The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 27, 1898, Page 19

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1898. TERRIBLE POWER ’ OF THE TORPEDO Way in Which the Important Harbors of the World Are Guarded by Networks : ~ of Deadly Explosives. ID you ever try what it feels like to live for a whole week—to eat, drink and sleep—in a room con- taining enough gun cotton to blow San Francisco heaven- ward? It was safe enough, after all, though I couldn’t help feeling @-bit nervous at first. Gun cotton is not & very dangerous explosive to handle, and our supply was in charge of ex- perienced men. Reading of the disaster to the Maine dnd the probable existence of a sub- marine mine brought it all back to my mind clearly as if the incident had happened yesterday. Nearly ten years have passed since we, British soldiers, belonging to her Majesty’s colonial forces, set out with deliberate intent to blow up an American vessel by means of torpedoes. Yet no international complications ensued, a I doubt if the Government &t Washi n ever heard of the af- "he American vessel happened much in the way of navi- so she was in a very dilapi- condition—nothing more than a sage from the oceanhadcome to in its saddest form—the derelict ik of a large wooden ship, floating keel e by the heav, teristic of f Australia We v t part of the Pacific Ocean n brought by wayward cur- officers and crew we never she had v at the m y of the e reached soundings off f New South Wal al port of Newc strange derelict, nds impo: d how it a ed herself. but any sailor ed. The sene had Then she capsized, of oil remaining in ficed to keep her of the water. Her an- s had of course fallen end of the cable, as is sick, nothing disturbed the harmony of our voyage. We found the wreck anchored about four miles off the coast, but the diffi- culty was to get at her. Having in mind the fate of the first wrecking steamer, we dared not approach too closely. Nothing but a portion of her bilges and the straight line of her keel showed above water; there was no pro- jection to which we could make a line fast, and ‘it was impossible for a man to maintain his footing on the slippery sea-washed bottom. There was only one way to solve the problem, and that was to sweep a line under the wreck, and slide a torpedo down it until it reached a point be- neath the capsized hull. So we filled one of our iron drums, in shape some- thing like a floating buoy, with 300 pounds of gun cotton, a tremendous charge, and started in to work. We ran a strong hawser out with a boat, and, keeping our position with difficulty, swept it down across the bows of the wreck. There it caught on the anchor chains; we could get it no further aft. It would have been better could we have got a torpedo right under the cep- ter of the hull, but as this seemed im- possible we decided to fire the mine under the bows. At last, after endless delays, we had everything in position, the mine sus- pended from the hawser and connected by an electric wire with the ship. We used a portable battery, in which you turn a handle to generate the current, and I can remember my anxiety as I watched the officer whirl the little handlearound. Wewere only about one hundred yards away from the torpedo, and who knew what might happen within a_second. .Were we to be swamped by the sea raised by the mine or sunk by falling timbers cast high into the air by the terrific explosion? However, nothing very serious hap- pened. There was a muffled roar as the current flew through the wire, a column of water shot high in the air, our little steamer rocked violently in the swell, and it was all over. The provoking part of it was that there lay the ~wreck, seen - quite undis- turbed by the occurrence, though we found out afterward that we had loos- ened, if not parted, the chains which S COMPRE SSED AR high In the alir, and fragments of kerosene cases were scattered all over the surrounding sea. The water began to grow smoother, a thin oily film spread itself upon the ocean, in which floated dead fish innumerable killed by the shock. Evidently we had opened a way for the kerosene and air impris- oned In the vessel’s bottom to esoape. What was more, we found the wreck drifting freely about, her anchor gear having parted. By the time we had finished all this work it was getting late in the evening and it occurred to us that If we wished to save anything of the wreck we had better try towing her to the shore and beach her at a convenient spot just outside of Newcastle. But the proposition was not so easy to exe- cute. The only place to which we could make a hawser fast was one of the rudder gudgeons on the stern post and this compelled us to tow the wreck stern first. We might just as well have tried to tow her broadside on, and darkness set in before we had made any progress worth speaking of. Reluctantly we abandoned our charge and returned to port, intending