The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1897-07-03
Defense AGAINST Torpedoes.

Pall Mali Gazette: The recent alarm OF
the fleets in Cretan waters lest Greek tor
pedo boats should attack them, and the
elaborate defensive measures adopted In
Suda Bay give certain interest to torpedo
boat attack and defense gcnerally-to the
latter especially.
A ship is most exposed to danger when
lying in a harbor. and it is then that de-
fensive precautions become of the great
est urgency. The sea is n big place. and a
fotilla OF boats hunting blindly for a fleet
in the open are only likely to encounter it
by its rushing right into them. Then, the
probability Is that the lookout cruisers
and destroyers Will drive them off or sink
them before they get their chance to run
the antlet of fire from the large battle
ships. There is but one quarter from which
they have chance of successful attack
from ahead, because, though their speed
may be 100 yards a minute, the battleships
are probably doing 500 yards in the same
time, n an attack from the stern would
mean being under fire for possibly ten
minutes. The assumption is hat no boat
could survive being under fire for over
two minutes. Approaching from ahead.
the combatants nearing each other at the
combined speed of 1900 yards a minute,
there is a strong appearance of the boats
pStiS dpie 10 get Wllnln Two cdDIeS anu lie
her torpedoes before she has been much
more than a minute under fire. Yet This Is
| appearance only. / hav seen a good many
end attacks in maneuvers, and the big
ship has always had time to turn and pre-
sent her bow or stern to the boat. No tor
pedoist would fire at a ship cnd-on; the
chances of hitting the target are very
Slight; while given a hit at all, no modern
warship so hit is likely to be sunk or alb
solute]y disabled by the explosion. The
boa is. in fine. compelled to make a de-
tour, in doing which she will probably be
sum
In the next naval war very few ships are
likely to be '%'bagged' at sea by torpedo
boats, and the boats are not likely to last
long If they attempt the task. For they
cannot long keep the sea; they must have
shelters to fly to in the day time, and the
number of these shelters being limited
they are easily watched by catchers and
destroyersa able to sink the boats at leisure
as they return in the dawn. Yet all this
does not mean that fleet attacks will not
:, be attempted, and now and again a daring
man Ii bound to get home: in any case
the possibility of such attack is bound to
be a terrible menace to Il fleet; hence there
Ia a reason to believe that the one boat
lying idle in harbor might be a worse en-
envy h three careering about In search
of something to sink. p~aradoxicai though
1t may at first sight seem.
TIL terrible part II torpedo craft
might play after a great fleet action amid
the big ironclads rolling helplessiy dis
abled on the swell hardly enters into the
scope of this paper. 1t sufices to say that
as each side will probably have a large
cruiser and torpedo force with 1t. one. OF
these will nave to annihilate the other be-
fore much can be done, and the victor may
then be too enfeebled to act.
When a fleet lies in harbor many of the
conditions are changed: the boats know
where to find the ships, there is no more
blind seeking and there Will be very little
of the haphazard in the attack. It is true
that in certain big harbors, strongly forti-
fled, protected by booms full of deadly
Instructions, a fleet will be safe enough.
but most harbors are not so protected:
then defensive measures have to be SER
iously adopted, and woe betide the fleet
ff they fall. The simplest of all defenses