SUBMARINE EXPLOSIVES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5341, 10 May 1878, Page 2

SUBMARINE EXPLOSIVES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sin.—lt may bo interesting to naval and military officers, as well as the public in general, after the blowing up of the Eli Whitney by dynamite, to know that the use of torpedoes and submarine explosives has been in existence by the Chinese at a very early period, and in 1585 the Dutch employed them at the siege of Antwerp. An American of the name of Bushnell destroyed the British man-of-war Cerberus during their struggle for independence ; and Fulton, also an American, destroyed an experimental French ship in 1801, and a British one in 1805, by submarine explosion, or, as now called, torpedoes. But the invention until lately has never been encouraged. In 1842 Colonel- Colt applied a galvanic battery to fire torpedoes, but it was not until the destructive effects were proved of

these terrible missiles in America that they became of general use in naval warfare. A spar torpedo and Captain McEvoy’s drifting torpedoes have been exhibited in the old country, and their technicalities explained by means of diagrams ; also, the peculiarities of the Whitehead, Captain Harvey's, and other modern inventions.

The principal means of defence against these terrible implements of destruction would be to surround the ship with netting, and illuminate tbe area for a mil© round with a powerful electric light, and then countermine, i.e.f blowing up an attacking torpedo before it could reach its goal. A most formidable method of attack has just been patented, which, combined with torpedoing, would make the of an ironclad very precarious unless some antidote can. bo found, viz, crude petroleum injected by means of a powerful engine upon the ship to be attacked, and easily fired by a rocket; thus driving away the men from their guns previous to laying the torpedo. It is reported that the Russian Government have been hurrying tbe completion of 150 boats, principally of the Jarrow type of these formidable engines of destruction, to be employed against the English fleet should war bo declared. Our remedy must now be to train a sufficient number of officers and men to compete against instruments of war that may at any time be brought before them.—l am, &c., Mahdrof.