The record-union., 1898-09-05
THE DESTROYER.
Graphic Description of a New Tor
pedo Boat DESTROYER

pedo Boat Destroyer
| From the humming dockyard to the
low barrier of hills the shining harbor
reaches smooth as glass in the morning
sun; and under the hills lie the check
cred black and white hulls of the old
wooden warships, the reverend me-
| MORALS of many great fights whose
noise has long since died upon the sea.
There, in the quiet haven, lie the veter-
ans their warfare accomplished; now,
they are come to the nurseries Of the
mariners who serve the fleets of the
new navy
And here. moored beside the wharf,
is f1re-new warship Of the Queen; a
long, low vessel belching smoke from
her three ~corpulent tunnels her whole
eager fabric throbbing with pent, ir-
resistible energy. She is black from
stem to stern, save for a scarlet streak
showing above the water line; tunnels,
single mast, cowled ventilators great
and little, boats slung to davits-au are
black. Piled upon the vibrating decks
are bags Of glistening, hand picked
coal, and canisters of OIL some thirty
men-stokers, engine-room artificers,
and blue jackets-smoking and talking,
dN d1l the OIQeT, U QUARTERS WHlIt
the roar of steam rushing through the
safety valves browns the multitudinous
.clatter of the dockyard. For the new
torpedo boat destroyer is going upon
her maiden speed trial
A couple, of men paddle around the
ship in a dingy, sweeping her water
line clean from the last particle Of
harbor scum; at an order the men on
deck vanish below; the Lieutenant,
mounting his little conningtower in
the bows, stands beside the coxswain,
and bells ring in the engine room. The
destroyer moves astern, swings slowly
about, and glides across the tranquil
harbor, past the busy wharves, the
huge open sheds, the tangle of nlasts,
ropes and tunnels, and the square brick
offices Of the dockyard, and on, with a
long, easy motion. past the piled con-
geries Of old, red houses, the port
guardshin 4 the round forts-out upon
the green water.
Again the bells ring in the engine
room, where the needle of the tele-
graph-dia1 points to Full speed
ahead" and an intense, rafting vibra-
ton seizes and shakes the long ship
like an ague; a long, foam-Hpped wave
curls slantwise from her bows; astern,
a fountain of foam leaps above the
gunwale and streams away in a fam
shaped lather, swiftly subsiding to a
white path seething on the waters. The
three tunnels be1ch volumes of brown
smoke that trails away to leeward in
a vast and rolling cloud casting a
shadow on the dancing sea. The men
passing to and fro on deck must strug-
gle against the wind Of her going; while
on the distant, sliding shore languid
pillars of smoke are rising here and
there into the Silly air. But, not yet
does the official test Of speed begin;
for the engines must race for half an
hour or more in order to touch their
full momentum.
BY that time the pouring smoke is
laced with red flame; the stern sucks
down until the hooded black ventilators
which crowd the flush deck, white
reflection shining upon each, seem run
ming uphill to the bows The stinging
spray is flying like a shower of peb-
bles, and the masthead qufvers like
whip with the tremendous vibration.
Down in the engine-room there reigns
a shattering, cataclysmic uproar; the
indicating needles are all a-quiver up
on the brass trimmed dials; the art-
ficers grease from head to foot, sluice
oil and water upon the bearings until
the frantic engines race and hammer
in a binding mist. And down in the
stokehold, into which the air is driven
by whirling fans, the stokers sweat IN
a storm of coa1dust. With a trained
fury of energy the grimy men IN gog-
giles never cease from heaving coal into
the white-hot furnaces, raking and
goading. with the long iron slices, the
intolerab1e fires.
The first white buoy that marks the
measured mile is reached; the two cor
responding poles set up ashore Twinkle
one behind another, and are LETT far
astern In an instant-the second buoy
is passed, the second pair OF poles
merge into one for moment, ana
Thirty point four -eight-four," says
the contractors engineer, stop-Watcn
In hand complacently. He means tnat
the DESTROYER is travelling fractlon
under thirty and one-half knots, OF
about thirty-five miles, in the hour.
And thereafter. for three hours, the
swift and mighty little monster OF De
struction is tearing through the water
at top speed: until the thrilling, throo-
bing lar is fit to shake her In pieces,
the tunnels are pillars of sea salt, ana
continually out Of the heart OF that
crashing turmoil there clangs a poohng
note of imminent disaster.
At last the hour strikes-the trial is
done-the tunnels cease to vomit smoke
and the racked and straining vessel
released from that demondac compul-
sion, swims suddenly in a blessed
peace. So the destroyer glides home
ward easily as swallow, and fetches
up at the quay as the chill spring
twilight Is falling, and the dockyaro
mateys are all trooping home.
Equipped with the inAdious torpedo,