to bring out a powerful tug next day. But next day there was no more wreck to be seen. The oil which had hitherto kept her afloat had@ run out from her bottom, and quietly, making no fuss about it, she had sunk to the depths of the ocean. J. F. ROSE-SOLEY. TORPEDO ACCIDENTS. HE torpedo is a tremendously offensive weapon, capable of doing more damage in a minute than a battery of heavy guns could effect in a week. But the trouble is that, like the monster which Frankensteineso rashly created, it does not discriminate between friend and foe; with beautiful impartiality, it is equally ready to destroy either. This is more particularly the case with the automobile torpedo, of which the Whitehead is the best-known type, intended for use by one vessel against AUTO-MOBIL The automobile torpedo is a weapon is shot a tube, generally , and takes up its machinery con- There are many £ like the Howell and the Whitehead, ample, and some ex- traordinary results have been obtained with b The Whitehead is discharged from the tube by steam or powder, and just as it leaves the muzzie a lock auto- opened releases the com- r carried in a flask and sets 1 the machinery. Three things done by it. It must go through er 4t a high speed, preserving it must float at a and on striking it must ingenuity and simplicity nism which effects these 3 ly marvelous. 8 pedo ed upon the ) principle of the gyroscope. 1 and surety of direction -are direction; dept usual on board ship, was made fast. So she drifted along, sweeping the depths of the ocean 'with her pendent anchors, s soon as she got into they held fast. covered afterwards, from the s of kerosene, that the John T. Berry, a loxke Ao tooden ship bound from New York to China with a cargo @ Of kerosene, in cases. This was after we had finished the wreck; at present she was right in the road of the traffic along the. Australian coast, a serious menace to shipping. As the wreck seemed to be of considerable value, if only. for the copper in her hull, a wrecking company started operations, and -made several futile attempts to tow her-into port. But she was moored teo securely. for all the tugs in Austra- Nothing would shift her. During the -operations a valuabie steamer was thrown by the heavy sea against the wreck, and went speedily to the bot- tom.” . The incident discouraged the wreckers, and they retired from the field. The: c¢olonel commanding the N. S. Torpedo Corps, a fine old soldier, E hi§ .chance. Here was a heaven sent. opportunity for proving the efli- ciency of h ---iment. He was an en- st:at his work, and so were his 1. skilled electricians from the .ph service, which in Australia nducted by the State. Unfortunate- ).cotton is an expehsive article, z ce the opportunities for »rac- tice with 1lv° charged submarine mines were e. Here, however, was an occasion when the explosion of T in any number was fully justifi- e and the Government, recognizing the necessity for getting the wreck out 1 ay of traffic, agreed with him. it happened that, one dark, ght, we sailed from Sydney In ernment steamer, generally lighthouse inspection, pleasure and so forth. She was not a man-of-war, and, there- €, had no magazine. So we dumped the zun cotton into the cabin, lashed mber of great iron drums on deck, 1 set forth to do a bit of real tor- £. w the weather remained fine our ¢ would have been difficult enough, but we had gales and heavy seas dur- ing the whole of .our operations. . Our little steamer was like a cork in these stormy. waters, but she was a'stanch sea boat, and except for the fact that the soldiers, being landsmen, got very given by the functioning of an inner wheel, which is relatively very heavy the periphery, and revelves with such velocity plane that stright There ar high of traje many other forms, but the two are employed in our service, and the Whitehead is used by nearly all the navies of the world. The term ‘“‘submarine mine” ap- plied to defensive mines or to those which would be used to obstruct the channels of a river or estuary, or the approaches to a fortified or unprotect- aport. Colonel Samuel Colt, the entor of the American revolver, first demonstrated the practicability of blowing up vessels by submarine mines fired by electricity. In 1842 he blew up the old gunboat Boxer, and in 1843 he destroyed a brig in the Potomac River while the vessel was under way, sail- ing at the rate of five miles an hour. Many forms of mines were used here and abroad, and they were successful- ly employed against us in the civil war. 4 tem of coast defense °con- is held her so securely anchored. The next time we managed to get the mine nearly under the center of the ship, and the explosion showed more tangible results. We blew a hole right through the bottom of the hulk, and in doing so sealed her fate. Huge pieces of the heavy floor timbers flew E TORPEDO READY FOR ACTION. cerns itself with their distribution and use, and