Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1899-04-21
1.-THE sesr.LAlp a N
An American Torpedo.Boa Kept in
Englaud During the War.

AA9 0@SEtS90 AeRS IN
England During the War.
Lieut.. Henry La Motto, under the
racy title "How We Helped Uncle Sam
Prepare for War;" tells, in the st. Mich
olas. how he and the American naval
attache. Lieut.. Niblack, hbored last
March and April to get to America in
time for use the German torpedo-boat,
which had been christened the Somers.
After all preparations had been made
! FASTENED to Hamburg, hoping to
catch the Somers somewhere in. the
North Sea Canal; but on my arrival ut
Hamburg I found that she had passed
through the canal early that morning,
and was now on the North Sen on her
way to England. 1t was not until more
than q week later, when I sailed into
the port Of Weymouth, England, on
board the U. 8. s. Topeka, that l sue
ceeded in getting her signal-lags aboard
her. Captain Knapp told me that from
the mouth Of the Elbe to Weymouth
he had had q very rough trip, but he
had made It in three days, averaging
twelve knots an hour, which was as
much as any torpedo-boat Of her size
could have made under similar circum-
stances.
When he arrived in Weymouth he
caused an inspection to be made, which
showed that the Somers had not leaked
a drop. in spite Of her rough handling,
and, considering the weather she was
out in, he believed her to be q very CON-
Portable boat.
At Weymouth an English crew was
put aboard the Somers, and Captain
Poust and the Germans were paid of
and sent home.
The Englishmen were evidently
afraid of her, for every time they put
to sen in her they declared that she
was leaking. Twice she was put back
into port on account of these reports,
and each time little or nothing was
found to be the matter. The third at
tempt to get her to sea, in company
with the Topeka, succeeded in getting
her as far as Falmouth, where we put
in because the Somers had made n sig
nal that she was sinking. The report
was found to be as groundless as the
two previous ones. There was, how
ever, q very slight leak about the sub
merged torpedo-tube; and her crew,
now Thoroughly d~emoralized, absolute
ly refused to go to sea unless she was
dry-docked and inspected by an agent
Of Lloyd's.
1t being utterly impossible to engage
q new crew for her Mt Falmouth, Cap
tain Knapp was obliged to yield to
their demands, and arranged to have
her d%ry-docked.
AS she was being put into the docks
whether by accident or design cannot be
~prove0-her sailing-master ran her,
head on, into n stone pier, which caused
such serious damage as, without
doubt, to require her to remain in dry
dock for repairs Mt least ten days.
This was on April 10, and rs we were
sure that war would be declared in a
few days at the furthest We were
obliged to sail away in the Topeka
without her. The day after war was
declared the English captain of the
port called upon the officer in COM
mand of the Somers. and told him that
Great Britain, under her proclamation
of neutrality. must request him to go to
sen in twenty-four hours; and If he
e unable to do SC the English Gov
eminent would be obliged to detain
the Somers in port during the continu-
ance of the WAR.
And SO, after all u trouble and ex-
pense, II of IL torpedo-boats was
left in Falmouth harbor, of no more use
to us in II war with Spain than If she
had remained No. 42O ut the Schichau
works in Elbing.