davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27

portant means of defense. Carefully concealed amid the green bushes which clothe the hill is little casemate, and here, looking out from a narrow open ing, the officer in charge can observe the approach of every vessel desiring to enter the harbor.
 The whole thing is wonderfully sim pie. The officer sits before a chart of the harbor, traced on ground glass, so that at night 1t may be illumined by a lamp from underneath. At his eve is a range-finder, with which he follows the movement of an incoming vessel An automatic arrangement traces the course of the vessel on the chart below She passes over a succession of tiny squares, each representing so much of the harbor. And within each of these squares is a heavily charged submarine mine. All that the officer has to do when the enemy's ship arrives at a proper point is to press a button, the torpedo explodes .and the incident is ended. In the same way he can, by telephone, direct the heavy guns in the battery below to be pointed on any given spot. Then all he has to do is to wait till the enemy's ship arrives on this particular square on the diagram,
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27

was intended to fire couple of tor- pedoes. The mines, hanging one on each side of large boat, were taken out by a crew of some dozen members of the torpedo corps. One mine was dropped in the bay and the boat moved on hundred yards or so before ex- ploding it.
 On the heights above we stood watch ing anxiously for the explosion, for the upheaval of a magnificent column of water. Beyond was the boat, looking quite diminutive. Watching through my glasses I saw the officer give the signal, and then, to my horror, the whole after part of the boat flew high in the air, fragments of human bodies fell on the waters all around, and we knew that a great catastrophe had happened. Most of the men in the boat were killed, and few stunned and severely injured were picked up.
 The awful explosion was brought about by the simplest of causes. In connecting the wires with the battery some one, who paid with his life for his carelessness, had crossed them, and the mine hanging by the side of hte boat had been exploded instead of the one sunk deep in the waters.
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27

H URING the Brazilian insurrec-
 \ tion of 1893-94 President Peixoto
 \ sent four torpedo boats to de- D stroy the rebel ship Aquidaban,
 which was lying at anchor under the lee of Santa Cruz. The night of April 15, 1894, was exceedingly dark. and the Government torpedo boats en- tered the harbor without accident. Spreading out, fan-like, the vessels felt their way about seeking the Aquida- ban, Admiral Mello's flagship. The boat Sampaio was the first to encoun- ter the enemy. A sharp fire was opened on the torpedo boat, revealing the Aqui- daban. At once the torpedo boat went full speed toward the enemy, circling to bring it's bow tube to bear The captain of the Sampaio himself pulled the lanyard. The torpedo struck the Aquidaban very far forward. The ex- plosion was exceedingly violent, but did not change the ships trim. Neverthe- less, the shock was terrific and the off, cer of the watch was thrown from the bridge into the sea. No one was killed, as there was no one in the forward compartments.
 The shin slawlx sank till she took
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27
HOW TORPEDOES SUBMARINE COULD BE WORKED
 AGAINST A THE

Is that the torpedo, when fired from the tube at certain angle, it's engines ad- JuSted to run at a certain speed, and it's hotation so arranged that it will keep at fixed depth beneath the sur face, will hit the enemys vessel at which it is aimed.
 Any naval officer knows, however, though perhaps he may not care to ad- init 1t, that the chance of the White head hitting the object it is aimed at Is very remote. When two vessels are moving in opposite directions at high rates of speed it is difficult enough to make good practice, even with the most accurate of guns. The combined speed of the two ships would be some where in the neighborhood of forty miles an hour, and it would be almost impossible to so adjust a Whitehead as to hit under these conditions. If both vessels were motionless it would be easy enough. but this is unlikely to happen in real warfare,
 It is no wonder that, under such cir cumstances, naval experts are begin nlng to look askance at the torpedo's presence on battle-Ships. They oues tion whether the weapon is likely to prove worthy of the room it occupies and the danger it involves. For some time the use of above water tOrnedo tubes has been abandoned because of the risk of explosion in action Even with all the torpedoes and their appur tenances under water the possibility of a stray shell striking one of the fully charged heads is by no means remote. Another thing is that the cratic Whitehead cannot always be depended upon to run straight; sometimes it takes fancy to dive to the bottom. at other times it comes to the surface. It has even been known to turn com pletely around and make bee line back for the vessel from which it was fired. These things, of course. have only happened in practice but there is no reason why they might not be re- peated in real war.
 Probably, therefore, the automobile torpedo will soon be relegated to it's proper place on small torpedo vessels and the big ships will be freed from such a dangerous incumbrance. But
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27

