TORPEDO DESTROYERS.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 292, 17 December 1901, Page 1

TORPEDO DESTROYERS.

THRILLING EXPERIENCES. Great attention lias recently been aeuused m regard to torpedo destroyers owing io the many mishaps to them. The follow ing descriptive article by a corre.spoiiden! will be found very interesting : For those in search of a novel and thrilling experience, accompanied by a spice oi danger, 1 can recommend nothing better than a trip on a torpedoboat desi rover, one of those long, black, and low-lying veni-mous-looking craft, which dart through the water with the speed oi an express tram, and which can yet he steered and manoeuvred as delicately as a bievek*. Not that, it, is an easy »!(•>... to' get permission to accompany one of these boats on a run, but when the coveted permission is granted the fortunate passenger may eoniidcnUy anticipate .mi experience which lie will remember “ I should advise you to put. on yeur very oldest clothes and to carry a sharp knife in your pocket,’' sani the youthful, clean-shaven lieutenant, with a suspicious twinkle it: ins eves ; and \vhen 1 innocently asked the reason for such strange precautions he answered reassuringly, "Oh ’ we never know when we snail go the bottom, you rnow . and a knife would lie handy to i,iit oIT your clothes." This was not a very comforting assurance, and it was with more trepidation than pleasure that 1 hoarded one of those mysterious *• boxes of machinery with four funnels " which would play so iisetul a pa’l in defending our coasts if invasion were threatened. lint when she steamed out to sea, : culling her way swiftlv through the I waters with the speed of a train. I while the cool a.; began to whistle I past my ears, the feeling of exhilaration quickly put u, flight any thought of personal danpci Swifter and swifter the low, rakish craft darted through the waters, scorning to rise to the waves, hut culling her way fierce!;/ an ! defiantly through the heart of them, dividing them as w 111 a wedge into two separate mountains, which swept past, almost threatening to eugu'i us, while as far as the eye could retie.i at left behind us a widening wake ot un,ruing and tossing foam.

11 I low fast are we going now I shouted to the skipper, my voice being almost driven down my throat liv the wind, which whistled like a hurricane pas 1 me.'

“ Oh, about twenty-two knots." he shouted back. Twenty-two knots—twenty-six miles an hour ! And yet the pace was growing every moment 1 The boat was quivering beneath my feet like a giant in pain, the deck was hot beneath me, and the paint was peeling from the funnels and being whisked in float ing flakes far to the rear.

Ships steaming ahead at. ten, fifteen, and more knots an hour we overhauled and passed as if they were standing still And still the pace grew. Then

twenty-four knots, twenty-eight knots, thirty knots; was there no limit to the powers of the demon that, was driving this boat, through the water? She was heeling now to port, till the very mouths of her guns seemed to .sweep the seas and her nose was driving through mountains of water which swept, over the deck, threatening at any moment to carry us with them, and drenching us to the skin with spray.

What if she sprang a leak ? Such tilings bad happened ; or if by chance any vessel got into our way , no power oe earth could save us. At last I began to realise that my friend the captain's advice Io carry a knife was not entirely jocular, and I sent up a devout prayer that I might, not, have need to Use it

Hut happily most tilings have their limits, and the most thrilling experiences cannot last for ever. Gradually the speed lowered down, until the wind erased to shriek past one's cars and if was possible to speak without having one's words fli.ng rudely down one’s throat.

“ Come below and sec the engines sail! the skipper, and, shivering, we

and submissive, I was ghul to accompany him, and to view at close quitters the demons of whose power 1 ua.l had such an exciting experience. Tin* gust oi hot air that greeted its a.s \e made our way below made me ask :

“What is tlio temperature down hero? “Oil, somethin,!: like 1 liideg.” lightly answered Lieutenant 1! ; “ you vi'l not. want, an overcoat, I can assume you

In tins inferno. then, was the giant v.hose strength was so terrihte that within a boat of less than •Sin) tons, it

could exert, more than BOOH horse power, under forced draught, and ilriv the boat at, a speed of thirty Knots, o

more than thirty-live mites an hum Here, boxed in so closely by madly

whiyring engines that it, seemed hardly possible to move with safety, 1 made the acquaintance of the engineer ;.ml his assistants working tinder conditions as uncomfortable and dangerous as it is possible to conceive.

"We carry our lives in our hands," the engineer quite cheerfully remarked for it, seems at any moment a pipe may hurst and scald to death all within reach ; while in ease of collision tie

occupants of the engine-room would > drowned like rats in a

u me crew of a torpedo-boat destroyer go to the bottom it is for no lack of smartness ,;s < realised wheq I saw I lie swiftness with which boats were got out, provisioned, and manned. Within three minutes “'p;;,, the command, “Out boa t.s, ” fourboats were swung out, sixty men had mysteriously sprung from ever)’ part oi the boat, bringing water, biscuits, compass—every necessary equipment, in fact —the boats were manned, and v, itii sweeping oars were pulling away from the deserted destroyer. For lighting purposes the vessel’s men arc readier still than for self-pro-servalion. For, when the captain gate

the word, “Clear for action.” withi what seemed a few seconds, the deck were swept hare of every obstruction the gnus were swung mu ward and ;!. shell's were shrieking through the ai in every direction, carrying desire lion to an imaginary foe