Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-11-25

DSeh latal 10 IL, ana was SO near the gum
boat that no more torpedoes could be
fred at it.
OF course the officers and crew of the
4 gunboat had watched with most anxious
interest the chase of the crab. The vessel
was one which had been fitted out for
service with dynamite guns. of which
she carried some of very long range for
this class of artillery. and she had been
ordered to get astern of the repeller and
to do her best to put few dynamite
bombs on board Of her.
The dynamite gunboat. therefore, had
kept ahead at full speed, determined to
carry out her instructions if she should
be allowed to do so. but her speed was
not as great rs that of crab, and when
the torpedo boat had given up the chase,
and the dreaded crab was drawing
swiftly near, the captain thought it time
for bravery to give place to prudence
With the large amount of explosive ma
| terial of the most tremendous and ter
rifle character which he had on board, it
would be the insanity of courage for him
/ to allow his comparatively small vessel
cred by the powerful jaws of the oncom-
ing foe. AS he could neither fly nor
| fight, he hauled down his flag in token
of surrender, the first instance of the
kind which had occurred in this war.
When the director of Crab @. through
his lookout glass, heheld this action on
| the part of the gunboat, he was little
perplexed as to what he should next do.
To accept the surrender of the British
vessel and to assume control of her, it
was necessary TO communicate with her
| The communications of the crabs were
made entirely by black smoke signals,
and these the captain of the gunboat
could not understand. The heavy matches
in the mailed roof, which could be put
in use when the crab was cruising, could
not be opened when she was at her fight
ing depth and in q tossing sea.
A means was soon devised of COM
nunicating with the gunboat. A speak
ingtube was run up through one of the air
pines Of the crab, which pipe was then
elevated some distance above the sur
face. Through this the director hailed
the other vessel, and as the air pipe was
near the stern of the crab, and therefore
at distance from the only visible por-
ton of the turtle back roof, his voice
seemed to come out of the depths of the
ocean.
The surrender was accepted, and the
captain of the gunboat was ordered to
stop his engines and prepare to be lowed.
When this order had been given the crab
moved round to the bow of the gunboat,
and grasping the cutwater with its
forceps, reversed its engines and began
to back rapidly toward the British fleet,
taking with it the captured vessel as q
protection against torpedoes while in
transit
The crab slowed up not far from one
of the foremost of the British ships, and
coming round to the quarter of the gun
boat, the astonished captain of that YES
sci was informed, through the speaking
tube, that if he would give his parole to
keep out of this fight, he would be
allowed to proceed to his anchorage in
Portsmouth harbor. The parole was
given, and the dynamite gunboat, after
reporting to the flag ship, steamed away
to Portsmouth.
The situation now became one which
was unparalleled in the history of naval
warfare. On the side Of the British seven
war ships We're disabled and drifting
slowly to the southeast. For half an
hour no advance had been made by the
British fleet, for whenever one of the
large vessels had steamed ahead, such
vessel had become the victim of a crab,
and the vice admiral commanding the
fleet had signaled not to advance until
further orders.
The crabs were also lying to, each to
the windward of and not far from one
of the British ships. They had ceased to
make any attacks, and were resting
quietly under protection of the enemy.
This, with the fact that the repeller still
lay four miles away without any apparent
intention of taking part in the battle,
gave the situation its p ocular character
The British vice admiral did not in
tend to remain in this quiescent condi-
ton. 1t was, of course, useless to order
forth his ironclads, simply to sec them
disabled and set adrift. There was an
other arm of the service which evidently
could be used with better effect upon
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 10y the crabs, and some of which
were now drifting dangerously near to
each other. Dispatches had been sent to
Portsmouth for tugs, for it would not do
to wait until these arrived, and suffi-
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 q 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 Repeller 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 mile and
half ahead. Slowly turning her bow
from side to side, SO that the guns would
cover n range of nearly half a 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 the
channel, dense cloud appeared high in
the air, above a roaring, seething cal
dron, followed out of the waters and out
of the very bottom of the channel. Into
this chasm the cloud quickly came down,
condensed into vast body of water,