given by the functioning of an inner wheel, which is relatively very heavy on the periphery. and revOlves with such velocity and in such constant plane that high speed and great strightness of trajectory are secured There are many other forms, but these two are employed in our service, and the Whitehead is used by nearly all the navies of the world.
 The term Submarine mine" is ap piled to defensive mines or to those which would be used to obstruct the channels of river or estuary, or the approaches to a fortified or unprotect- ed seaport. Colonel Samuel Colt, the inventor of the American revolver first demonstrated the practicability of blowing up vessels by submarine mines fired by electricity. In 1S42 he blew up the old gunboat Boxer, and in 1S43 he destroyed a brig in the Potomac River while the vessel was under way, sail ing at the rate of five miles an hour.
 Many forms of mines were used here and abroad, and they were successful ly employed against us in the civil war. Every system of coast defense con
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27

the ground in twenty-two feet of water. A careful examination dis closed the fact that the torpedo had struck close to the bulkhead, which separated compartments two and three, about thirty-five feet aft from the ram. It had blown hole nineteen of twenty feet long and feet inches broad, and at either end the steel skin of the ship had been torn. The tear extended aft six feet longitudinally past the bulkhead dividing the third and fourth compartments. The water tight doors in the bulkhead had been loosened by the shock, so that the fourth compartment, which was very large one, had filled, as we'll as the first three. Inside everything was smashed beyond recognition. The armored deck had been driven out little just over the place where the explosion oc- cured, and numerous rivets in the skin had been loosened. In all it was calculated that she had taken on board 800 tons of water. On the starboard side forward, forty feet from the ram, was another hole, but smaller than that to the port, as it was only three feet in diameter. This may have been caused by the head of the torpedo being driven right through the ship by the force of the explosion.
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27
TERRIBLE POWER
 OF THE TORPEDO
Way i'm Which the Important Harbors of the World Are Guarded by Networks
 of Deadly Explosives.

high In the air, and fragments of the surrounding sea. The water began to grow smoother a thin oily film spread itself upon the ocean, in which 1oated dead fish innumerable killed by the shock. Evidently we had opened a way for the kerosene and air impris. oned In the vessels bottom to escape What was more, we found the wreck drifting freely about, her anchor gear having parted.
 By the time we had finished all this work 1t was getting late in the evening and 1t occurred to us that if we wished to save anything of the wreck we had better try towing her to the shore and beach her at a convenient spot just outside of Newcastle. But the proposition was not so easy to exc cute. The only place to which we could make a hawser fast was one of the rudder gudgeons on the stern post and this compelled us to tow the wreck stern first. We might just as well have tried to tow her broadside on, and darkness set In before we had made any progress worth speaking of
 Reluctantly we abandoned our charge and returned to port intending to bring out a powerful tug next day But next day there was no more wreck to be seen. The oil which had hitherto kept her af1oat had run out from her bottom, and quietly, making no fuss about it, she had sunk to the depths of the ocean. J. E. ROSE-SOLEY.
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27

The automobile torpedo is a weapon that is shot from a tube, generally called a torpedo gun, and takes up it's line of progress by machinery con- tained in it's body. There are many forms of these, like the Howell and the Whitehead. for example, and some ex- traordinary results have been obtained with both.
 The Whitehead Is discharged from the tube by steam or powder, and just as 1t leaves the muzzle a lock auto maticalIy opened releases the com pressed air carried in flask and sets in motion the machinery. Three things must be done by it. It must go through the water at a high speed, preserving its linear direction: it must float at constant depth, and cn striking it must explode. The ingenuity and simplicity of the mechanism which effects these three things are really marvellous.
 The Howell torpedo is based upon the welI-knOwn principle of the gyroscope. Its speed and surety of direction -are
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27

sick. nothing disturbed the harmony of our voyage.
 We found the wreck anchored about four miles off the coast, but the dlrl- culty was to get at her. Having III mind the fate of the first Wrecklng steamer, we dared not approach too closely. Nothing but a portion of her bilges and the straight line of her keel showed above water; there was no pro lection to which we could make a line fast, and it was impossible for man to maintain his footing on the slippery sea-washed bottom.
 There was only one way to solve the problem, and that was to sweep a line under the wreck, and slide torpedo down 1t until it reached a point be- meath the capsized hull So we filled one of our iron drums, in shape some thing like a floating buoy, with 300 pounds of gun cotton, a tremendous charge, and started in to work We ran a strong hawser out with boat, and, keeping our position with difficulty, swept it down across the bows of the wreck There 1t caught on the anchor chains; we could get 1t no further aft. It would have been better could we have got a torpedo right under the cep- ter of the hull, but as this seemed inn possible we decided to fire the mine under the bows.
 At last, after endless delays, we had everything in position, the mine sus- pended from the haWSer and connected by an electric wire with the ship. We used a portable battery, in which you turn a handle to generate the current, and 1 can remember my anxiety as watched the officer whirl the little handle around. Wewere only about one hundred yards away from the torpedo, and who knew what might happen within a second. Were we to be swamped by the sea raised by the mine or sunk by falling timbers cast high into the air by the terrific explosion?
 However, nothing very serious hap pened. There was a muffled roar as the current flew through the wire, a column of water shot high in the air, our little steamer rocked violently in the swell, and it was all over. The provoking part of it was that there lay the wreck, seemingl" quite undis- turbed by the occurrence, though we found out afterward that we had loos- ened, if not parted, the chains which
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27
TORPEDO
 ACCIDENTS,

