TORPEDO BOATS.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 271, 1 May 1886, Page 4

TORPEDO BOATS.

The opportunities of tlie torpedo-boat men have been few ho far. Except in the American war, these vessels can scarcely he said to have been used, and during the American war, they were in their infancy. There was time enough during the war, however, to show what they could do in the hands of a resolute man, and time, also, for deeds of during and devotion such as have seldom been equalled. The Confederates had a boat which could be made to sink below the water and travel there for some distance, but they had not been able to overcome the difficulty, which had been insuperable till now, of making her return to the surface at will. She was apt to put her nose downwards, and make straight for the bottom, with perfect disregard of the steering gear. 111 experimenting with her, precautions had to be taken to counteract by external means such aberrations 011

her part, but in actual war she was j useless unless men could be found who . would strike one blow in her, and die in striking it. And men were found who would do this thing. The Federal fleet were investing New Orleans, and it was of the utmost importance to the Confederate force that the hostile flagship or one of her consorts should be destroyed. The boat was there in the harbor which co-ild go out and strike a fatal blow that her enemy would be powerless to evade, but the striking of this blow meant certain death. Men ! can generally be found to lead or take a part in a forlorn hope. The danger is great, but there is always a hope of return, and the glory is in proportion to the danger. But in this case there was 110 hope of return. Whosoever went out in this boat must be prepared to give his life absolutely for the good of liis country —to save her from her danger, and then himself die like a rat drowned in its hole, And such men were found. They went on board, calmly made their preparations, and then steamed out 011 their last voyage. All the populace turned out on the | quays and the shores, and gave the ! heroes a "Godspeed," such as must ! almost have been worth buying with life. They never came back, and the . Federal ship never returned home. ! Both sank together, and when, after the war was over, it was proposed to raise the sunken ship, the diver who went down to examine, found the | monster with half her bottom blown in, and her little antagonist who had 1 dealt the blow lying by her side.

It would be difficult to find a parallel to this for pure devotion ; but a young lieutenant in the Federal navy performed a feat of arms in which the pluck and determination was as great. The Confederate vessels lav some miles up the river protected by batteries. This young lieutenant determined to destroy one of these ships, and to that end started up the river with an ordinary steam-launch and a spar-torpedo. These torpedoes are carried on the end of a spar which projects from the boat, and are fired by the percussion caps in their heads, so that they have to be driven against the side of the hostile ship before they explode. News had been sent up the river that the attempt was to be made, and as the launch made her way lip she was saluted by a storm of projectiles from the batteries she passed. By some miracle she escaped these without being disabled, to find on arriving that the ship she was bound for had surrounded herself with booms, over which the torpedo could not reach her. A storm of bullets tore up the water as the boat, foiled in her attack, retreated; but again she escaped disablement. Her retreat, however, was not for long. Turning a short distance awav, she came down, as hard as her engines would drive her, straight for the enemy's bow. With the impetus of her speed, she jumped the boom and drove her torpedo into the enemy, exploding it at the same moment that a heavy shot from one of the enemy's bow guns knocked the boat into atoms. The attackers and the attacked died at the same instant. The loss of life was, of course, terrific ; but, curious to relate, the author of the catastrophe was himself unhurt. After the boat was knocked into matchwood under him, he found himself squattering in the water, probably with a very vague idea of how he got there. Somehow | he managed to float down the river, and regained his own fleet, and was i himself the first to bring the news of the success of his endeavor, and the destruction of his own boat. —All the Year Bound.