Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-04-09
aali5tellantous 8eading.
TORPEDO BOATS AND DESTROYERS.
The Difference Between Two Little Known
Types of Naval Vessels.

Types of Naval Vessels.
The Importance attached by naval
authorities to the little boats now on
their way from Spain to the West In
dian waters is source of astonlshment
to the people who have paid no atten.
ton to recent developments in naval
architecture. Torpedo boats have been
popularly known for sometime as war
craft of potential possibilities, but in
actual use more dangerous to their
owners than to the enemy. Torpedo
boat destroyers are apparently a type
of vessel absolutely unheard of by the
majority, and the manner in which
they are mixed up in the news reports
with the craft they are supposedly
intended to annihilate is certainly
mystifying.
The torpedo boat of today, it should
be stated in the beginning, is no longer
a vessel of doubtful value. Its terri
BILE prowess has been shown on several
occasions in recent years. While it is
designed primarily as coast defense
vessel, and is not especially fitted for
long voyages on the high seas, it has
been been made as stable and safe as
any small boat can be. 1t can move
faster than any battleship or cruiser,
and, owing to its small size and low
free board, can steal up within few
hundred yards of warship, discharge
it's projectile under water with consid-
erable accuracy and dart away with
out being seen, perhaps; or, if seen,
can laugh at the efforts of the big YES
sells to capture her. The torpedoes
which she sends forth on their errand
of destruction are sufficiently power
full to sink any man-of-war a1oat If
they hit the mark. The only protec-
ton that battle-ship has from these
terrible little engines of war is in her
guns, which, if seen in time, may sink
the torpedo or in the protective
net of large iron rings which is hung
around the ship when in danger. But
the torpedo boat is so small that it is
very hard to hit her even in daylight,
and her attacks are generally made at
night, while the torpedo nets are of
doubtful efficiency. The torpedo boats
are 100 to $50 feet long and have an
average draught of about 5 feet, so
that they can slip into shallow water
or up rivers if necessary. They have
a complement of from 20 to 25 officers
and men and carry three or four
1-pounder rifles for defense and as
many torpedo tubes for offense.
The torpedo boat destroyer is the re-
suit of the development of the torpe-
do boat. As its name indicates, its
primary object is the destruction Of
torpedo boats, but it combines the
qualities of the torpedo boat, the gun
boat and the cruiser. 1t is larger and
swifter than the torpedo boat, some of
them rushing through the water at the
rate of "a miles an hour, as fast as the
average express train. Besides its tor
pedo tubes, it carries guns of the rap
id firing variety as large as l4'pound-
ers. With such speed and such arma-
ment it can run down and sink the
speediest torpedo boat, while-with-
out using its torpedoes, which are re-
served for war ships-it can capture,
and destroy if necessary, commercial
vessels of large size. In attacking
war vessels, however, it is not as ef-
fective as the torpedo boat, because its
larger size and higher free board makes
it more easily seen and better target
for the guns of the battle ship.