The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-17
THE TORPEDO DESTROYER.
Appearance OF One of These Bon Il
When Running at Full Speed.

When Running at Full Speed.
L. Cope Cornford, in London Outlook.
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 checkered black and
white hulls of the old wooden war ships
the reverend memorials of many great sea
fights whose noise has long since died upon
the sea. There, in the quiet haven. lie the
veterans, their warfare accomplished; now
they are come to be the nurseries of the
mariners who serve the fleets of the new
navy.
And here moored beside the wharf. is a
fre-new war ship of the Queen; long, low
vessel belching smoke from her three cor
pulent flannels, her whole eager fabric
throbblng with pent, irresistible energy.
She is black from stem to stern, save for a
scarlet streak showing above the water
line; tunnels. single mast, cowled yentila-
tors great and little, boats slung to davis
decks are bags of glistening. hand-picked
coal, and canisters of oil: some thirty men
-stokers, engine room artificers and blue
1ackets-smoking and talking. await the or
der, ITO quarters" while the roar of steam
rushing through the safety valves browns
the multitudinous clatter of the dockyard.
For the new torpedo boat destroyer is go
Ing upon her maiden speed trial.
"A couple of men paddle around the ship
IN dlngy, sweeping her water line clean
from the last particle Of harbor scum at an
order the men on the deck vanish below;
the lieutenant, mounting his little coming
tower in the bows, stands beside the cox
swain. 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 masts, ropes and fun
nels, and the square brick offices of the
dockyard. and on, with long, easy mo-
ton, past the piled congeries of old, red
houses, the port guard ship the round forts
out upon the green water.
Again the bells ring in the engine room,
where the needle Of the telegraph dial
points to full speed ahead" and an in
tense, rafting vibration seizes and shakes
Tipped wave curls sIantwise from her bows;
astern a fountain of foam leaps above the
gunwale and streams away in fan-Shaped
lather swiftly subsidng to white path
seething on the waters. The three tunnels
belch volumes of brown smoke that trails
away to leeward in a vast and rolling cloud.
casting shadow on the dancing sea. The
men passing to and fro on deck must strug-
gle against the wind of her going; while on
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 running uphill to the bows
The singing spray is flying like a shower
Of pebbles, and the masthead quivers like a
whip with the tremendous vibration. Down
in the engine room there reigns a shatter-
ing. cataclysmic uproar; the indicating
needles are all aquiver upon the brass
trimmed dials: the artificers, 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
storm of coaldust. With trained fury of
energy the grimy men in goggles never
cease from heaving coal into the white-hot
furnaces. raking and goading, with the long
iron slices, the intolerable fires.
The first white buoy that marks the meas
ured mile is reached: the two corresponding
I'LL
other, 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
contractors engineer. stop-watch in hand
complacertly. He means that the destroyer
is travelling fraction under thirty and one
half knots, or about thirty-five 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: un-
til the thrilling. throbbing jar is fit to shake
her in pieces; the~funnels are pillars of sea
salt and continually out of the heart %
that crashing turmoil there clangs a boding
note of imminent disaster
AT last the hour strikes--the trial is done
the tunnels cease to y0mt smoke. and the
racked and Strain1ng vessel. released from
that demoniac compulsion swims suddenly
i'm a blessed peace. So the destroyer glides
homeward easily as a swallow. and fetches
UP at the quay the chill spring twilight
is falling. and the dockyard mateys are all
troopinE home.
Equipped with the lnSlGiOuS torpedo,
armed with six quick-firing guns and out
stripping any craft afioat the destroyer
holds pace In the vanguard. of the armies
OF the sea.
Stand upon her leaping decks and behold.
beyond the smoke and flame of her devour-
ing breath. the quiet shore receding into the
gray sky. and consider the millions of staid
households dwelling there in imperturbable
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 eccIesiastic bestows abroad
his beneiicent emotions SO all runs in an
ordered round: because the Queens ships
keeps the broad and narrow seas.