Protecting a Battleship Against Torpedoes 



A new application of the net 

 which may popularize its use 



© Paul Thompson 



Above: Setting a tor- 

 pedo net around a 

 British dreadnought. 

 The net is held out 

 about thirty feet 



THE protection 

 of a battle- 

 ship against 

 its pigmy but deadly 

 assailant, the tor- 

 pedo, is a problem which inventors have 

 yet to solve. In the British Navy some 

 reliance has been placed on nets held out 

 as a sort of shield around the ship, but the 

 results have been unsatisfactory. The 

 booms which held the nets out have been 

 large and unwieldly and have been fixed 

 in such a way that the shock 

 of a discharge was certain 

 to unship them. Further- 

 Tiore, it was impossible to 

 -e them once the ship was 

 under way. As may be 

 expected the handling and 

 fixing of a net, even during 

 fine weather, is no easy 

 task. 



Great Britain is the only 



power which has put the 



<^orpedo net to an exhaus- 



ive test. Our Navy has 



iicver required them. 



The accompanying 



Testing a new torpedo "catcher" at 

 the Naval Topedo Station at Newport 



otos © Int. Film Serv. 



The torpedo at the 

 instant of contact 

 with the "catcher." 

 The net is connected 

 with a shock absorber 



photographs show a 

 new torpedo 

 "catcher" (the in- 

 ventor's word for 

 net) which its spon- 



NET FMTENtD 

 TO 5H1ELD 



Details of the elaborate torpedo 

 net operated by hydraulic 

 cylinders. No booms are used 



sor thinks is strong enough to protect a ship 

 from torpedo attack. It consists of half-inch 

 wire cables in net form on an L-shaped 

 sliding steel frame. It is hung about 

 twenty-five feet from the ship's side. 



The net defense of a ship is always 

 divided into three different parts, namely, 

 the main defense, bow de- 

 fense, and stern defense. 

 The main defense covers 

 the middle and most vital 

 parts of the vessel — that is 

 to say, the engines and 

 magazines, and the bow and 

 stern defenses cover the 

 other parts of the ship. 

 These latter, however, are 

 used only when the ship is 

 at anchor. 



When in motion the water 

 would force the net up to- 

 ward the surface, leaving 

 the hull of the ship exposed. 



81 