every well-known harbor of the world is at this day so mapped out that the planting of these mines may be done on a plan which promises the greatest utility. Some of these are censtant depth mines—that is, such as ill float always at a certain depth be- low the surface, no matter what may be the state of the tide; some are fitted to explode on contact, and most are so arranged that they may be exploded at will by observers stationed at points of refuge, in bomb proof and lookout sta- tions ashore. It is by such a system as this that San Francisco is guarded. Of course, the Federal authorities carefully pre- serve the plan of the mines protecting the entrance of the Golden Gate, and only to a very few in the highest au- thority is the secret kncwn. Is the harbor of Havana so guarded and so protected, and could the Maine have been anchored close to one of these submerged volcanoes, operated so easily by the simple twist of a hcstile hand ashore? N another. This delicate and expensive piece of mechanism is almost human in its contrariness. Each torpedo con- tains in itself a complete compressed- air engine, which drives it along by a screw exactly in the same way as a steamer is propelled. And the theory, which works out very prettily on paper, 19 — li : | HOW THE TORPEDOES AND SUBMARINE MINES COULD BE WORKED FROM FORT POINT AGAINST A SHIP ENTERING THE GOLDEN GATE. is that the torpedo, when fired from the tube at a certain angle, its engines ad- justed to run at a certain speed, and its flotation so arranged that it will keep at a fixed depth beneath the sur- face, will hit the enemy’'s vessel at which it is aimed. Any naval officer knows, however, though perhaps he may not care to a mit it, that the chance of the White- head hitting the object it is aimed is very remote. When two vesels are moving in opposite directions at high rates of speed it is difficult enough to make good practice, even with the most accurate of guns. The combined speed of the two ships would be som where in the neighborhood of forf mile: n hour, and it would be almost impc ble to so adjust a Whitehead as to hit under these conditions. If both vessels were motionl, it would be easy enough, but this is happen in real warfare, It is no wonder that, under such cir- cumstances, naval experts are begin- ning to look askance at the torpedo’s presence on battle-shi They ques- tion whether the weapon likely to prove worthy of the room it occupies and the danger it involves. For some time the use of above-water torpedo tubes has been abandoned because of the risk of explosion in action. Even with all the torpedoes and their appur- tenances under water, the possibility of a stray shell striking one of the fully charged heads is by no means remote. Another thing is that the erratic ‘Whitehead cannot always be depended upon to run straight; sometimes it takes a fancy to dive to the bottom, at other times it comes to the surface. It has even been known to turn com- pletely around and make a bee line back for the vessel from which it was fired. These things, of course, have only happened in practice, but there is no reason why they might not be re- peated in real war. Probably, therefore, the automobile torpedo will soon be relegated to its proper place on small torpedo vessels, and the big ships will be freed from such a dangerous incumbrance. But unlikely to the fixed torpedo, or submarine mine, as it sometimes called, comes under a different categc Its value for har- bor defense is so great that its use is more likely to be developed than dis- continued.” Tt is quite possible, by care- ful surveying, to so plant the entrance to a harbor with torpedoes that no hos- tile vessel can enter without bringing about her own destruction. Possibly this has been done in San Francisco Bay, but of course the mili- tary authorities are secret about the matter, and neither the arrangement —_— widening out into a broad bay. And on the shores of each haven there is a large city to be defended. The navigable entrance to Port Jack- son is comparatively narrow, and, be- ides, is commanded on each side by kigh hills, which bristle with those terrible hydro-pneumatic guns. Each of these weapons is concealed in a shell-proof pit, from which it only rises to fire, returning again automatically to shelter. But on a height within the harbor, commanding a close view of the entrance, there is a still more im- and a touch of the button will send half a dozen heavy shells hurtling toward the attacking vessel. This system, of course, is compara- tively safe for the defender, but even in times of peace accidents may hap- pen through the vagaries of the elec- tric current. I remember one case where a gallant young officer and half a dozen volunteers lost their lives be- cause of a crossed wire. It was during the autumn maneuvers. The Governor of the colony was on a visit to the en- campment, and to make a display it