Morning journal and courier., 1893-11-01
WILL GO To RRAxII.

O. 8. Bushnell Says There In no Secret
of the Sale OF tho Destroyer TO the
Brazilian Government-TriaI OF the
Cunninghnm Torpedo Mt Newport.
NEWPORT, R. L, Oct. 81. The Destroyer
sailed for New York this evening in tow of
tug Scandinavian. @. s. Bushnell, vice
president of the Ericsson company, has been
In town all day. He says there's no secret
of the sale of the craft to this Brazilian gov
eminent. Upon arrival In New York che
will be taken at once to the Erie Basin, 60
on the dry dock and have her hull and
steering gear overhauled, and will then be
ready to turn over to her purchasers.
What further they may desire to do he
does not know. She will 60 to the south
ern republic In tow of some of the vessels
of :he recently acquired navy. Five men,
1t is calculated, will be all that are necessary
to man her on the down trip-two engi
neers and three helmsmen.
There are In possession of the Ericsson
company ten projectiles, ak new and four
old ones. The new ones were ordered by
our government, but never paid for, SO the
ship people have paid the bill and claimed
the projectiles without protest They will
have to be loaded to be made seryiceable
for fighting. There Is regret expressed by
naval officers that the net trials have been
brought to this untimely end, but there
seems little reason for the abuse of the gov
eminent for not purchasing the vessel If
the officers report the gun as desirable
feature of the navy the department will
undoubtedly prefer to design its own vessel
to operate 1t from and would, therefore,
not be satisfied with the present construc-
ton.
Before the Destroyer left for New York
the Cunningham torpedo was tried from
her submarine gun, and as result 1t will
not be surprising IL a half dozen pro-
jectiles of this sort will also accompany
the craft upon her warlike mission; In
fact negotiations for this new torpedo are
well advanced. The trials, while quite
satisfactory were not perfect, but the sue
cess attained Is beyond that usually
reached by Sc new a oontriVance. First,
torpedo which had already been fred at
New Bedford, was put In the gun and
about noon an attempt WAS made to fire
it, but the primers in the forward COM
partment failed to ignite the powder and
that in the after compartment did not
work.
The shell was removed from the gun,
and detonators from the station put in.
Then 1t worked. There was bubbling of
water and rising of smoke at the bow,
then at a dis 'snce of 100 feet or so the pro-
jectile leaped clear of the water, splitting
fire, and with a terrible roar 1t then skip
ped along the surface and over the 200
feet net. Then It sank, leaving behind
trail of smoke on the water. 1t passed to
the right of the 400 feet net and sank
about 500 feet from the vessel.
A second projectile was put in and the
results were the same, the line of fire at
400 yards being fairly good and the swerv-
ing to the right not being serious. The
inclination to come to the surface it 10 ex-
pected to rectify by ballasting the shell, as
Ia the case of the Ericsson, to sn angle of
45 degrees, with head down. The speed
was all that could be asked for. There are
doubts about the burning of the forward
charges and in case they do not ignite the
possibilities of the torpedo are much
greater. The tests were witnessed by a
large party of naval officials and represent
atives of the company. This will end the
trials of the torpedo station for this year.
The torpedo boat Gushing sailed for
Peconic bay to practice with the White
head torpedo, after the completion of these
trials the class of officers following to New
London by rail.