OUR EARLY DESTROYERS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 238, 29 December 1916, Page 8 (Supplement)

OUR EARLY DESTROYERS.

AMUSING REMINISCENCES. Probacy no ship typo comes in for more honourable mention in Jellicoe's despatch on the fight off Jutland than tho destroyers, round whose splendid work aro strung episodes innumerable that will rank in daring and brilliance and fearlessness in facing overwhelming odds with anything in our long glory-roll of the sea.

Wonderful boats they are, too, those long, low-lying, rakish, clean-cut modedn "t-b-d's," their fragile hulls built o* .steel no thicker than cardboard, crammed fulj of machinery and destruction. They can flash into action at practically the speed of an express train, and the pressing of a button is all that is needed to release from their death-dealing tubes that compact bundle of energy and destruction (popularly known as a torpedo) that can send mighty ships to the bottom. But it is a far cry from the modern L's, Ms. N's, O's, and P's (as our latest destroyers are classified) to 11 i• ■ earliest oi the type, such as the old Havelock, a 240-ton boat which was launched away back in 1894.

When the Havelock was complete.! opinion was very divided as to whether she would be any good, so the Admiralty sent her on a voyage to the Ba\ of Biscay just to see what she could do. As she could not be trusted out by herself, the o.d gunboat Seagull was sent to look after her. However, except for the fact that everyone on board got furiously seasick, the Havelock came through her trials with flying colours, with the result that the Admiralty immediately ordered a large number of them, and development >n their construction brings us down to tho fine destroyers we are tuujing out now.

"A BOX OF ENGINES.' 1 Though quite a success from tilt* naval point of view, tho Havelock was not a particularly brilliant or comfortable vessel. That was hardly to be expected from the first of her type. She has been well described by one of her officers as a "box of engines." Designers of torpedo craft in those early days had so little space on which to go upon that by the time they had installed furnaces, engines, torpedo--tubes, guns, and such-like necessary details, there was no room left for anything Cabins for officers and quarters for the craw were quite a secondary consideration, and almost altogether ignored. In the Havelock the commander's cabin was so small that it would have been impassible to swing the proverbial cat in it—if one wished to swing a cat, that is. There was no passage thence to the ward-room, and when the commander desired to go thither he liad to climb up on deck and then get down through another narrow hatchway.

In the .ward-room also economy in space was reduced to a fine art, and the sub or "middy*' with particularly long legs ,was never very popular with tho person sitting opposite him. The crew were quartered forward under the turtle-back bow of the boat, and the way they stowed themselves away showed a marked disregard for housing laws and regulations..

DINNER—WEATHER PERMITTING. In vessels of this early type dinner was always a gamble more or less. Given a decent day, with the ship doing an easy 10 or 12 knots, it was always possible to get down a supply of nourishment worthy to bo called :t meal, but with a heavy sea on and tho ship full out at top speed—well, dining w<»s n farce then: Who could dine with tho ship heaving and rolling, rocking and plunging, now digging her nose down into the waves, and then almost disappearing in a smother ef wave and foam?

Who could dine? Who wanted te° Under such circumstances the wardroom table could hardly be considered inviting, heaving up and down like a ragtime dancer, with every article on i; careering back and fore, the knives and forks playing at miniature manoeuvres, and the service tray (in which the various dishes were served) suspended overhead, and swinging like a firebell doing double time, at an elevation low enough to catch the unwary diner on the head.

Mugs were the order of the day undor these conditions; everything was served in them, for plates were virtually useless. Soup was drunk like tea, and every heave of the boat sent the liquid splashing over the diner. Much good soup was lost in those early destroyers when the weather was bad! And dinner was not the only drawback. Sleep, or rather the lack of t, was another matter that caused a: lot of trouble.

When the ordinary mortal goes to bed he undresses. But if Ghat mortil happened to be on board one of Her Majesty's destroyers twenty years ago, with his bunk below sea level, and no steam-pipo heating installation, h* would have felt liße sleeping in a refrigerator, and would have been well advised to put on what is called a "lammey suit," which makes the wearer look all the world like an Arctic xeplorcr. Even these glorified pyjamas, however, were not sufficient to ensure sleep if the boat wer doing anything over 20 knots in a rough sea. Then the experience was like a isiiocession of n'iniature railway collisions.

TORPEDO FEVER. Those evilly destroyers had their Jecicicd drawbacks, but few who served in them ever regretted it, dbspite many lost dinners and numerous sleepless nights. They took the had times with thi> good, and, sailorly philosophical, made the best of it.

Thoso were the days of torpedo fever. The potentialities of this new weapon were just beginning to ta recognised, and the peril of torpedo-attack began to ci use uneasiness in all naval quarters. During manoeuvres there was no battleship or cruiser captain who did not suffer from the epidemic, and just as to-day every biscuit tin floating on the sea is rega.rded as the periscope of a submarine, so in those days everv shadowy figure that appenrod within miles of a ship at night or in bad light was regarded as destroyers, and th" quick-tiring guns wore let loose to wipe 18, theoretically speaking, out of existence.

A VERY MIXED "BAG". Shim torpedo attacks ( wero one ->f the great mainstays fof manoeuvres, and, following such an attack, it was the custom of the captains of the " b ■ ivy" 11 send to the umpire a list detailing how many destroyers they hnd 'sunk," whilst the dMrover commanders, in turn, intimatod the list of tneir victims-. Xeedless to say. the claim* were invariably so enthusiastic that in each attack every unit of flotilla and fleet, attirker and attacked respectively, were sent to the bottom. One wnz had the boldness to send tho following list to the umpire after

his ship bad spent the night warding off destroyers:— •'Last night H.MS. bagged throe packet boats, one Holyhead-Bel-fust steamer, four fishing smacks, boat conveying the admiral's washing ashore, two flights of birds, a lighthouse, and three houses on shore."

What the umpire said has not been (recorded! On another occasion the attacking destroyer flotiUa came upon ,what appeared t« \>3 the lights of the "opposing" fleet at anchor. Manoeuvring cautiously the flotilla drew nearer, and then commenced, figuratively speaking, to torpedo thi3 "enemy" and blow them sky-high. When they had completed the process of annihilation they stood by till morning, and then when daw.t came found that the "hostile" fleet was nowhere to be seen. Tho lights seen the previous evening were those of .1 small fishing village on shore!