The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-01-03

withstanding every precaution, an en-
envy should elude our ships, and a land
ing in force be effected, what is going
to prevent the devastation of the cOun-
try. or even the sack of London itself2'
There are four very strong forts
which command the Thames river close
to London. They are called respectively
CoalhOuse fort, CoalhOuse battery and
the forts of Cliffe and ShOrnemead.
Like the harbor defenses of New York,
these forts are provided with num-
Der of intricate appliances which are
essential for the protection of the river
approach to WOolwich and London. The
annual maneuvers are held mainly
with the object of testing the working
of these appliances, as, though each
fort is occupied by a special detach-
ment Of trained gunners, whose partic-
ular duty is the cleaning and testing
of the machinery, yet the elaborate and
costly instruments, such as telephones
and range finders, can only be practi-
cally inspected by their employment
under service conditions so that mis-
tai es can be rectified and inaccuracies
adjusted.
THAMES WAS DEFENDED.
This year two companies of garrison
artillery were told off to man the bat
teries. that is, a force of about 400 men.
The accommodation of troops is none
of the best. and some difficulty is at
tached to obtaining the necessary sup
plies. But soldiers make light Of these
things, and everybody soon makes
himself at home, for the time being.
The first couple OF days are spent in
s-,I, drill. and also in Instructions as TO
the repelling of torpedo boat attacks.
The interesting part from an outsider S
point of view begins with the supposed
declaration of war. The programme of
narations this year included attempts
m, the part of fleet of torpedo de-
stroyers and auxiliary vessels TO sur
priss the forts and run past them.
Hostilities began on the third night
and accordingly officers and men were
al on the alert. Reliefs were told off to
ran the guns, and q lookout squad,
consisting OF an officer and Few men,
z.,as nosted on the top of each fort, TO
warn the garrisons OF the approach OF
arv suspicious-looEing craft. About in
the evening the royal engineer detach-
1nent began 10 put in their fine work
ND swept the whole river with the
,oower-ful electric searchllght belonging
70 Cliff fort The hours were passing
o1axvIv and toward o'clock one OF the
ssloolzout'' officers thought he could dis
Germ a torpedo destroyer coming up the
,iT,er Of a great pace: he gave the
alarm. :
ssaction.' y when suddenly one Of those
heavy. dense, in1penetrable mlSts for
which the Thames is famous, fell over
fhe river ard promptly obscured every
thing. The "gunners' were intensely
,siea1nointed. as of course, nothing
-srId prevent the success of the
eneuy's attempt, unless the fog should
fo1-tunately prove too dense to allow
fhe tor0edo boat to proceed and risk
fha encounrering of submarine mines
and the danger Of running ashore. So
fine event proved, and in the morning,
when the fog lifted, it was seen that
no ATTEMPT 10 run past the forts had
been made.
However. at daybreak the fleet was
SIGHTED coming up the river, and imme
oiately a heavy fire was opened on the
heats from all the guns available. The
unanimous verdict was that no fleet of
17naruiored vessels such as those max
inc the attach, could have survived the
hail of shot and shell which was pour
ed in upon them.
After the failure of the first attempt
no further attack was made until
ufehtfall again, though in consequence
of the difficulty OF distinguishing
friends from foes, several false alarms
were made in the course of the day.
( Operations were continued during that
night. and the succeeding two days and
nights, with the general result that the
guns were masters of the situation.
THE BRENNAN TORPEDO.
Toward the end of the week, during
which the operations lasted, trial was
made of the Brennan torpedo, which is
the exclusive property of the British