Torpedoes and Swimmers.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 111, 18 July 1885, Page 5

Torpedoes and Swimmers.

Paul Boyton's recent prank in placing a dummy torpedo against the British war-ship Garnet in New York Harbour reminds the "Scientific American" of Sergeant Lee's attempt to blow up Lord Howes flagship, the Eagle, in the same waters in 1770. He i used a torpedo-boat invented by David Bushnell, afterward a captain in the patriot army. It had been tried with success experimentall}, and gave promise of being useful in serious warfare. The first opportunity for such use occurred when the British fleet took possession of New YorK Harbour. The Bushnell boat was more like a barrel than a boat. It was of oak, iron-banded, and only large enough for one person. When floating upright the navigator's head was a little above the level of the water. By means of two force-pumps, worked by the occupant's feet, the vessel could be made sink or rise in the water by forcing water out or in, and so changing its specific gravity. Its progress horizontally was governed by two revolving paddles in front, turned by a crank inside. The torpedo was fastened to the back of, the boat by a screw, the release of which set in motion a clock connected with a gun lock and flint After the predetermined interval of time had elapsed, the clock would strike and ignite the powder. The torpedo carried by Lee against the Eagle was charged with 150 pounds of powder (some say 130 pounds), and the clock was set to explode the charge in thirty minutes after the torpedo was placed. Lee was towed to the neighbourhood of the fleet by a party in whaleboats, and then proceeded to attack j the fleet alone. He succeeded in reaching the Eagle, a fi4-gun ship, undetected, and j spent a long time in a vain attempt to fasten the torpedo to her bottom with hooks and screws ; a band of iron at the edge of the copper sheathing proving an especially serious obstacle. As daylight approached, he was compelled to leave the fleet and return to the city. Off Governor's Island be was intercepted by a British barge, when, to avoid capture, he exploded his torpedo, escaping from his pursuers during the panic which theexplosion excited. The "Scientific American" says that if the torpedo had been provided with a strong magnet, the strip of iron which thwarted him would have insured the success of his undertaking, and the use of torpedoes in naval warfare might have been hastened half a century.