CAPTURING A LIVE TORPEDO.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3763, 25 April 1907, Page 4

CAPTURING A LIVE TORPEDO.

Knsign Gillis, son of a RearAdmiral Giliis, of the United States Navy (says the English Illustrated Magazine), stands in the forefront of American heroes whose deeds will form an intensely interesting chapter of the history of the war between the United States and Spain. Admiral Cervera, when “ bottled up ” in Santiago, sent a Schwartzkopf torpedo against an American war-ship, the Porter. Rising and falling on the swell of the sea, and each instant approaching nearer the side of the Porter, came the torpedo. In an instant Ensign Gillis saw that the firing-pin was exposed, and ready for its deadly work. A few more rolls of the Porter in the heavy sea, and lunge forward of the torpedo on the crest of the wave, and there would be a shock, and a detonation, and then a rushing of waters over the sinking fragments of the ship. 11 did not take Ensign Gillis a moment to see and comprehend the danger to its fullest extent. In an instant he had tossed off his coat and boots, and before the commander of the Porter could remonstrate with or catch him he had plunged into the sharkinfested sea, and, with bold over hand strokes, was making his way towards the oncoming torpedo. Over Gillis’s head broke the crests of the heavy seas, but his stroke was strong, and he brushed the waves aside in contempt. On the top of a great sea the “ nose ” of the torpedo appeared, pointing straight for the side of the Porter, with the fatal firing-pin protruding. A few sturdy strokes and Gillis reached the side of the torpedo. Throwing his left arm over the back of the missile, he reached out his right hand, feeling forward the mechanism which would screw up the firing-phi. In a few minutes after Gillis had reached the torpedo the firing-pin mechanism was screwed up, and the great mass of explosive rendered absolutely harmless. The charge of noth, of gun-cotton would have sent to the bottom a much larger ship than the Porter.