INFERNAL MACHINES.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 38, 27 August 1864, Page 3

INFERNAL MACHINES.

"We are not aware if " our Lords " have taken the torpedo question into their serious consideration. A French admiral, charged with the inspection of the machinery of the fleet, has just written a paper on the subject, exhorting Minister Chasseloup-Laubat to reconsider a plan favorably reported on many years back As long ago as 1840, a commission was obtained by Admiral Lalande to examine into the question of ships with armed prows. It was deemed that coastguard vessels might be thus built on the following conditions: — Ist. The machinery to be sheltered from the enemy's fire ; 2nd. That the beak should be solid enough to resist the effects of a shock ; 3rd. That they should have great speed ; 4th. That they should be easily handled. The four conditions were not found difficult to obtain. It was also proposed to arm with a spur steam-fri-gates of 450 horse-power, and at the end of the armed point to place an explosive cone, destined to be driven into the flank of an enemy's ship, and act there as a mine. Later, however, this accessory was given up, as it was found from experiments made at Lorientinin 1843 that the effect of the beak was quite sufficient without an aid. But Admiral Labrousse thinks that with iron-clad vessels it will be necessary again to have recourse to the explosive cone. In 1844 experiments ! were made with the spur, and the results ' were considered most satisfactory, but the men charged with the direction of naval affairs were changed, and the naval officers who sat on the commission of inquiry were dispersed. The question slumbered ; for six years, when it was again taken up ! and condemned. But a few months after its condemnation the proposed change ! was revived, and another commission was appointed to draw up a report. The report emanating from the second commission commenced thus : — 4 The weapon which in future will decide naval combats is the spur.' The rest of the report was in keeping with this decision. The Admirality Board was then consulted on the ! matter, and in its turn it drew up a num--1 her of resolutions all favorable to the application of the beak. The board considered the idea a happy one' — that it would completely modify the present system of maritime war to the profit of second-rate powers, as fewer sailors would be necessary ; that the experiments at Lorient had proved that the effect of the spur was such as had been stated by the adapter ; that the application of steam to the locomotion of vessels assimilated the manoeuvring of modern ships to that of the ancient galley ; that the facility of directing a vessel in any required direction assured the utility of the spur, especially in close fighting; that the addition of the spur would in no way be prejudicial to any of the nautical qualities of a vessel, and would not interfere with her actual armament; that the adoption of the spur would enable .France to transform suddenly into formidable engines of war a great number of the steamers she possesses. The Board* recommended that conclusive experiments should be at once commenced. It was proposed to fit with the spur the 100-gunship the Austerlitz ; but, for reasons which Admiral Labrousse assures us were rather of a financial than a technical nature, Vice- Admiral Hamelin consigned to an official pigeon-hole this report, so favorable to the plan brought under the consideration of the Board. Admiral Hamelin is now dead ; but before he died he saw afloat two powerful ships provided, witli . the ' weapons so. strongly reccamncinded in 1840 by Admiral Lab-

rbusse, and only a couple of months ago our columns contained a description of the submarine vessel the Plongeur, with which some experiments were made at Bochefort. The Plongeur, besides being able to settle down under water, is "armed with a formidable prow, and at the end of this prow is an explosive cone which may be driven into an enemy's ship, deposited there, and then fired. Recent events in America show the Confederates resorting to both systems in order to shake off the tenacious grasp of the North. They are employing rams, such as the other day came * down the Chowan river, to recover the mastery of their inland waters, and explosive cones to drive the blockaders off their coasts. Already the ironsides has been heavily damaged, another frigate has had her sternblown away, and the poor Minnesota has for the second time, been lifted out of the water. The first attempt upon this frigate was similar to that made by the Americans on the flagship of Admiral Cockburn in 1813. To blow up the Minnesota, two casks, each of which contained two hundred pounds of gunpowder, were fastened together, and slung in such a manner that on a strain of 7 lb. being brought to bear on the connecting rope, which is about 300 feet in length, a trigger fell and the explosion took place. At night, in a couple of boats, painted lead color and pulled by a crew in lead-color uniform, these casks were taken off, and set a drift in such a way that on the rope catching the doomed vessel the casks were drawn together under her keel. Directly the casks came to the end of their tether a strain oi oO lb. was brought on them, and an explosion immediately followed. In the case of the Minnesota 'the casks were sunk too deep, and the vessel escaped. The Confederates then set to work upon another principle more in conformity with the ideas of Admiral Labrousse. They constructed a small iron-clad craft armed with a bowsprit, at the end of which is an explosive cone. The bowsprit, which can either be lowered or triced up, has a length of about forty feet, and the cones, at first containing only 401 b. oi powder, are now much more heavily charged. On approaching an enemy's vessel, the torpedo boat, like an ancient knight plunging his spurs into his charger t s flanks, getting a good grip of his saddle, and setting his lance in rest, puts on the steam, makes all fast, and lowers the explosive beam. Ths first torpedo-boat was nearly swamped by the quantity of water flung upon her decks, but those at present used are roofed over and run no such risk. We have alluded to these matters because it is clear that if in future blockades are to be maintained, vessels must be built impenetrable to the new gadfly craft destined to attach large ships after the manner of the swordfish, which dives beneath the tough plating of its huge antagonists to rip them up in their vulnerable parts. The United States' fleet has been able to maintain a blockade because the Confederates have been unable to make engines, and all the engines sent out from this country, with the exception of those lately 'run' in the Coquette, have been captured. About four knots is all they can knock out of their rams, but this very gouty locomotion haa been found to answer to such a degree in driving off obtruders that we think it right to call attention to what has been going on across the Atlantic, and to the opinion of our opposite neighbors on the subject of beaks simple and explosive. — Army and Navy Gazette.