SUBMARINE MINES WITH BUOY ATTACHMENTS. of the mine fields nor the position of the observing station is known to the general public. But I was privileged once to investigate the torpedo defense of an equally important harbor, that of Port Jackson, in New South Wales. The conditions of the two harbors are somewhat similar; in each there is a narrow, sharply defined entrance, WE DREW OFF AT A SAFE DISTANCE AND EXPLODED THE TORPEDO UNDER HER BOWS, BUT THE SHOCK HARDLY BUDGED HER. : i portant means of defense. Carefully concealed amid the green bushes which clothe the hill is a little casemate, and here, looking out from a narrow open- ing, the officer in charge can observe the approach of every vessel desiring to enter the harbor. The whole thing is wonderfully sim- ple. The officer sits before a chart of the harbor, traced on ground glass, so that at night it may be illumined by a lamp from underneath. At his eve is a range-finder, with which he follows the movement of an incoming vessel. An automatic arrangement traces the course of the vessel on the chart below. She passes over a succession of tiny squares, each representing so much of the harbor. And within each of these squares is a heavily charged submarine mine. All that the officer has to do when the enemy’s ship arrives at a proper point is to press a button, the torpedo explodes.and the incident is ended. In the same way he can, by telephone, direct the heavy guns in the battery below to be pointed on any given spot. Then all he has to do is to wait till the enemy’s ship arrives on this particular square on the diagram, was intended to fire a couple of tor- pedoes. The mines, hanging one on each side of a large boat, were taken out by a crew of some dozen members of the torpedo corps. One mine was dropped in the bay and the boat moved on a hundred yards or so before ex- ploding it. On the heights above we stood watch- ing anxiously for the explosion, for the upheaval of a magnificent column of water. | Beyond was_the boat, looking quite diminutive. Watching through my glasses 1 saw the officer give the signal, and then, to my horror, the whole after part of the boat flew high in the air, fragments of human bodies fell on the waters all around, and we knew that a great catastrophe had happened. Most of the men in the boat were killed, and a few stunned and severely injured were picked up. The awful explosion was brought about by the simplest of causes. In connecting the wires with the battery some one, who paid with his life for his carelessness, had crossed them, and the mine hanging by the side of hte boat had been exploded instead of the one sunk deep in the waters. HOW THE REBEL SHIP AQUEDABAN WAS DESTROYED BY A.TOBPEDO. URING the Brazilian Insurrec- tion of 1893-94 President Peixoto sent four torpedo boats to de- stroy the rebel ship Aquidaban, which was lying at anchor under the lee of Santa Cruz. The night of April 15, 1894, was exceedingly dark, and the Government torpedo boats en- tered the harbor without accident. Spreading out, fan-like, the vessels felt their way about seeking the Aquida- ban, Admiral Mello’s flagship. The boat Sampaio was the first to encoun- ter the enemy. A sharp fire was opened on the torpedo boat, revealing the Aqui- daban. At once the torpedo boat went full speed toward the enemy, circling to bring its bow tube to bear. The captain of the Sampaio himself pulled the lanyard. Aquidaban very far forward. The ex- plosion was exceedingly violent, but did not change the ship's trim. Neverthe- less, the shock was terrific, and the offi- cer of the watch was thrown from the bridge into the sea. No one was killed, as there was no one in the forward compartments. Tha shin slowly sank till she took The torpedo struck the- the ground in twenty-two feet of water. A careful examination dis- closed the fact that the torpedo had struck close to the bulkhead, which separated compartments two and three, about thirty-five feet aft from the ram. It had blown a hole nineteen of twenty feet long and 6 feet 9 inches broad, and at either end the steel skin of the ship had been torn. The tear extended aft six feet longitudinally past the bulkhead dividing the third and fourth compartments. The water- tight doors in the bulkhead had been loosened by the shock, so that the fourth compartment, which was a very large one, had filled, as well as the first three. Inside everything was smashed beyond recognition. The armored deck had been driven out a little just over the place where the explosion oc- curred, and numerous rivets in the skin had been loosened. In all it was calculated that she had taken on board 500 tons of water. On the starboard side forward, forty feet from the ram, was another hole, but smaller than that to the port, as it was only three feet in diameter. This may have been caused by the head of the torpedo being driven right through the ship by tha force of the explosion.