The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1908-06-18
A BIG SHIP BLOWN
UP BY A TORPEDO
Warlike Experiment Of the Monitor
Florida.
DAMAGE SERIOUS, BUT NOT VITAL.
A Whitehead Torpedo, Carrying a
Charge of Guncotton and Fired at
Distance of Four Hundred Feet, Tears
q Big Hole in the Florida's Side and
Does Other Minor Damage.


Fort Monroe, Va. Especially. -
Pierced with an American White
head torpedo carrying charge of
gun cotton which tore a big hole in
her side, the United States monitor
Florida now rests in the dry dock at
the Norfolk Navy Yard, victim of
a naval experiment to test the vul-
nerability from torpedo attack of
water tight bulkheads. The water
IN the vessels hold gives her list
of IL inches to starboard.
The test took place off Pine Beach,
near the jamestown Exposition
grounds. where the monitor was
anchored in 8 feet of water. The
naval officials, while admitting that
the damage done to the vessel is
serious, declare that it is not vital
and say that the test Is satisfactory.
They assert that battleship equip
ped with bulkheads similar to that
tested could continue fighting II in
jured to the same extent, unless sew
eral compartments on the same side
we're similarly punctured and the
weather conditions were bad. Thor
ough investigation will be necessary
before all the actual damage to the
bulkhead and collateral injuries suf-
fered can be ascertained and the eff
feet of the torpedo charge properly
measured.
The test was witnessed by a num-
ber of officials, including Secretaries
Metcalf and Taft, Postmaster General
Meyer and ordnance officers of the
Navy and Army. The cabinet officers
went to the navy yard after the test.
Messrs Metcalf and Meyer made an
inspection of the yard and Secretary
Taft awaited them on the yacht May
flower.
The arrangements for the tests
we're carried out in detail without an
apparent hitch. Admiral Mason and
other officials from Washington
boarded the Florida before o'clock
and gave the final orders for conduct
ing the test. Aboard the float an
clored 400 feet away, from which
the torpedo was dispatched, the crew
was ready for their work.
Directions to fire were given from
the monitor about $40 o'clock, and
five minutes later Lieutenant Bah
cock, aboard the float, touched the
lever which sent the torpedo whizzing
six feet below the water on its mis-
sion of destruction. A roar accom-
panied the explosion.
The spectacle which followed was
grand. The great mass of water
thrown into the air cast shadows for
some distance around. The column
exceeded in height the high mast of
the Florida. Almost simultaneously
there was a shower of pieces of steel
fro fc nf
panied by fine dust, which scattered
for fully a third OF a mile around.
There was a scamper for shelter by
persons on half a dozen vessels in
the vicinity.
A dummy figure of man had been
erected on bridge of the Florida.
and, although it was so feet from
the point nf torpedo impact, the
shock knocked it over The dozen
or more officials and crew inside the
superstructure of the vessel waited
for few moments before veturing
out on the deck to ascertain the dam
age.
They found that on and above the
deck the damage done was confined
TO bending some of the fameworks
which supported the booms holding
the torpedo nets, the cracking of sew
eral plates, the breaking of iron
guy ropes and breaking three booms
from their fastenings, letting a net
used for protecting the afterpart OF
the hull drop into the sea. When
she was struck the Florida had about
four feet of freeboard, and was an
chored in about l > feet of water
A collision mat put against the
hole made by the torpedo kept the
water out while the pumps were
working. BY direction of Secretary
Metcalf, visiting newspaper men
we're allowed on board the Florida
after the test and were taken down
In the boiler and engine room, just
aft of the compartment into which
the torpedo was sent. In that por.
tion of the ship there appeared tC
be no damage. The injury done was
largely TO the compartment fired into
and also just forward of that com.
rartment. 1t was estimated that the
change penetrated six or eight feet
During the test steam was kept
mp In one OF the boilers on the YES
sell hut for precautionary reasons
was shut off in the pipes None ol
the pipes, so far as was apparent
from hasty examination. suffered in
Jury
The l2-inch turret so badly shat
tored two weeks ago by a testina
shell had been covered with canva,
20 hide the damage.