HARBOUR DEFENCES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 573, 30 July 1909, Page 7

HARBOUR DEFENCES.

A BOOM RUSHED.

IMPORTANT TEST AT PORTSMOUTH

DESTROYER BREAKS THROUGH. (By Tolesraph.-l'ress Atsoolatlon.-Oopyrlirht,) London, July '28. Tho Ferret,, torpedo-boat destroyer, ■ fitted with a now steel-cutting invention, and going at full speed, easily rushed a' largo boom of timber, spikes, and steel ; hawsors in Portsmouth Harbour.. It was a remarkable oxploit. ' '~.'■■,' Mr. M'Kenna, First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Haldane, .War Secretary, and. General Nicholson, Chief of the General Staff, woro present. ... • ' TEST OF BOOMS FOR PORT PROTECTION. FULL-SPEED ATTACK. ' . This is a very important test of tho value of booms for harbour protection,, and tho boom does not emerge "well. The purpose of. the boom is to.close a harbour at night against the en-, tranco of hostile torpedo craft, Tho boom which was to be attacked at Portsmouth was. composed of heavy logs of timber about 80ft. long, plaoed a few feet apart, end-on to the line of, attack.. Those logs were secured together by numerous strong steel, hawsers. On their seaward onds tho top logs were studded with long steel spikes' to tear open the hull of any boat which runs up against them and-sink her. The width between the logs was not sufficient to admit the hull of even a destroyer. *■■'.-. Some naval officers' have held that,a de-' stroyer, if rushed at it at top speed, might break her way through,it or even leap over it; : and their theory would now appear to have been proved correct. i The oraft selected for this crucial experiment is the old destroyer Ferret, a vessel 0f.290 tons and!44oo h.p., which-under favourable conditions can steam twenty-seven knots. It was arranged that the Ferret was to make a rush at the Doom, in circumstances as closely as possible resembling those of actual war. For her attack a section of the boom was to bo laid out in the upper part of Portsmouth [.Harbour in shallow-, water. .' She was,-then to I charge the .boom at top speed. . '■;' ".'■''' .Clearly,, no little .nerve-must have been required on the part of, her officers and orew.