" HE torpedo is a tremendously
 offensive weapon, capable of
 doing more damage in a minute A than a battery of heavy guns
 could effect in a week. But the trouble is that, like the monster which Frankensteinsso rashly created, 1t does not discriminate between friend and foe; with beautiful impartiality, 1t is equally ready to destroy either.
 This is more particularly the case with the automobile torpedo. of which the Whitehead is the best-known type, intended for use by one vessel against
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27

usual on board ship. was made fast. So she drifted along, sweeping the depths of the ocean with her pendent anchors, and of course, as soon as she got into shallow water, they held fast
 ~ We discovered afterwards, from the marks on the cases of kerosene. that the vessel was the John T. Berry, a large American wooden ship bound from New York to China with a cargo of kerosene, in cases. This was after we had finished the wreck; at present she was right in the road of the traffic along the Australian coast, serious menace to shipping. As the wreck seemed to be of considerable value, if : only for the copper in her hull, a :wrecking company started operations, and made several futile attempts to tow her. into port But she was moored too securely. for all the tugs in Austra- lia- Nothing would shift her. During :the opera tions a vaiuable steamer was thrown by the heavy sea against the wreck, and went speedily to the bot tom : The incident discouraged the 7vreckers, and they retired from the field.
 The colonel commanding the N. S. w. Torpedo Corps, a fine old soldier, saw: his chance. Here was a heaven sent. opportunity for proving the effi- ciencv of his --fment. He was an en- thusiaSt: at his work, and so were his men. all skilled electricians from the telegraph service, which in Australia is conducted by the State. Unfortunate iy gun cotton is an expensive article, and hence the opportunities for nrac- tice with fully charged submarine mines were rare Here. however, was an occasion when the explosion of mines in any number was fully justifi- able, and the Government, recognizing the necessity for getting the wreck out of the way of traffic, agreed with him.
 Thus it happened that. one dark, rainy night, we sailed from Sydney In little Government steamer. generally used for lighthouse inspection. pleasure excursions. and so forth. She was not in any sense a man-of-war, and, there fore, had no magazine. So we dumped the gun cotton into the cabin. dashed c number of great iron drums on deck, And set forth to do a bit of real tor ps1oing.
 Had the weather remained fine our task would have been difficult enough. but we had gales and heavy seas dur Ing the whole of our operations Our little steamer was like cork in these stormy waters. but she was a .stanch sea boat and except for the fact that the soldiers, being landsmen, got very
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27

cerns itself with their distribution and use, and every Well-known harbor of the world is al this day so mapped out that the planting of these mines may be done on a plan which promises the greatest utility Some of these are constant depth mines-that is, such as will float always at a certain depth be- low the surface, no matter what may be the state of the tide; some are fitted to explode on contact, and most are so arranged that they may be exploded at will by observers stationed at points of refuge, in bomb proof and lookout sta- tionS ashore.
 It is by such a system as this that San Francisco is guarded. Of course, the Federal authorities carefully pre- serve the plan of the mines protecting the entrance of the Golden Gate, and only to a very few in the highest au- thority is the secret known.
 Is the harbor of Havana so guarded and so protected, and could the Maine have been anchored close to one of these submerged volcanoes, operated so easily by the simple twist of hostile hand ashore?
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27
\ ID you ever try what 1t feels like
 to live for a whole week-to eat,
 drink and sleep-in a room con- taining enough gun cotton to

to live for a whole week-to eat,
 drink and sleep-in room con-
 taining enough gun cotton tc blow San Francisco heaven :~. ward?. It was safe enough. :, after all. though I couldn't help feeling :. a bit nervous at first. Gun cotton Is not : a very dangerous explosive to handle, : and our supply was in charge of ex- 9perienced men.
 =. Reading of the disaster to the Maine : and the probable existence of a sub :: marine mine brought it all back to my :>>rnind as clearly as if the incident had . happened yesterday. Nearly ten years :: have passed since we. British soldiers, Belonging to her Majesty's colonial ;: forces set out with deliberate intent to blow up an American vessel by means : of torpedoes.
 :: Yet no international complications zensued. and doubt if the Government at Washington ever heard of the af- #E fair: The American vessel happened tp be very much in the way of navi- : gatfon; also she was in a very dilapi- dated condition-nothing more than a : ;derelict
 :: =: A message from the ocean had come to /: rs. in it's saddest form-the derelict hulk of a large wooden ship, floating bottom upward. her keel encrusted with barnacles. swept by the heavy sea. which is so characteristic of the east coast of Australia. We never knew +frOm what part of the Pacific Ocean She had been brought by wayward cur rents; of her officers and crew we never heard word. For months she had drifted silently at the mercy of the waves until she reached sOundings off the coast of New South Wales. close to the busy coal port of Newcastle.
 There strangely enough. though hopeless derelict, she anchored herself. This sounds impossible, but any sailor will understand how it happened. The vessel with her cargo of kerosene had been burnt at sea. Then she capsiZed, but the quantity of oil remaining in her bottom had sufficed to keep her floating well out of the water. Her an- ehors and chains had of course fallen down, but the end of the cable, as is
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27

