The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1898-05-24
LIFE ON 4 TORPEDO BOAT.
WAR Is no FROLIC. but FRIGHrFUL
REALITY ON SUCH A CRAFT.
Crew Works shut Up in Crnmped
Quarters With the Boat Constant.
ly Rackfng and Shaking-What
Happens When Torpedo In Fired.

The life at sea on a schooner may be
trying. il may be cold and cherries and
limited. but TO thoroughly grasp the full
significance OF being cribbed. cahined and
confined one should serve on board q tor
pedo boat a iSfH1
vessel, in the designing OF which the one
element of speed has been made 10 DOM
mate all other features. Therefore, every
qualification that makes for this end Ia
given the highest development 10 the al
most total suppression OF every other war
like and seagoing essential. For instance.
a boat of 100 tons displacement, similar
TO the three boats Spain sent to the Cape
Verde islands. is usually from 1so to $50
feet long. Slows twenty-five tons of coal,
carries four torpedoes. two for each tube.
and has a complement of about twenty
men.
In dividing such craft up Internally.
usually the sharp knife edge bow is shut
off six or eight feet abaft the stem from
the remainder of the boat by the collision
bulkhead. This division is made, first,
because nothing could be slowed away in
so narrow a place so far forward, and sec
ond. to insure safety Of the boat in case
her bows get stove. To stave in the bows
of a torpedo boat is really quite as easy
as rolling Off log, for the boat in all her
parts is made as light as possible. The
frames are Of light weight, the longitud-
inals are mere strips OF metal. SO thin
and frail Is the construction OF the boat
that If she bumps or runs into anything
she will be bent out OF shape, and should
her bow strike any hard object--like a
f1oa ting spar or the spite or a deck-it
would be turned back on itself and twist
ed all out of shape, in much the same
way as a stiff piece OF paper would be
hafnN N ha
abaft the collision bulkhead comes the
torpedo room, where the torpedoes are
manipulated either 10 be fired out OF the
bow tube or hoisted up to the deck tube,
according to which way the boat may be
fitted. Next come the mems Quarters-a
small compartment. where the eighteen
or twenty sailors are packed in like sar-
dimes.
Torpedo Boat Machinery.
Then come the boilers and engines The
former are of the tubular type, in which
water circulates through an almost infinite
number of tubes. Steam can be quickly
raised and easily kept up, but men. in
order to keep these fiery maws aglow
with all the fuel they can eat, must be
able to stand heat with nearly as much
impunity as did the three Israelites.
Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego, Of the
Old TestTfmnt.
The engines of the torpedo boat are of
the five cylinder triple expansion c.ass or
of the quadruple expansion type They are
the lightest, most carefully adjusted and
the most perfect and delicate specimens
Of mechanism afioat. AS a consequence
they must be handled with consummate
skill. Usually there are two sets OF en-
gines. occupying the entire waist OF the
ship and a part of the after body. Every
part Is as compact as possible, there Is
not an inch of waste space-pipes. cylin-
ders, pumps, levers and other parts of the
apparatus are here presented TO the view
OF the uninitiated In seemingly endless
confusion.
to know at first where to find the valve
he must shut, or the cock he must open,
or the wheel he must turn. And the heat
thrown out by the whirling cranks, the
leaking steam, the hot slides and the live
ly pistons is as great and overpowering
as the heat in the boiler room. Yet here,
as there. the machinist and his assistants
stand to their work, almost stripped 10
the buff. rivulets of sweat rolling down
their faces and off their bodies, with never
a thought of the danger surrounding
them, for let any part OF that swiftly NOV
ing delicate machinery break-and often
1t does breaker let our fireman miss his
footing-which unfortunately sometimes
happens-and the chances are a hundred
fire furnace again.
Abaft the engine room Is usually a small
compartment where the engineer and petty
officers sleep. Four hunks is about all
there is to Il. Abaft Is another quite like
It. This is the wardroom. cabin, mess
room and stateroom for the three officers
usually attached to torpedo boat. Not
infrequently the distance from the deck
to the top OF the room Is so low that men
under six feet have to be selected for
duty on board. On some OF our boats
tall man can only stand erect when in his
quarters by letting his head so up through
the wardroom hatch.
An imaginative reader might perhaps, be
able TO see I'm his minds eye what dis
comforts attend life on board a torpedo
craft when she is quet. but It is doubted
whether he can fancy how much more
these restricted surroundings are aggra-
waited when the torpedo boat goes tearing
through the water at a rate of twenty
five knots. Everything then "a set TO VI
bra.ing and trembling as though q great
earthquake had the boat ard her crew at
its mercy.
Ii requires a long experience to become
habsa.ed to this racaing and shaking.
which never ceases except when the en-
g.nes stop revolving. The EARRING OF
railroad train is as nothing compared with
the vibrating OF a torpedo boat at fun
speed 4 man on board can neither write
nor read with comfort. Even the water in
his glass at table or the soup TN his plate
must needs be watched to prevent il spill
Ing.
Discomforts on Torpedo Boats.
But matters rapidly go from bad 70
worse when the boat goes out To sea,
where the waves have her at their mercy
Then the matches must be bat;enad down
shut up tight and screwed down 50 az to
exclude the water that constantly rolls
over her. The odor Of oil. The smell Of
steam. the closeness of confinement. to-
gether with the tossing about Of the boat,
have proved 30 be beyond the endurance Of
the stouiest hearts.
Some years ago the French navy de-
spatched a fiotilla OF torpedo boats from
Bres. 10 Touon-a hazardous voyage IL
was known to beso the officers and men
selected were the abest and most sx-
pertegced IN the French navy men who
had never known qualm OF sea sickness
ever suffered IN any way from the de
comfort Of seafarng life under the most
trying circumstances. The men were four
or five days n the torpedo boats making
the run from Brest to Toulon. Coming
down the bay OF Biscay. the boats were