The times., 1898-02-20
THE DEMONS OF THE SEA
TorpedoeS and the Part They
Play in Warfare.
THE MYSTERY OF THE WRECK
The Cause OF the Maine Disaster
VIII he Cleared Up-The Rapid
Evolution of the Deadly Weapon
of the Dcep-The High Efficiency
of Recent Inven tions.

Evolution of the Deadly Weapon
OF the Deep-The High Efficiency
of Recent Inven tions.
If the Maine was destroyed by either a
torpedo or a submarine mine the iroh
shell of the leviathan cannot long conceal
the secret. The action both of torpe1oes
and mines is so thoroughly understood by
naval experts whose years of service
have been spent in experimenting with
the deadly machines which hit the enemy
beneath the beltr that when divers
bring them information of the state of
the hull they can Immediately tell
whether the disaster was due to an eX-
ternal explosion.
If the warship was blown up by tor
pedo the sign manual of the destroyer
will be hole through whcn a coach and
four could be driven. while If the deed
was done by mine large area of the
bottom of the vessel win be crushed IN.
AS far as attendant circumstances go
nothing OF treachery would have been
easier than the firing from submerged
tibe ct the side Of any one of the numer-
Gus Spanish vessels in the harbor of a
torpedo aimed foI the side OF the Maine.
while the effort of directing from the land
the maneuyers OF Il torpedo controlled by
wires would not have been difficult
The laying of a mine would have i'm
piled the sinking OF the explosive mass
directly before the eyes of the crew of
the vessel, a manifest impossibility.
Nevertheless, the mine might already
have been in place when the Maine
steamed into the harbor and dropped
anchor at it's mooring place, 500 yards
from the shore. In that event the com
mander was either unlucky enough to
have to take the single deadly sDoI in the
harbor or else the harbor bottom IS
Sprinkled with the metal reservoirs. need
ing ONLY the fash of an electric current
TO make them engines of death.
.f the explosion was due TO either mines
or Il to-pedces. ii is the most terrible
object lesson OF 4 quarter century OF the
awful power which turks in the mari
time demons.
Evolution of the Torpedo.
Scarcely more than thirty years ago an
American ironclad. Crudely constructed,
reyolutionized naval warfare. and with
IN a decade the torpedo has wrought
quietly second revolution. More prop
erly II has proved the futility of the
first. FOR before the torpedo plates OF iron
and steel are no more a protection than
are plauks of pine. ToTpedoes in state
OF high efficiency have existed but few
Years. although they have been recog-
nzesl means of warfare since the day in
the American war of the revolution. when
the Continental troops tried 10 destroy
"a tf..f. Chi hafa
delphia by sending floating down upon
them kegs OF powder rudely provided
with explosive caps.
Until. however. the most recent i'm
provementS were made torpedoes, while
immensely respected for the execution
they did were feared nearly as much by
friend as foe. They We're erratic in
course, could not be governed, did not
attain n high speed through the water,
and were as apt TO explode while being
fired as after they had been dispatched
and had struck the obstacle they were
intended TO destroy. But now the White
head torpedo. which one of the great ma
val writers has declared 10 be the most
wonderful machine ever invented, not
even excepting the steam engine and the
loom. can be given for LOCO yards speed
of twenty-eight and twenty-nine knots
an hour. can be aimed with mathematical
accuracy for the object of its vengeance,
and will undeviatingIy follow the desired
course
For the destruction of a ship lying at
anchor in a harbor the Brennan torpedo
or the Sims-Edison torpedo. both OF
which are operated from land, can be di-
rected distance of several hundred
wards until they fasten themselves upon
the side of the vessel, after which they
can be exploded either by force of con-
fact or by electricity, generally the lat
ter.
First Tests of Utility.
The civil war first showed the utility of
the torpedo Previous to that time 1t
was given practically no use. though
many inventors tried to construct the
devil ships as they were called by
race of superstitious seamen. Robert
Fulton in 1906 crossed the ocean to Eng
hand 10 Law before the British government
a torpedo invention, but the lords of the
admiralty refused to consider 1t on the
alleged ground of the inhumanity OF the
device. The true reason was that, mas
much as England then had more ships
upon the sea than any other two ma
tions. she felt sure of her supremacy as
long as it rested upon numbers, but fear
ed that II devices like that of the tor
pedo, with its immense power OF destruc-
tion became common the size of navy
would no longer be warrant for Its effi-
cheney.
Fulton returned In disappointment TO
America, but continued to experiment
with torpedoes. He actually did invent
three kinds of torpedoes, and one-at
least, a kindred species-the submarine
mine, has been changed only in the kind
of explosives used and the manner OF mr.
ing from that day to this. No nation
could, however, be brought to regard the
torpedoes as practical. and when Fulton
died his torpedoes were for time forgot
ten.
In the war of 1872 torpedoes attracted
the attention of both governments and
few years later Samuel Colt, he of re-
volver fame, gave his energies to the dis
coyery of a way of firing torpedoes from
distance. In the Crimean war sew
eral submarine mines were laid under
British vessels, but powder proved too
weak a substance, and did not destroy the
ships.
The incidents, nevertheless. kept the
torpedo in the mind of military and naval
officers, and when the civil war broke out
the Confederates proceeded to protect
their harbors with torpedoes, sowing
them thickly about the entrances. A
torpedo service was organized as a part
of the confederacy. The first vessel to
be wrecked by a torpedo was the gunboat
Cairo, which was blown to pieces In the
Yazoo river in 1862. On the Union side
less of attention was paid to the station
ary torpedo and more to the kind which
could be fred, the torpedo which is most
feared in the warfare of today. Not
much success, however, attended endeav-
ors in that direction. Cigar-shaped boats
which could be submerged were indeed
built, but the chief faculty shown by
them was for sinking with all on board.
The idea of the torpedo-boat of that day