the fixed torpedo, or submarine mine, as it sometimes called, comes under a different category. Its value for har- Dor defense is so great that it's use is more likely to be developed than dis continued It is quite possible, by care full surveying. to so plant the entrance to harbor with torpedoes that no hos tile vessel can enter without bringing about her own destruction.
 Possibly this has been done in San Francisco Bay, but of course the mili- tary authorities are secret about the matter, and neither the arrangement
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27

and touch of the button will send half a dozen heavy shells hurtling toward the attacking vessel.
 This system, of course, is compara- lively safe for the defender, but even in times of peace accidents may hap pen through the vagaries of the elec- tric current I remember one case where a gallant young officer and half a dozen volunteers lost their lives be- cause of a crossed wire. It was during the autumn maneuverS. The Governor Of the colony was on a visit to the en- campment, and to make a display 1t
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27

widening out into broad bay And on the shores of each haven there is a large city to be defended.
 The navigable entrance to Port Jack son is comparatively narrow, and, be- sides, is commanded on each side by high hills, which bristle with those terrible hydro pneumatic guns. Each of these weapons is concealed in a shell-proof pit, from which it only rises to fire, returning again automatically to shelter. But on a height within the harbor, commanding a close view of the entrance, there is a still more i'm
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27
SUBMARINE MINES WITH BUOY ATTACHMENTS.

of the mine fields nor the position of the observing station is known to the general public. But I was privileged once to investigate the torpedo defense of an equally important harbor that of Port Jackson, in New South Wales
 The conditions of the two harbors are somewhat similar; in each there is narrow, sharply defined entrance,
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27

another This delicate and expensive piece of mechanism is almost human in it's contrariness. Each torpedo con- tains in itself a complete compressed air engine which drives it along by a screw exactly in the same way as a. steamer is propelled. And the theory, which works out very prettily on paper,
The San Francisco call., 1898-02-27

held her so securely anchored.
 The next time we managed to get the mine nearly under the center of the ship, and the explosion showed more tangible results. We blew hole right through the bottom of the hulk, and in doing so sealed her fate. Huge pieces of the heavy floor timbers flew
The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1898-10-01

First Reports OF the Recent Hurri-
cane I'm the West Indies NOT
Exaggerated.

Kingston, Jamaica, Sept. 24.--Mail
advices which reached here Friday
brought melancholy relief 10 the sus-
pense regarding the full extent of the
hurricane disaster at the islands Of
st. Vincent, st. Lucia and Barbados,
showing that the first accounts were
not exaggerated. At St. Vincent about
300 lives have been lost, not counting
the loss of life suffered through the
destruction of shipping. The coast is
strewn with the wrecks of Tessels,
many OF which were from Barbados.
The storm ragged from ten o'clock in
the morning Sunday, September IL
until two o'clock in the afternoon,
completely wrecking the island. At
the capital, Kingston, fully 200 houses
were demolished, while the suburbs,
Coxheath and Monticello, were OBJ
liberated.
Throughout the island the destruc-
tion was on a wholesale scale, not only
the estates and buildings being RACED
and cultivation being obliterated.
The hurricane struck the island OF
Barbados on the night of the 10th,
completely wrecking that fat. exposed
island and sweeping away 10000 houses
while damaging thousands more. This
left three-quarters OF the inhabitants
homeless. Over 100 people were killed
SO far as known. The city OF Bridge
town was partially destroyed and the
suburbs of st. Michael and Belleville
were entirely demolished. All the
shipping was wrecked or blown out
TO sea. The total estimated damage
besides the loss from the cane crop
and provisions Is about $1,5OO,OO0 at
Barbados.
The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1898-10-01
DAMAGE by a CIoudburst.

Charlotte, N. c., Sept. 24.-Specials
to the Observer from points in western
North Carlonia tell Of serious damage
from cloudburst. The Yadkin and
Catawba rivers are booming. The
river bottom corn crops are covered
with mud and are ruined. The hay
crop is also seriously damaged. Some
families have been driven from their
houses to the hills by the freshet.
Louis Moser was drowned in the Yad-
kin, near Donnaha, while attempting
to rescue pumpkins that were floating
down the stream.