SYDNEY’S FIRST TORPEDO BOAT.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 April 1923, Page 3

SYDNEY’S FIRST TORPEDO BOAT.

, SYDNEY, Mai'ch 21. About I'm iy years or more ago a Russian war scare threv some of the coastal towns into a ferment of excitement and apprehension. feverish clforts wore made to put together fortifications, and. among other tilings, two torpedo boats were built in Sydney. They were constructed on the exact plan of a Turkish torpedo boat which had blown up a Russian destroyer in the Black "ea. But the scare "frizzled old" and the two boats wore left on the hands ol the Government. Some years later the Government sold them to a contractor vho found them useless ami had them sunk iu Double Bay. Ju-t before the war a German made an uiisuecossittl attempt to raise one and refit her. But several weeks ago there was fished up I nun the bottom of Double Bay a strange mass of battered iron plates and twisted deck fittings, rust and Imi-iiarles. It was towed to ti pontoon, its present resting place, and has been identified by old-timers as one or Sydney's first torpedo boats, probably the Ihernns. From stem to stern she measures Sift. She is 10ft bin broad and draws only about 4ft. Her mate, the Acheron, still rests a snaky hulk at the bottom of Svdtiev Harbour.