Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-11

TX, 10 and a halt" would be next 10 an
impossibiliy. But the Germans do it.
The torpedo boats which comprise the
fleet of Prince Henry are built on the
proportion of 1873 feet of length to p feet
of beam. Some are larger and some are
smaller, of course but that is the general
relation of beam to breadth in the newer
torpedo boats of the German navy. In the
older torpedo boats the relation of beam to
breadth was in the ratio of 16S feet of
length to is feet of beam. OF a still older
type was the torpedo boat which foundered
at the mouth of the Elbe some years ago.
Defying the Gales.
Her loss was a most dramatic affair and
caused much discussion at the time as to
the possibility of making a torpedo boat
thoroughly seaworthy and still have it of
proper dimensions for the uses for which
she is intended.
The German fleet had been maneuvering
In the North sea, and with it was, of
course, small fiotilla of torpedo boats.
The weather became stormy, and the fleet
having no especial reason for staying out
longer, put into port. The torpedo boats,
which should have been sent into port as
soon as the weather became unfit for them
to be out in, were not ordered to leave the
fleet. and instead of preceding the WarShips
into harbOr they stayed out until the last
in what would seem to have been spirit
of braVado, though the excuse given-and
it was plausible one-was that the officers
desired to test thoroughly the seagoing
qualities of the boats in heavy weather.
AS the torpedo boats approached the
mouth of the Elbe the sea became more
and more disturbed. One of the two boats
which tried to make the port got through.
The other turned turtle" just as she had
nearly reached the harbor's mouth and
plunged beneath the waves.
In the course of the naval maneuvers of
last year the Germans lost torpedo boat
No. 49, vessel of 100 tons. Only one man
went down with her. Last July the Ger
man torpedo boat S. 40 was run down and
sunk at the mouth of the Elbe by the Brit
tsh merchant steamer Firsby. She went
down at night. The night was cloudy but
clear, and both vessels had their lights
burning brightly. The torpedo boat sank
about five minutes after the collision, TAX
ing down with her the commanding officer
and three of the crew. What came near
being another fatal disaster for German
torpedo boat took place last April while
the torpedo boat division of the training
fleet was proceeding to the eastern Baltic
Off the Island of Moen torpedo boat S. 81
came in collision with the schooner Odin.
The schooner sank at once and the torp edo
boat was badly damaged. She was, how
ever, able to keep afioat until she got to a
dockyard.
Ever Stormy Waters.
The waters of the Baltic and the North
sea stormy waters most of the time
Their intervals of good behavior are not
of long duration, and when the winds
really make up their minds to howl and
the seas to roll along their shores they do
ii with will.
Before the Kiel canal was built It used to
be a favorite maneuver with the torpedo
boats to go from Wilhelmshafen on the
Baltic, around the northern point of Den
mark and SO on down to Hamburg or
Bremen. 1t was almost a foregone con-
clusion that before the voyage was COM
p.eted nasty weather would be encountered
which would try the seagoing abilities of
the torpedo boats and the nerve of their
officers and crews. If a boat was lost
well, 1t simply proved that she was unsea-
worthy; that was all; and that its type
must be improved upon the next time one
of that class was built.
The completion of the canal connecting
the Baltic and the North seas has removed
the necessity of sending the torpedo boats
on the perilous voyage around Jutland, and
they probably will be sent over that route
less frequently than before, though in
maneuvering they at any time liable
TO be ordered to make the voyage.
The experience gained by the officers and
men of the German torpedo boat fiotilla
and the points which have been revealed to
naval constructors by the passage of tor
by way of the northern point of Denmark
have done as much as anything else, if not
more than any other one thing, to de-
that it stands today in the position it does.
chances on running his torpedo boat ashore,