Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-02-17
u. S. NAVY HAS
NE w PLAN OF
TORPEDO ATTACK

GUANTANAMO BAY.-One of the
torpedo officers talked today.
"Just how formidable a weapon
will the torpedo be in the next WARP"
1.-THE enemy won't have a chance
to escape" said he. HE can't get
away"
The new plan of torpedo attack
isn't a secret, but it is interesting.
Suppose the enemy's fleet is sighted
within torpedo range. Then a fotilla
Of destroyers, geared up to thirty
five knots an hour, sharp as knife
blades and able to turn on their own
tails, will be sent out. At a signal
the destroyers will simultaneously
discharge their broadside of torpe-
does.
Suppose that dozen destroyers
are sent out, and each fires six tor
pedoes. When the torpedoes have
passed through the hostile fleet, they
then turn and chase back again. This
is easily accomplished by setting
the rudders. They romp around in
an eccentric circle. Each will dash
one way for a time, and then turn
at an agile and start a new course.
But their complete orbit will be
within the area covered by the fleet"
The rest may be imagined. With
seventy-two torpedoes gone COM
pletely mad and running around at
every coceivable curve and angle the
enemy's fleet must do some lively
lodging. But while his ships are
lodging torpedoes they must also be
lodging each other. Send a dozen
ladies o fthe First Suburban church
across Fifth avenue at Forty-second
street at the height of the rush hour,
when the policemen are all looking
another way, and you can fancy the
scene. Dodge they ever so wisely,
some of them are sure to get hit.
First Duty of a Seaman.
The first duty of a seaman is to
wash behind his ears.
Anyhow, that's what l gather by
listening to the admonitions of Jim
my Legs on the deck outside my cab
in windows. This ship and practic-
ally all other ships of the Atlantic
fleet is more than half-manned by
they got out Of Sandy Hook. They
enlisted in the navy to see the world
and get an education and they will
accomplish those desired ends. What
they seem not to have counted on is
that they will also be taught how to
hCSp themselves C1GdU. MOT no
hear any gratitude being voiced for
this unexpected boon.
The cleanest man on earth is a
naval seaman. He cleans first as a
matter of duty, and then as a pas
sion. 1t is hard to keep absolutely
clean aboard ship. Many of the or
binary shore-going facilities are lack
for by a rigid disciplinary cleanliness
which soon becomes a habit.
Clothes and body are alike smut
less with the old-timer. They have a
way of folding their trousers and
blouses in their tiny ditty bags so
that they come out looking as though
they had been freshly pressed and
creased.
But the greenhorns aboard have no
more liking for cleanliness under diff
ficulties than has the boy anywhere.
There is no affinity between the
growing boy and a cake of soap. They
have not been held in the training
washing habit firmly ground into
them. Expert opinion holds that no
boy can learn to love a bath until he
has spent six months under the hand
of Jimmy Legs. Just moment ago
one of the masters-at-arms told his
troubles with confirmed bath
dodger.
Three times he got away from
me-" said he. Finally I got him In
the bath room and saw him stripped.
Then I went away for moment at
some other job. When I got back l
found him washing his clothes. But
he was carefully holding his body
out Of the splash of the water"
When a crew is finally settled down
and trained and steadied. a man who
doesn't like to wash is made to wash
by his shipmates. They will not en-
flure the presence of a dirty man. But
just now not one of these boys has
the slightest thought that he is any
thing less than scrupulously clean.
He thinks he is being imposed upon
by heartless superiOrs. But the time
will come when he will go to the bath
like q canary bird.
Love that burns should not be put