[May, 
292 Offensive and Defensive 
matter, and, after apologising for the interpolation, now 
resume my remarks upon the more legitimate methods of 
torpedo warfare. 
In the former article, called forth by the publication . of 
Commander Sleeman’s work, I alluded chiefly to the offensive 
attack by torpedo-boats armed with the spar and Whitehead 
or locomotive torpedoes, instancing the few occasions on 
which such attacks had been successful in real warfare ; and 
I now proceed to point out that, whilst the means of active 
attack and defence — especially whilst on the move — have 
lately been greatly developed, still the improvements have 
added yet more to the odds on the side of defence than in 
proportion to the new modes of offence. 
We may take the latter first. 
In the “ Revue Maritime et Coloniale ” there have been 
some interesting papers by Le Lieutenant Chaband Arnault, 
translations from which have been published by Lieut. E. 
Meryon, R.N., in the -“Journal of the Royal United Service 
Institution,” in the last number of which we find, among 
the results arrived at, the following conclusions, which the 
author considers as established from “the conscientious 
examination of the different sea-fights in which torpedo-boats 
have taken part.” I propose to take them seriatim . 
(A.) “ An attack made against a ship by means of a tor- 
pedo-boat does not require more exceptional circumstances 
nor more absolute devotion than any other operation of 
naval war.” Granted, with a reservation best expressed in 
the following remark of Sleeman, p. 8 “ The cause of the 
want of success in war-time with offensive torpedoes lies fin 
the fadt that during peace-time the experiments and practice 
carried out with them are done so under the most favourable 
circumstances, that is to say, in daylight, and the nerves of 
the operators not in that high state of tension which would 
be the case were they attacking a man-of-war on a pitch-dark 
night, whose exadt position cannot be known, and from 
whose guns at any moment a sheet of fire may be belched 
forth, and a storm of shot and bullets be poured on them 
whilst on adtual service ; this would in nine out of ten in- 
stances be the case. Some uncertainty must and will always 
exist in offensive torpedo operations when carried out in 
adtual war, where, as in this case, the success of the enter- 
prise depends almost wholly on the state of a man s nerves; 
yet this defedt, a want of certainty, may to a considerable 
extent be eradicated were means to be found of carrying out 
in time of peace a systematic pradtice of this branch of 
torpedo warfare under circumstances similar to those expe- 
