A TORPEDO ATTACK ON AN IRONCLAD.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1209, 1 May 1885, Page 3

A TORPEDO ATTACK ON AN IRONCLAD.

The Melbourne papers contain the following narrative of a torpedo attack on the ironclad Cerberus. It would seem to show that, notwithstanding the electric light and a careful watch, a torpedo boat would prob ibly reach an ironclad. The narrative in the Argus says : —“ After gaining such a signal victory over the forts, and passing the Heads unchallenged, the gunboats made for Capel Sound, accompanied by the Childers, in order to blow the Cerberus up This torpedo attack was notified beforehand by Captain Thomas, who, in addressing the men of the Cerberus just before he left this morning to board the Albert, characteristically said : ‘ Tonight there will be a torpedo attack on the ironclad. It will cake place some time between 7 p.m. and 9 p.ra., so that for a short time yon can keep a good look out.’ The looks out, I venture to say, will be exceedingly sharp if we are detected on such a night of Egyptian darkness as this. A doublemillion magnifying microscope, like that Sam Weller said was necessary to see through Mrs Bardell’s drawing room door, would be requisite to detect anything moving ten yards away, -while the sky frowns as it does to-night; but these are the nights which befriend torpedo boats, and are always chosen by them. If the Cerberus oannot sink ns to-night, how wonld she sink a real enemy? On deck the men are still under arms ; but no more ammunition for the big guns has been served out. It has been a long day for the crew, but they are full of cheerfulness and esprit de corps. The work is very much to their taste, aud there is no slackness or loafing, such as the commandant complained about this morning. After ail it is a different and far more appetising job to sink a first-class ironclad than to cat and fish an anchor. We are still piloted by the indefatigable Albert, which seems to know the dark passage by instinct. Right ahead the pile light throws a bright beam down the channel. We are out in the channel, discarding all harbour regulations, for are we not men of war, and, like the king, can do no wrong. The engines are at full speed now, and we have nine miles to go before we reach our expected prey. The officers converse in groups, the men one by one clan estinely drop into the forecastle What can pick us up ? What, indeed, but the electric light ! There it flashes all at once from the deck of the Cerberus, searching with its bright light every arc of the horiz m. Our hopes of a surprise sink so low that they cannot be said to be hopes at all. The last vestige of confidence in our scheme deserts us as the powerful light flashes against our rigging. But its flash is too momentary. We have not been picked up, or the light would have dwelt upon us. 1c would have * fixed’ us, and traced us yard by yard in our progress up the channel, and the ship would have been ready to receive us with a broadside. It goes up and down andali round the channel like a will-o’-the-wisp, which is here, there, and everywhere. The pall of night protects ns, but we are still along way from the Cerberus. The wiua rises higher till it blows a gale, and the spray is driven into our eyes, but no one marks it or ‘ seeks the seclusion which the cabin grants. ’ Our eyes are set upon the Ceberus, her masthead lights, and her varying electric light, which now lights up the channel till it is as clear as noonday, and then leaves everything in blackness. All this time we are getting nearer and nearer to the ironclad. The light, when it bursts out, goes high, goes low, hovers slowly on the right and the left, but with a strange fatality it never halts over the line of the gun boats nor the Childers, which is following us. In a few minutes the pile light is rounded, and the Albert, having put out the rushlight at her stern, approaches the turret ship, which is clearly visible to us as she flashes her light everywhere hut on ourselves. Tne electric light is out once more. It glows again, it lights up the firmament Have we been seen ? Has Captain Pullarton been toying with us, to sink us with a broadside at this crisis of our ardent expectations? It seems so The light brightens all round ; another moment and it will glare upon us, to allow the gunners in the turrets to lay their guns upon us at point-blank range. No! After all the light is still searching wildly. It flickers for an instance over us, but too high, and then shoots far behind ns, miles down the channel. The Albert dashes in ahead of us; we follow with the engines at full speed. Then we hear the crack of rifles, and discover that the Childers has got alongside without being seen until she had gone through the form of discharging her torpedo, and announced her triumph by firing rifles. The Albert and Victoria both blaze away. The Cerberus fixes her light upon us, and replies from her turret guns. Captain i homas says that the Childers torpedo would have sunk the Cerberus at such o’ose quarters before the ironclad would have had an opportunity of firing. The action is very brisk for a short time. The Cerberus having treated us to a broadside, turns the light upon the torpedo-boat and fires into her. The action moves briskly for ten minutes, and the display of big fireworks produces splendid scenic effects. Amid a heavy downpour of rain, which damps oar ardor, we are glad to get back to our comfortable quarters aboard the Nelson. The lesson of the night’s operation is that a formidable iron clad is almost h-lpless on a dark night against the attack of a torpedo fleet.”