The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-04-16
SPEEDING THE DESTROYER.
A Graphic Picture of Trial Trip on a
New War ship of the Queens Navy.

From the humming dookyard to the
low barrier of hills, the shining harbor
reaches smooth as glass in the morning
sun, and under the hills lie the checkered
black and white bulls of the old wooden
war ships, the reverend memorials of
many great fights whose noise has long
since died upon the sea. There, in the
quiet haven, lie the veterans, their war
fare accomplished; now, they are come to
lie the nurseries of the mariners who
serve the fleets of the new navy.
And here. moored beside the wharf, IS
a fine new war ship of the queen; a long,
low vessel belching smoke from her three
corpulent tunnels, her whole eager fabric
throbbing with pent irresistible energy.
She is black from stem to stern, save for
q scarlet streak showing above the water
line; tunnels, single mast. cowled venti.
lators great and little, boats slung to
davits-all are black. Piled upon the
vibrating decks are bags Of glistening,
hand-picked coal, and canisters of oil;
some 80 men-stokers, engine-room
artifcers, and blue- Understanding and
talking, await the.order, "To quarters"
while the roar of steam rushing through
the safety valves .drowns the multitude
nous 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 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 con-
ning-tower in the bows, stands beside the
Doxswain, and bells ring in the engine
room. The destroyer moves astern,
swings slowly about, and glides across
the tranquil harbor, past the busy
Of masts, ropes and tunnels, and the
square brick offices of the dockyard and
on, with a long, easy motion, past the
piled congeries of old, red houses, the
port. guardship, the round forts-out upon
She green water.
Again the bells ring in the engine
room, where the needle OF the telegraph
Hal points to Full speed ahead and
AN intense, rattling vibration seizes and
shakes the long ship like an ague; along,
toam-lipped wave curls slantwise from
her bows; astern, fountain of foam
leaps above the gunwale and streams
away in fan-shaped lather, swiftly sub
waters. The three tunnels belch volumes
Of brown smoke that trails away to lee
ward in a vast and rolling cloud, casting
\ shadow on the dancing sea. The men
passing to and fro on deck must struggle
against the wind of her going; while in
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 en-
gines 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
Election shining upon each, seem running
up hill to the bows. The singing spray
is flying like n shower of pebbles, and
the masthead quivers like whip with
the tremendous vibration. Down in the
engine room there reigns shattering,
cataclysmic uproar; the indicating
needles are all a-quiver upon the brass
trimmed dials; the artiticers, 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 stoke hold, into which
the air is driven by whirling fans. the
stokers sweat in a storm of coal dust
With a trained fury of energy the grimy
men in goggles never cease from heaving
coal into the white-hot furnaces, raking
and goading, with long iron slices, the
intolereble fires.
The first white buoy that marks the
measured mile is reached: the two CORE
spending poles set up ashore twinkle on
behind another, and are left far astern in
an instant-the second buoy IS passed,
the second pair of poles merge into one
for a moment, and "Thirty point four
eight-four,'' says the contractor S engin-
eer, stop-watch in hand. complacently.
He means that the Destroyer is travelling
q fraction under 80 1-2 knots, or about IS
miles in the hour.
And thereafter for three hours the swift
and mighty little monster Of destruction is
tearing through the water at top speed,
until the thrilling, throbbing jar is lit to
shake her to pieces, the tunnels are pill
lars of sea salt and continually out of the
heart of that crashing turmoil here
clangs boding note of imminent di.as-
ter.
At last the hour strikes-the trial is
done-the tunnels cease to yomit smoke,
and thessracked and straining vessel, re-
leased from that demoniac compulsion,
swims suddenly in blessed peace. So
the destroyer glides homeward easily as
swallow, and fetches up at the quay as
the chill spring twilight is falling, and
the dockyard mateys are all trooping
home.
Equipped with the insidious torpedo,
armed with six quiok-fring guns, and
out-stripping any craft afioat, the Destroy
er holds place in the vanguard of the
armies of the sea.
Stand upon her leaping decks and be-
hold beyond the smoke and flame of her
devouring breath the quiet shore receding
into the gray sky, and consider the mil
lions of staid households dwelling there
in imperturable security, because the
queens ships keep the seas The man
of business goes to and fro, fattens and
prospers; the workman drinks his beer;
the artist diverts himself. each after his
kind; the politician packs his cards;
while the pious bells ring every day, and
the gentle ecclesiastic bestows abroad his
beneficent emotions. So all runs in an
ordered round; because the queens ships
keep the broad and narrow seas
ASCENT OF MOUNT ST. ELIAS.