Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1889 — TORPEDO BOATS. [ARTICLE]

TORPEDO BOATS.

Sow They Compare Vith Armed and U»anned Cruisers. It is remarkable that our country, •while taking up with to much energy during the last half dozen years the ■construction of armored and unarmored •cruisers, has done so little in torpedo •warfare, says a New York paper. Certainly it is not the expense that stands in the way, since for a single 7,500-ton armored cruiser Congress has allowed a cost of $3,500,000, exclusive of guns, while for the firstclass torpedo boat now built by the Herreshoffs they are only to receive, •outside of premiums. $82,750. More than forty torpedo boats can be built for the! price of one medium armorclad. Nor can it be said that this is too new and experimental a class of construction. Examples of it are found by the hundreds in the navies of Europe. But so many drawbacks have been suggested in the employment of torpedo boats that even in our country, where the defense of harbors is of primary importance in the naval programme, there has been much reluctance to go into the manufacture of torpedo boats on any large scale. The lightness of these boats, which is unavoidable in order to give them their high speed, tends to make them structurally weak, and on several occasions they have proved unable to weather heavy gales without injury. Again, the appliances which have been devised for neutralizing their destructive powers have been made very efficient. Steel nettings are applied to armor-clads for protection against torpedoes. Electric search lights have greatly diminished the dread of night attacks on which these boats largely relied. Revolving cannon and rapidfire guns are able to riddle them before they can approach sufficiently near to discharge their missiles. Fast vessels have been specifically designed as topedo-boat catchers. These circumstances tend to diminish in our country the reliance placed upon torpedo warfare. In addition, two influences have had special weight. One is the development of the pneumatic torpedo vessel, essentially an American invention, which aims to project through the air torpedos much heavier than those carried through the water, and with greater accuracy of aim. The attention paid to this derice has undoubtedly detracted from the interest which would otherwise have been felt in ordinary torpedo boats. A like influence has been exerted by the hopes entertained of the submarine torpedo boat, which has also received a large share of attention in this country. There could be no comparison in effectiveness between a surface and a submarine boat for torpedo warfare, if the latter could be relied upon. It is now said that Spain is thoroughly satisfied with her recent experiments with submarine boats, and will begin to construct them for regular naval use. Should this prove true, they will attract renewed attention from our Government.