The St. Johns herald., 1891-09-17
AN OCEAN TERROR.
q New Invention to Disable the
 Great Ironclads.
It Is Called the Swordship, and It Is the Work of a Danish InventOr-A Terri ble Agent of Destruction in
 Marine Warfare.

Marine Warfare.
 When the fleet of nations consisted of pig wooden vessels Ericsson constructed amonitor arnored against their shots and able to destroy great number of ships without being damaged itself. Two formidable weapons not in use at that tIne-the ram and the torpedo have been introduced, either of which may destroy in a few seconds millions 0f value in armored vessels. Ships of great size for carrying guns have there fore been furnished with these auXil- iaries The United States in its latest type, says the Chicago Mail, has dis carded the gun and the torpedo, and in the Ammen ram places its sole reliance in the spur, the vessel being heavily armored for her displacement and of quick lnaneuvering qualities. A Danish inventor, conceiving the idea that small rams to destroy the propeller of an ad- Vcrsary are desirable adj juncts to a fleet of war vessels, has designed what he calls a swordship. His plan is for vessel of one hundred and ten tons dis placement, intended for spelling shafts or propeller blades or punching holes in the bottoms of the smaller ironclads or armored cruisers. Its sword is more than ten feet long and has teeth like Q saw to prevent it from slipping. Its upper point is six feet below the water level. its lower point being five and half feet deeper. The sword is carried and supported by two arms which should be as thin as is consistent with strength in order not to impede the rnaneuvering power. Swordships should be furnished with twin propellers. with a balanced rudder between them, and should have many water tight compartments, some of which. when action is impending, should be filled with water in order to submerge the ship still deeper. The speed ought to be higher than that of torpedo boats of equal power and displacement-that is, over twenty-five knots per hour, be- cause the swordship has no projectiles to discharge and her mission is to de stroy the larger game. The conninc towers should be armored and arrange so as to lessen as much as possible the shock of collision. Although any kim of propeller can be used the maneuver. ing power is thought to be especially improved with the two bladed pro pellers. The blades are connected l., means of blade-aXle which can tn freely in the boss. The thrust of t. upper blade is greatest in ordinary pro pellers, on account of the greate speed of the upper wake, but here it. plate angle decreases a little, while th pitch of the opposition blade increase in the same proportion. The maneuv ering of small sword-vessel require only one duty from the commander, ac cording to the inventor-that is that h, should be sailor.
 Sitting in the conning-tower the com mander is able to concentrate his whole attention upon the maneuvers required to rush upon the enemy and destroy his propellers. At distance of one thousand feet from an ironclad bi. shot would ricochet from the half-sub- merged deck of the swordship, and as the distance can be passed over in twenty-five seconds the chance of being damaged is little when the vessel is protected against quick-ire guns. Sup pose an ironclad and a sword-vessei going say eighteen and twenty-four knots respectively, the sword-vessel possessing several times greater ma neuvering power. Its commander re- quires only to thrust his hoating-sword within the disc area of the condemned propeller and the blades are cut of in rapid succession. The sanguine in yentor says of his work: 'There can be no doubt concerning the correctness of this method, because complicated tor pedoes often fail in the decisive mo, mcnt, whereas a sword must damage where it hits; secondly, the maneuvers demanded for the application of tor pedoes are always impeded by great number of difficulties"