IRONCLADS AND TORPEDOES.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1338, 12 November 1872, Page 2

IRONCLADS AND TORPEDOES.

A special correspondent of the Tiroes, who, accompanied- the Channel Fleet of fifteen ironclads on a recent cruise, .; writes :— : : When the men had done their dinners — always the fixed reckoning point in a ship's day— the Agincourt and Sultan , asked permission to haul out of the line to try torpedo experiments. The' Agincourt experimented by 'herself, but Gap-* tain Vansittart, of the Sultan, thought he might as well see what he could do with one or two of his neighbors. One of Harvey's torpedoes, of a size to have contained) 701 b of gun-cotton, was got ready and ■ lowered over the taffrail. This evil-look-, ing engine is shaped like the American "otter," used in fishing, and moves rapidly ihroughthe water ai right angles to the power that is towing it. The wire rope to whioh it is attached is coiled on a drum, controlled by strap breaks, which prevent it unwinding too fast, and the • • torpedo i 3 fitted with triggers, which, on striking against the side of a vessel, break/d among the powder or gun-cotton, a glass* tube filled -with sulphuric acid. 'About 200 yards of wire rope were run out, and the Sultan was made to steam rapidly past the Hector ; the torpedo, draggiug its cork buoys after it, . coursed foaming through ; the water, rising and falling as a porpoise swims, but it missed the/, Hector. . .•'"" Captain Vansittart was more successful - with the Penelope, a double screw, and the torpedo was made to strike her fairly, under the quarter. With a tremendous jerk, which nearly dragged the drum and the breaks and the ; men that held them overboard; the wire rope was broken close to the torpedo, most probably by one o.f- : the Penelope's screws ; and when. a. hoais had picked up the deadly toy again/ both the triggers were found depressed, and .• had the gun cotton been there, the Penelope, with her rudder and screws blown to bito, and her stern" port shatteredi would most likely have sunk, a. few minutes after the Sultan had made the signal " Torpedo successfully exploded under the Penelope." . Practically, however, the Sultan is not the sore of ship from which to work a torpedo. In action she would have enough to do to work hey eight 400-pounders effectively } an,i wha.t - if in some sudden exigency of fighting : she was fqreed to go astern, and, which r would be exceedingly possible, came rubbing up against her own petard ?, This would never do, and the proper- torpedo vessel would be a small, swift steamer, which could tow a.n infernal machine or two after it at a great pace through an : enemy's fleet on a dark night. ' • ' y :