The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-05-25


The British vice admiral did not in
tend to remain in this quiescent condi
ton. IL was, of course, useless TO ordel
forth his ironclads, simply to see then
disabled and set adrift. There was an
other arm of the service which evidently
could be used with better effect upor
this peculiar foe than could the great
battle ships.
But before doing anything else, he
must provide for the safety of those OF
his vessels which had been rendered
helpless by the crabs, and some Of which
were now drifting dangerously near &c
each other. Dispatches had been sent &c
Portsmouth for tugs, for it would not dc
to wait until these arrived, and sufii.
cient number of ironclads were detailed
TO tow their injured consorts into port.
When this order had been given, the
vice admiral Immediately prepared to
renew the fight, and this time his efforts
were TO be directed entirely against the
repeller. 1t would be useless TO devote
any further attention to the crabs, espe-
cially in their present positions. But if
the chief vessel of the syndiCate's fleet,
with its spring armor, and its terrible
earthquake bombs, could be destroyed,
it was quite possible that those sea para
sites, the crabs. could also be disposed of.
Every torpedo boat was now ordered
to the front, and in long line, almost
abreast of each other, these swift vessels
the light infantry Of the sea--advanced
upon the solitary and distant foe. If
one torpedo could but reach her hull, the
vice admiral, in spite of seven disabled
ironclads and a captured gunboat, might
yet gaze proudly at his floating flag,
even if his own ship should be drifting
broadside to the sea.
The line Of torpedo boats, slightly curry
ing inward, had advanced about mile
when Repeler No. II awoke from her
seeming sleep, and began to act. The
two great guns at her bow were trained
upward, so that bomb discharged from
them would fall into the sea a mile and
half ahead. Slowly turning her bow
from side to side, SO that the guns would
cover a range Of nearly half circle, the
instantaneous motor bombs of the re-
peller were discharged, one every half
minute.
One of the most appalling character
istics of the motor bombs was the silence
which accompanied their discharge and
action. No noise was heard, except the
flash of sound occasioned by the removal
Of the particles of the object aimed at.
and the subsequent roar of wind or fall
of water.
AS each motor bomb dropped into tho
channel, n dense cloud appeared high in
the air, above q roaring, seething cal
dron, followed out of tho waters and out
OF the very bottom Of the channel. Into
this chasm the cloud quickly came down,
condensed into vast body of water,
which fell, with the roar of cyclone,
into the dreadful abyss from which it
had been torn, before the Kissing walls
of the great hollow had half filled it with
their sweeping surges The piled up
mass of the redundant water was still
sending its maddcncd pillows tossingand
writing i'll every direction toward their
normal level, when another bomb was
discharged; another smgmg abyss ap-
peared, another roar of wind and water
was heard, and another mountain of
furious pillows uplifted itself in a storm
OF spray and foam, raging that it had
found its place usurped.
Slowly turning the repcler DISCHARGED
bomb after bomb, building up out of the
very sea itself a barrier against its enc
mics. Under these laundering cata-
racts, born in an instant, and coming
down all at once in plunging storm;
INTO these abysses, with walls of water
and floors Of cleft and shiyered rocks:
through this wide belt of raging turmoil.
thrown into new frenzy after the dis n
charge OF every bomb-no vessel, no tor
pedo, could pass.
The air driven off in every direction
by tremendous and successive concus-
5ions came rushing back in shriekinr
gales, which tore up the waves into
binding foam. For miles in every di-
rection the sea swelled and upheaved i
INTO great peaked waves, the repeller
Using upon these almost high enough to II
ook down into the awful chasms which
ler bombs were making. A torpedo
boat, caught in one of tho returning
ales, was hurled forward almost on her
cam ends until she was under the edge
one OF the vast masses of descending
'ater. The flood which, from even the
utter limits of this falling sea, poured
pom and into the unlucky vessel nearly
her, and when she was swept
ack by the rushing waves into less
iormy waters, her officers and crew
saped into their boats and deserted her.
y rare good fortune their boats were
epe ahoat in the turbulent cea until
ney reached the nearest torpedo vessel.
FIVE minutes afterward a small but