VARIOUS TYPES OF TOEPEDOES. 155 



specially constructed for the purpose, that at the bow being thirty-two feet in length. 

 A torpedo-boat, built by the Messrs. Yarrow, of Poplar, for the Russian Government during 

 the late war, appears to have special merits. It is built of light steel, with what is called 

 a " whale-back " a semi-circular covering, which resists any ordinary shot and throws off 

 any sea whatever. The funnel is not in the centre, but towards the side, in order not to 

 interfere with the steersman's view nor with the torpedo boom. It has a boom which can 

 be lowered in the water, the torpedo being submerged ten feet before it is started off on its 

 deadly errand. And, finally, it can be projected from the stern, which gives it a splendid 

 chance of leaving before the final explosion. 



In the late Turko-Russian war torpedoes were often attached to logs of wood or clumps 

 of brushwood, and floated into the stream of the Danube. These often attracted little 

 attention ; and when they came into contact with any obstacle the mine exploded by means 

 of percussion, the blow being delivered by a projecting arm or other contrivance driven back 

 upon some detonating substance within. The Harvey torpedo, one of the leading types, 

 consists of a stout wooden casing, strengthened on the outside with iron straps, and containing 

 a metal shell, which holds the powder charge. The largest size of this weapon measures 

 4 feet 6 inches in length by 2 feet in depth, and 2 feet 6 inches in width, and carries 

 100 Ibs. of dynamite. The torpedo is fired by being brought into hugging contact with 

 an enemy's ship, when one or other of two projecting levers acts upon an exploding bolt 

 causing the ignition of the charge. The exploding apparatus consists of a tube containing 

 a chemical agent and a bulb holding another. The nature of these chemicals is such that 

 when they combine violent combustion ensues, which explodes the charge. These torpedoes 

 are towed at the end of a long hawser, connected to a spar, so arranged that the torpedo 

 itself, instead of following immediately in the wake or trail of the vessel towing it, diverges 

 in the same manner that an otter float does : from which device Captain Harvey took his idea. 

 Attached to the torpedo are two large buoys, for the purpose of supporting it when the vessel 

 is not moving through the water, or when the towing-line is slackened. Another variety is 

 fired by electricity. 



The Whitehead, or "fish" torpedo, is a cigar-shaped steel cylinder 14 to 19 feet in 

 length, and from 14 to 16 inches in diameter. It is sent off, requiring no crew, against 

 the ship to be destroyed ; and if one torpedo fails to deal the death-blow it can be followed 

 up by another, or yet a third. It consists of three compartments. The head contains the 

 explosive say 360 Ibs. of gun-cotton; the centre holds the machinery; and the tail the 

 highly-condensed air which works the engine. The engine is about thirty-five pounds weight, 

 and can be worked to forty horse power ! The explanation of this is simply that the 

 working pressure of the condensed air is 1,000 Ibs. per square inch. The tail holds 

 compressed air sufficient to propel the torpedo 200 yards, at a rate of twenty-five miles an 

 hour, or 1,000 yards at the rate of seventeen miles. 



The ' ' battle of the guns " has not yet been fought ; but how about the rams ? They 

 have been "proved the deadliest weapons of destruction in modern times. The lessons of Lissa 

 have been already cited in these pages; so have the lessons taught by the loss of the 

 Vanguard and the Grosser Knrfurst. In the latter cases it was friends that struck the blow. 

 Some of our greatest authorities consider that nothing can exceed the power of the ram of 



