Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-08-17
BUILT FOR SPEED
New Torpedo-Boat Destroyers Re
Gently Launched.
WHlPPLE. TRUZ4ON AND WORDEN
To Steam at the Rate of Thirty
Knots an Hour.
THEIR USE IN WARFARE

writtca for The Evening Star by r. g. skerrett.
The three torpedo-bOat destroyers re-
Gently launched at the yard of the Mary
land steel works are essentially typical
of the whole class of sixteen authorized
by Congress in %, just after the declara-
ton of war with Spain. The country at
large was comforted by that provision, but
had it known that three years would pass
ere one of them should be ready for trial
II is doubtful that the appropriation would
have carried with it a present sense of
security. Strikes and the difficulty in get
ting the structural steel have had much
to do with the delayed completion of all of
the destroyer class, beyond the original
time limit of eighteen months, but the
newness of that type of work has also been
a considerable handicap.
The British torpedo-boat destroyer today
represents a good many years of toll ard
heart breaking experimenting, combined
with money outlay mounting way up in
the milIions-baciScd by a record of fail
uFeS such. perhaps, as only phlegmatlI:
English public would countenance. From
an engineering standpoint the destroyer
Is the very exemplification of the present
climax of the art: she is the race horse of
the sea, and, in performance, her fast
moving screws lar OutuO the TeCOIu VI
the feetest of locomotives. In form of hull
contributive to speed and seaworthiness
within the limited compass of such mod
est-sized craft, the destroyer likewise
typifes the supreme cunning Of the
naval architects work, and in the
successful management of such a YES
sci her whole cOmplement-from the
skipper down to the humblest stoker-must
take very active and a very Skillful
hand To keep those boilers working at
their topmost demands a constant, weary,
wearing attention, and to hold to given
course a creation that travels with the
speed of a startled deer is something de-
manding a firm grip. clear head and the
steadiest of eyes and nerves.
A Matter of Size.
The torpedo-boat destroyer Is only the
torpedo boat magnIfied-the mosquito null
tiplied into the gadhy-with all that such
an increase would naturally carry in the
way of speed. endurance and wickedness
of possible performance.
When the boats Just launched were con-
ceived the official mind was still full of
recollections of those Spanish 'destroyers'
the finest products of the British ship
yard-that had filled the whole nation and
no small number of our feet with goodly
sense of apprehension; and the WhipPle
and her mates may best be termed the
Spanish Terror improved.
These vessels have greatly outgrown the
Cushng-the first If our torpedo craft and
a boat that has very recently gone through
pretty thrilling experience in stormy run
from Norfolk to New York. The Whipple
and her mates are boats 245 feet long,
with a maximum Beam of only twenty
three feet-their long. fine, clean-cut hulls
bespeaking speed in every line. When
ready for actual service they will repre-
sent a dead weight total displacement
of 400 tons, and 1t will be possible for
them to operate in waters not less than
nine feet in depth.
Interior Arrangement.
Each boat to safeguard it against sink
ing and total disablement has been cut up
into something like eighty separate COM
partments by separate steel bulkheads,
and, as far as possible, no doors have
been cut In these bulkheads Each of the
engines will be in its own compartment
and the boilers will also be separated so
to minimize. far possible, a
chance shot disabling the whole motive
force of the boat. There will be cleo
trical plant on each boat of output ample
enough to light the craft within, to supply
the night signals and the search light and
to aid somewhat in driving the ventiIating
blowers. The quarters for the officers will
be aft, and. with them, as with the crew
forward. the hunks will be made to turn
up and out of the way like the berths In
sleeping car
Tremendous Motive Power.
The motive power of the boats will be
two high-pOwered, triple-expansion engines
driving twin screws These engines, when
forcing the boats through the water at the
top rate of thirty miles an hour will make
no fewer than $50 revolutions a minute
seventy revolutions more than those made
my a mile-a-minute express locomotive,
and We're these boats mounted wheels
the size of their propellers, running at the
rate of $50 turns a minute, they could
travel along track at the startling speed
of nearly ninety-ave miles an hour To
watch the moving parts of machinery run
ming at that rate Is nervous tension
that would try the hardest In times of
peace. but to have to face that task faith
fully with the peril of battle about is
something we home-loying civilians don't
care TO ponder over.
Each of these 'destroyers' will carry
about 200 tons of coal-enough to insure
them very considerable radius of action
and il is slowed at the sides abreast the
engines and boilers 20 form a fair pro-
lection against the lighter rapid-fire guns
such. for instance, as the one and three
Founders.
Their Use I'm War.
The reason for beirg of these boats lies
In their quick-firing armament of six and
fourteen-pounder guns-their torpedo
equipment really being of secondary i'm
portance. The two contemporaries are
to be carried on the tops of the coming
towers, where they will command a very
wide arc of fire. These guns can be fired
quite fifteen times minute, and at
each shot, send hurting on an errand of
death or destruction an armor- piercing or
explosive fourteen-pound shell-a projectile
having energy enough to get through an
inch and half of hard Krupp steel at a
distance of 5000 yards and able to dam
age any ship short of the protected cruiser
type, and, In that class, able to work a deal
OF havoc. The six-pounder guns are mount
ed on the main deck advantageously-two
OF them, one on each side Of the forward
superstructure, commanding a bow fire.
These guns can each be fired nearly thirty
times a minute, and their power of de-
struction is far and ahead Of anything de-
manded in overhauling and destroying an
enemy's torpedo boats. pure and simple.
The torpedo outfit viii consist of two 49,
Inch Whitehead DISCHARGES. or tubes a.