The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-15
HEROES ARE NEEDED
Among the Young Officers Who Com
mand Torpedo Boats.
BY EARL MAYO.

greatest enthusiasm are the young Off
GERS of the navy. In the first place they
are burning oavenge the deaths OF
the 266 American sailors who persisted
with the Maine by an act OF Spanish
treachery, as every naval man fully be-
lieves.
Another reason why the navy young
sters welcome the war is that 1t affords
opportunities for feats of daring and
heroism, which open the door to fame
and promotion. The spirit that has
made the American navy ilustrious
since the days Of Paul Jones is not
wanting among the men who man our
warships today. They are anxious to
prove themselves as sturdy fighters as
the tars of 1872, and if the present
struggle lasts long enough they prob
ably will have the chance to do SO.
A few years ago it was freely as
serted that the days of romantic daring
and the chances for individual heroism
had departed from the work of naval
warfare forever. 1t was said that men
of-war were becoming simply big fight
ing machines, that they would have to
be manned by engineers and machin-
lists and that the manner in which they
were intended to fight precluded the
possibility of a display of personal
daring.
But there has been a change in this
respect and the change has been
brought about chiefly by that small,
agile and exceedingly dangerous class
of craft known as torpedo boats, which
navy officers consider the greatest pro-
duction of modern naval science.
WHY YOUNG MEN COMMAND.
Torpedo boats are such new construc-
tions that few persons, even of those
who are tolerably familiar with ships,
have any accurate idea as to just what
they are like. Imagine then a boat with
the hull of a yacht, about $50 feet IN
length, and built so Hight that all ex-
cept about five feet of her body is above
the water line Her breadth is about
one-ninth of her length and in the
water her deck line is only ten feet
above the surface. Inside the long, 1.-THE
body are powerful engines, which drive
her slender, buoyant form through the
water at the rate of Is knots per hour,
which, being translated into lands
mans computation, is SO miles, or half
the speed of an express train
Above the deck line the resemblance
between a torpedo boat and a pleasure
yacht ceases. When the little war YES
sci is ready for business scarcely any
thing shows above the deck. Forward,
where her turtle-back deck begins, is
round steel projection, four feet high.
L his Is luG CdDlciAll GINNING
from which he directs the movements
of the boat Back of this is the slender
flagstaff and two short smokestacks.
On either side, amidships, and in the
stern, are some odd-looking cylinders
These are the guns which launch the
torpedoes on their deadly mission Fore
and aft the torpedo boat carries small,
rapid-fire machine guns. This is all
the armament she carries, and except
for these things her long deck is clear
when she is under way and ready for
action and in rough water the waves
wash over it continually.
The torpedo boat is so small and her
guns are so few that she carries only
about 90 men. They are commanded
by e. lieutenant, and so it happens that /
all our torpedo craft are under the d.
rection of young men. They are the
pick of the navy, too, for 1T takes a
man of daring. steady nerves and cool
Judgment to direct a torpedo boat, and
this combination of qualities is not
found in every man, even among those
in the higher ranks.
NAVAL LIGHT CAVALRY.
How brave a man it takes for torpedo
boat work is easily seen when one looks
at the work epected of them in time of
war The torpedo boats are the light
cavalry Of the navy; they are intended
to travel much faster than the larger
vessels, and so carry little weight
Their eggshell sides of steel, really
much thinner than an eggSheH in
comparison to their size, are only a
quarter of an inch thick. a single shot
from the guns carried on the military
masts of the big warships would send
her to the bottom. Her own guns would 4
make no impression on the thick plates
of an armorclad. The torpedo boats
only weapon of offense is the torpedo.
That is deadly weapon, and its 200
pounds of guncotton will destroy the
finest ship that floats, but to fire 1t
with accuracy the torpedo boat must
be less than half a mile from her tar
get. within easy range of the latter's
guns.
Yes. it takes a. brave and cool man
to sail one of these cockleshell craft up
to q big man-of-war, to know that if
one of the shots that rain about her
strikes home it will mean death TO all
on board, to keep straight on, silently
and unswervingly, beneath the fire of
heavy guns, to wait long enough and
not too long before launching the tor
pedo on its mission, and then to wait
again in calmness until that silent mis-
sile has reached the mark and wrecked
her, or has failed and disappeared. 1t
requires men of the stripe of Cushing,
Somers and Decatur to do that-men
of heroic mold are needed for such
work.
CHANCES.
1t is expected that the torpedo boats
most effective work will be done at
night Picture the intense suspense
and thrilling excitement of an attack
by night upon hostile fleet. The little
craft speeds swiftly across the dark
waves; not a sound comes from her
pulsing engines; not a light CLEANS
above her tightly battened decks. The
torpedo tubes are loaded with their
deadly charges and the men stand sill
emily at their posts, waiting. The en-
emy'S ships are watching for her; their
great searchlights sweep about in broad
circles, making a path as bright as day
across the waves.
Now the light comes close to the lit |
tie boat. Will she be detected? If so
one shot from the guns of the man-of- |
war may send the young lieutenant and /
his 20 men to the bottom. But still the /
little boat speeds on nearer and nearer |
Now she sweeps around in a circle, try
ing to creep III near the shore or I'M |
der cover of some friendly shadow. 1t |
is great game of hide and seek that
she is playing with the enemy's fleet, |
and death is the penalty of discovery |
Not until the big ships loom up in the /
blackness, seemingly no more than a /
stones throw away, in reality a third 1
of a mile distant, does the little boat /
slack her speed. Then she swings I
slowly about, her broadside to the en- |
envy. There is a low word of COM
mand, a muffied report and the tor
pedo goes flying through the water |
The men strain their eyes to follow it, |
but it has disappeared. They count the |
seconds that seem like hours until so |
have been licked off. All at once there |
is heavy report. a great burst of fire |
in the midst of the night, and giant |
ship is lifted from the sea, rent in |