The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1898-05-05
TORPEDO BOATS
AND DESTR0YERS


ant, for every man in the crew knows that
the chances of his death in battle are
| much greater than II he were on a big
battleship The men on board are engage
ed In as desperate work as would require
call for volunteers in a land attack. The
relative chances of death in service on bat
tleships and torpedo boats cannot be
computed, for there are no figures upon
which to base comparisons. However, all
the experts are agreed that there is no
more hazardous service in the navy, and it
requires the highest courage to embark
on one of the frai little craft
Speed is the great desideratum in torpedo
boat construction and everything else is
| sacrificed In the struggle to obtain 1t.
They are long, low, narrow vessels. When
they put to sea the matches must be bat
tened down-shut up tight and screwed
down so as to exclude the water that con-
stantly rolls over her. The odor of oil,
/ the smell of steam, the closeness of con-
fnement, together with the tossing about
| of the boat have proved beyond the en-
| duranee of the stoutest hearts. Even vet
| eran ssailors hardened by long years spent
on the sea, become seasick while travelling
on the little craft.
! The function of the torpedo boat is to at
| tack a hostile squadron. Every torpedo
boat is David going forth bravely to at
| tack Goliath. The contest between the
| two seems unequal Battleships are alert
| for their small foes by day and by
| night, and If torpedo boat Is discovered
within range all the guns the threatened
| ship capable of being trained upon it will
be. fired at it. Frail in construction, one
/ III ga;a TO ay,d
! 1t to the bottom of the sea.
| So the torpedo boat does its work in the
darkness of the night. But cscn then the
| big ships are each equipped with search
lights that constantly sweep the seas near
| by. Then when the torpedo boat is seen the
battle is one of speed between the torpdo
boat to discharge its torpedo tubes and the
| gunners on the ship to fire their guns.
Against the battleship the torpedo boat
| tries to send an automatic torpedo This
| is so called because the power of propul-
sion is self-contained, and it can be made
| to run below the surface at any depth
| desired or may be made to run on the
| surface itself il deemed best. These tor
| pedoes are known as Whiteheads and ev-
| cry navy in the world makes use of the
same missiles. In the United States the
Howell LOfDeQO, the luftHllon VI Oil <AiiiSii
can naval officer, is also used. and it is
| said to be better because independently OF
the vessel and irrespectively of the means
of discharge it maintains its speed by SELL
controlled motive power.
Speed is maintained in both the White
head and Howell types by the action OF
screw propellers. In the Whitehead the
screws are actuated by an engine, whose
motive power is compressed air carried
in a. tank in the torpedo, feeding air to the
engine as a boiler feeds steam to an ordi-
nary engine. In the Howell the screws are
actuated by a heavy fly wheel without
| tn einterposition of an engine, the energy
of the fly wheel being the moving force.
In both types the depth of immersion is
maintained by horizontal rudder. Con-
stancy of direction is secured in the White
head by means of adjustable vertical rud-
ders. The Howell has no such rudders, but
maintains a rigid direction through the
gyroscopic force of its fly wheel.
There are two ways of discharging or
projecting torpedoes, above water and UNI
der water by means of impulse tubes using
some propellant Formerly compressed air
was employed, but the most recent ar
rangements provide for gunpowder dis
charge.
| The below water discharge has the adj
vantage over the above water discharge
| of affording protection to the men manipu-
| lating the weapon, while the torpedo itself
| is less DETECTED on entering the water
| Above water discharge labors under the
| defects of being liable to premature ex-
! plosion of the torpedo by the enemys fire,
| and on account of the variability of the
| height above water caused by the motion
| of the boat in a sea way. But there are
| advantages in above water discharges es-
| pecially when firing torpedoes from q
| broadside-the tubes be trained like
| guns. Also the above water tubes can be
protected by steel screens much in the
| same way that guns are protected.
| On board recently constructed torpedo
| boats the discharge tubes are on deck,
generally on the fore and aft line, one
| forward the other aft( but near neither
extremity, for the water coming over the
| bow forward and the v1bratory motion
due to the propeller aft affect the torpe-
does. Since a boat carries usually one
weapon in her gun, charged and adjusted
and only one round besides, the location
| of the tubes or guns must be carefully
| considered
| ship the contest is between the speed of
| the torpedo boat, the CELEBRITY with which
| 1t can discharge its deadly missiles and
| the quickness of the lookouts on the bat
| tie ship and the speed with which its gum
ners can fire. What this means can be
| appreciated by few figures. If the tor
pedo boat Porter were running at the rate
| of twenty-four knots 1t would take her
666 seconds to go over 900 yards of danger
| space, BIG seconds to go over 700 yards
| and 81 seconds to travel 500 yards. Allow
| ing the rate of fire from the rapid-fire guns
| of a warship to be 1000 shots per minute
| the Porter would be exposed while passing
over these distances at twenty-four knots
| speed to the following number of shots:
| Over the 900 yards danger space to 1.1o2
| shots, over 700 yards to S62 shots and over
| 800 yards to 61S shots.
| OF course, all of these shots would not
| hit the boat, but il an allowance of 8 per
| cent. is made as the number that would be
| effective 1t is found that the Porter would
be hit thirty-three times in going 900 yards
| twenty-five times in going 700 yards and
| eighteen times in travelling 500 yards.
| All of this time the torpedo boat is un-
| able to do anything in return, for until 1t
I. gets within range of 500 yards, which is not