New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-29

from the submarines lowering like
"hungry sharks" about them. And so
far as is publicly known, they have
been, as conveys, the chief agents III
the safe transport Of British troops to
France.
"The sea does not exist for TIE Ger
mans now" says the French Minister
Of Marine-and this is true, EXCEPT for
furtive submarine attacks on merchant
men. While the fundamental cause Of
this ouiescence of German surface
ships has been the guns of the British
battle feet. the immediate reason
seems to be the incessant patrol Of
British destroyers and scouts. ever
vigilant to detect a sortie and to call
the waiting dreadnoughts.
Characteristic of Destroyers.
The destroyer, like the piratical
craft Of romance, is long and low. ex-
tremelv fast and mobile. and. with
smokcless steaming. invisible in dim
light at any great distance. Her
weapons arc the torpedo and battery
of light quick-fring guns of maximum
rapidity of fire. In pursuit, In ma
neuvring and in gun fire She is the
essence of speed.
For example, take the Benham, one
of our most recent destrOyers. She is
900 feet long. about 80 feet broad, with
a draft of 9l2 feet and a displacement
Of .O3G tons. Her relatively great speed
-29.6 knots (maXimum) an hour is
due. first, to her shallow draft and fine
lines breadth but one-tenth her
length, and. second, to her large horse
rower, which is more than one hall
that of the 31,000-ton twenty-one-knot
Greadnought Pennsvlvania.
The Benham's high forecastle en-
ables her to be driven against heavy
head sea. She can rise from moderate
to maximum speed in a few minutes,
since she has oil-hred watertu5e boilers
and turbine engines. Her armament con-
ssts of four twin 18-inch torpedo tubes
and four 4-inch rapid fire guns.
The radius Of action and man@u-
wiring qualities Of these little vessels
are remarkable. The Benham, with BOB
tons of fuel oil on board, can steam at
her maximum speed for $50 sea miles,
and at twelve knots an hour she has n
theoretical radius Of action of about SIX
thousand miles The turbine engines
of many destroyers can be reversed
from "ahead" to EASTERN" or vice versa,
al high speed and the shallow draft
give these vessels that extreme mobil-
ity which makes them the terror of
submarines.
Origin Of the Destroyer.
While the gun has been for centuries
the primary naval weapon, the autOmO-
bile torpedo time and again in recent
years las seemed to threaten its su-
premacy When the time element is
considered, the gun is vastly superior
to the torpedo. The projectile leaves a
4-inch gun at a velocity more than
fifty times greater than the thirty-knot
speed of the Whitehead torpedo at its
maximum range of 1000 yards, and
the torpedo will take more than ten
minutes 10 traverse that distance.
During this time the gun can discharge
thirty shots, each with a muzzle energy
of $4,000 foot-tOns, so that. before the
torpedo reaches its mark the gun could
have hit that mark with an aggregate
energy of about 100000 foot-tons.
When the torpedo scores, however,
its blow is deadly, even to the dread
nought. and olfhourh i's hits on war
ships have been relatively few, this
deadliness ana aus IuysIb!lty, especial
~ with the submarine, make il a very
formidable weapon against a battle
feet.
SO for years naval men have given
exhaustive study TO methods OF attack
by, and defence against, the torpedo.
From 1894 TO 1898 there were built for
the United States Navy twenty-one tor
pe1o boats, ranging in displacement
from thirty to 2S0 tons and in speed
from fifteen to thirty knots. Each
boat carried two or three torpedo tubes
and three or four one-pounder rapid
fire guns. They are serviceable for
coast and haIbor defence only. Nine
teen Of them still survive.
70 capture or sink such boats for
eign navies developed the torpedo gun
boat" a seagoing vessel of about 500
tons. carrying torpedo tubes and Al
inch guns. While effective against CON
temporary torpedo boats, these gun
boats are far from being fast enough