The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-01

! haps, be able to see in his minds eye
what discomforts attend life on board
a torpedo craft when she is quiet, but
| il is doubted whether he can fancy
how much more these restricted sur
.roundings are aggravated when the tor
! pedo boat goes tearing through the
water at q rate Of % knots Everything
! then is set to vibrating and trembling,
! as though a great earthquake had the
boat and her crew at its mercy.
/ 1T requires long experience TO be-
! come habituated to this raclxing and
/ shaking which never. ceases except
when the engines stop revolving. The
! Earring of a railroad train IS as moth
/ ing compared with the vibrating of a
torpedo boat at full speed A man on
board can neither write nor read with
! comfort. Even the water in his glass
at table or the soup in his plate must
| needs be watched, to prevent it spill
ing.
DIsCOMFORTS OF LIFE ON TOR
PEDO BOATS.
But matters go rapidly from bad to
worse when the boat goes out to sea,
where the waves have her at their
mercy Then the matches must be bat
tened dOwn-shut UP tight and screwed
down 50 as to exclude the water ttsat
constantly rolls over her. The odor of
oil, the smell of steam, the closeness of
confinement, together with the tossing
about Of the boat. have proved to be
beyond the endurance of the stoutest
hearts.
Some years ago the French navy de-
spatched a hotilla of torpedo boats
from Brest to Toulon-a hazardous
voyage il was known to be-so the Of
ficerS and men selected were the ablest
and most experienced in the French
l.. \ L..
qualm of sea sickness or ever suffered
in any way from the discomfort of a
seafaring life under the most trying cir
cumStanceS. The men We're four or five
days in the torpedo boats making the
run from Brest to Toulon. Coming
down the Bay of Biscay, the boats were
caught in a gale of wind that lasted
more or. less throughout the voyage.
Never was more uncomfortable eX-
perience than fell to the lot OF the crews
of these torpedo boats. The tossing OF
the boats precluded the possibility of
sleep or of any sort of rest, food could
rot be cooked, the air below was too
foul to be lived in, and all hands, even
the most hardened veteran sailor, were
Port, the boats were horS du combat,
simply because of the complete cX-
haustion of the men and officers. This
state of affairs was commented on in
the annual of the Office of naval intelli-
gence.
The most important lesson of the
maneuvers, and one that has caused a
deep impression, is the fact that the
torpedo boats were unable to follow the
battleships at a speed greater than IL
knots even in moderate weather. Their
snail storage of coal and water, and
the excessive fatigue imposed on Of
fcers and men, when sleep and rest are
out of the question, the imDossibility
often of cooking, made it necessary TO
resupply them. and to change their
crews every three or four days"
THE AUTOMOBILE TORPEDO.
The torpedo boat, then, does not, of
right, belong to the sea fleet. She is
first and last a coast defense vessel,
whose function is TO attack a hostile
squadron with that most destructive of
weapons. the torpedo.
This weapon is today the automobile
torpedo; it is so called because the
power of propulsion is elf-contained. |
like its prototype, the fish, it can be
made to run on or at any depth below |
the surface, as may be desired The
generic name for this class and the one !
by which it is Familiarity known is the |
Whitehead. Every navy in the world |
has adopted this type of automobile. !
In our navy we have it, but we also /
inally invented by Commodore Howell. |
now on the United States steamship |
San Francisco. The Howell, like the |
is an automobile torpedo. /
Il is a weapon which, independently or |
the vessel and irrespective of the means
Of discharge, maintains its speed by
self contained motive power, and it's
depth and direction by self contain
directive power.
In both the Whitehead and Howell
types the speed is maintained by the
action of screw propellers III the
Whitehead the screws are actuated by
an engine whose motive power is COM
pressed air carried in a tank in the tor
pedo, feeding the air to the engine as
4 boiler feeds steam to an ordinary en-
CINE. In the Howell the screws are ac-
-uated by heavy f1ywheel without the
nterposition of an engine the energy
If the flywheel being the motive power.
In both types the depth of immersion
s maintained by a horizontal rudder.
Constancy of direction is secured in
he Whitehead by means of adjustable
vertical rudders. The Howell has no
such rudder, but maintains a rigid di-