about 20 knots an hour. II the bows are
two tubes, each to be charged with
Whitehead torpedo, and in the stern of the
boat is another tube for another torpedo,
which can be discharged in any direction
while the vessel is going at full speed,
and which, it is said, will with almost
absolute certainty hit a ship at zoe or 800
wards distance. 1t is also armed with Mol
denfeldt gun with nearly an all-round
fire. There is another one lying in the
yard now which was built last year. Our
government has just ordered 20 torpedo
boats of this firm, which is now working
for Nile service. 1t is, of course, the boats
only that are built here. At Chiswick
they have nothing to do with explosives,
and the reason that this peculiar business
has taken up its quarters in this peaceful
reach of the Thames is that this firm some
years ago acquired reputation for fast
steam yachts. They are the patentees of
a peculiar form of screw giving great
speed and specially well adapted tor YES
oIs l,f1 10Th oh "a
gether with well-laid lines and powerful
small compound condensing engines, has
afforded the means of turning out just the
vessels for torpedo service-lilliputian in
size and herculean in strength.
The twenty boats ordered by the govern
ment are different from the one Just deliv-
cred at Portsmouth. They are to be what
is known as "spar torpedo" bOats-fright-
full little desperadOes that rush right up
to an enemy's vessel with u torpedo about
twice the size of a mans hat, and with 40
pounds of dynamite or gun-cottOn inside
it, stuck at the end of a spar thrust out
from its bows. This spar is OF steel in
three pieces riveted together. 1t lies
along the deck ordinarily, but on the APP
proach of an enemy windlass is brought
into action, and a wire rope is cOiled and
the pole thrust out over the bows and
dipped down so as to hold the torpedo
about 20 feet in advance of the bow and 8
feet below the surface of the water. ANY
vessel unlucky enough TO met one of these
little spittires thus prepared has only TO
touch the torpedo, and, unless it be of
exceptional construction, down it must
pretty certainly 90; or, if the impact is
not actually made, the officer on board
the torpedo boat can fire 1t at discretion
by electricity by merely pressing key.
or course it is not always that one of
these little dare-devils can get at ship
at close quarters, and for tOrpedOes the
charge of explosive is not great. 1t if
were a heavier charge it would probably
destroy the torpedo boat as well as the
vessel attacked. But, says Mr.. John
Donaldson in paper read by him before
the British Association some time ago,
1t is question whether it would not be
more prudent and certain course to use
the spar torpedo in circumstances like
those which obtained at Alexandria the
other day, when the attacking ships were
so enveloped in smoke that the firing had to
be suspended till the smoke cleared away.
The midshipman in the tops might have
seen boats 400 yards off''-the distance
from which a Whitehead torpedo might
have been launched at the vessel below
the midshipman-"and might have di-
rected the machine gun fire upon them,
but close in | question if he could, and it
would be easier for the commanders of the
torpedo boats to find an opening for spar
torpedo than to direct the course of 4
Whitehead in the mass of smoke with
which they and the enemy would be sur
rounded" This may serve as an Illus
tratiOn of the purposes to which spar tor
pedOes may sometimes be put. Those
just ordered by the government, it should
be added, are TO have on their decks, in
addition to the spar, "A Hotchkiss gun, ca
pable of shooting out explosive shells
pretty nearly all round the compass.
These shells are designed to cripple or
destroy the enemy's torpedo boats. They
Will pierce their bullet-proOf iron cas-
ing, and must be particularly nasty Wis
itors inside one of these closely packed
little craft.
These small spar boats are, however.
in point of deadly power not to be COM
pared with those which, like the one sent
Out from this yard on Thursday and the
one lying there now, are capable of shoot
ing out their messengers to a distance of
400 or 500 yards. The boat up there on
the stocks now is a particularly interest
ing subject. 1t is a long, narrow craft,
clad in an iron coating sufficiently thick
to keep out bullets, though penetTable by
the missiles of machine guns such as the
Nordenfeldt or Hotchkiss. 1t is divided
throughout its length into seven or eight
Water-tight compartments, which in action
rest of the vessel. If, therefore, a hole
were made in any one OF them, and it filed
with Water, 1t would not sink the boat.
In the engine room there is an especially
ingenious provision against any mishap
involving the bursting of one OF the steam
pipes. AS the engineers when the boat is
in action would be shut down close in their
own water-tight compartment, the burst
Ing Of a steam pipe would involve the
death Of the men by horrible process of
scalding. In these Thornycroft boats
there is a small iron door in the roof OF
the engine room which, under the in
creased pressure of the escaping steam,
would blow open automatically. The
torpedo chamber is, Of course, in the fore
part Of the vessel. There are two huge
tubes lying parallel with the keel of the
boat, and connected with these is a deal of
complicated machinery. Into these tubes
the Whitehead orpedOee-frightul pack
ages OF explosives and machinery, some
IA or 10 inches in diamater and from IA to
4 ~ feet lOng-are thrust and shut in, and
then the air in the tubes is condensed till
II has pressure of about 100 atmOs-
4 pheres. OF course the torpedo is dis
4 charged by opening the front Of the tube,
when the outward rush OF the condensed
air carries the torpedo with It. The thing
pursues steady course under water,
. sWVlf I.rr h.a