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

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roar of all her own torpedoes she passe'
INTO nothing
The British vice admiral had CAREFUL,
watched the repellcr through his glass
and he noticed that simultaneously viii
| the appearance of the cloud in the air
produced by the action of the motto
| bombs, there were two puiFs of blacl
smoke from the repellcr These wer,
signals TO the crabs to notify them tina
motor gun had been discharged, ant
thus to provide against accidents in CASE
bomb should fail to act. One put sig
nified that a bomb had been discharged
to the north two, that it had gone east
ward, and so on. IT, therefore, a crat
should see n signal of this kind, and per.
ceive no signs of the action of "a bomb il
would be careful not to approach the re.
pcller from the quarter indicated. 1t is
true that in case of the failure of "A bomb
10 act. another bomb would bc dropped
upon the same spot, but the instructions
of the war syndicate provided that every
possible precaution should DO taken
against accidents.
OF course the vice admiral did not UNI
derstand these signals, nor did he know
that they were signals, but he knew that
they accompanied the discharge of a
motor gun. Once he noticed that there
was short cessation in the hitherto CON
slant succession of water avalanches, and
during this lull he had seen two pulfs
from the repeller, and the destruction, at
the same moment, of the deserted torpedo
boat. 1t was, therefore, plain enough to
him that il a motor bomb could be placed
so accurately upon one torpedo boat, and
with such terrible result, other bombs
could quite as easily be discharged upon
the other torpedo boats which formed
the advanced line of the fleet. When
the barrier of storm and cataract again
began to stretch itself in front of the
repeller, he knew that not only was it
impossible for the torpedo boats to send
their missives through this raging tur-
moil but that each of these vessels was
itself in danger of instantaneous destruc-
ton.
Unwilling, therefore. TO expose his
vessels TO proiitless danger, the vice
admiral ordered the torpedo boats to re-
tire from the front, and the whole line
of them proceeded to point north of the
fleet, where they lay TO.
When this had been done the repeller
ceased the discharge of bombs, but the
sea was still heaving and tossing after
the storm, when "A dispatch boat brought
orders from the British admiralty to the
flag ship. Communication between the
British fleet and the shore and con-
London, had been constant,
and all that had occurred had been
quickly made known to the admiralty
and the government. The orders now
received by the vice admiral were to the
effect that it was considered iudicious to
the conflict for the day, and
that he and his whole fleet should return
to Portsmouth to receive further orders.
In issuing these commands the British
government was actuated simply by mo-
tives of humanity and common sense.
Il Ic III lLloI Ittb WIS LIlbiOuAiliN pre-
pared for ordinary naval warfare, but
an enemy had inaugurated another kind
Of naval warfare for which it was not
IL was therefore decided to
the ships until they should be
for the new kind of warfare. To
allow ironclad after ironclad to be disa-
Dled and set adrift, to subject every ship
IN the fleet to the danger of instantaneous
and all this without the
of inflicting injury upon the
enemy, would not be bravery; it would
% stupidity. 1t was surely possible to
levise means for destroying the seven
hostile ships now in British waters.
Until action for this end could be taken,
t was the part Of wisdom for the British
navy to confine itself to the protection of
British ports.
When the fleet began to move toward
he Isle of Wight the six crabs, which
lad been lying quietly among and under
he protection of their enemies, with
rev southwark, and making a slight |
ircuit. joined the repeller.