[May, 
296 Offensive and Defensive 
ship soon after dark for practice, each boat taking a different 
course and being under independent control. The boats of 
this class, when fully accoutred, carry each three Whitehead 
locomotive torpedoes, which are discharged in a line with 
the keel from slings at the side, and the object of the practice, 
which was of the ordinary routine character, was to endea- 
vour to approach within striking distance of the Hecla 
without being discovered by those on board. It need 
scarcely be remarked that as the attack was a sham one, 
and was made during the night, there were no explosive 
projedtiles used on the occasion, the whole practice being 
confined to evolutions under steam. The hostile craft ap- 
proached from various points of the compass at about half- 
speed, or from 6 to 8 knots an hour. Two of the boats, a 
black one and a grey one, began the attack from the east- 
ward, and when the former drew within a quarter of a mile 
of the Hecla she was noticed and ruled out of the attack. 
At this moment, while she was lying with her machinery at 
rest, the grey craft was heard coming at a rapid rate in her 
direction, those on board apparently not^being able to discern 
her black hull in the water. She was hailed, and though 
her engines were promptly reversed she struck the stationary 
boat a violent blow on the port side, breaking one of the 
plates and doing considerable damage to the angle frames 
or stiffeners. The water rushed in, but was happily confined 
to the second or smoke-box water-tight compartment, 
whereby the buoyancy of the craft was preserved. Had 
she been struck a couple of feet or so farther aft the engine- 
room would have been flooded, and probably some of the 
men severely scalded. Considering that these boats are 
mere steel shells, not more than one-sixteenth of an inch in 
thickness, it seems surprising that the stricken boat was not 
cut in two ; and this would undoubtedly have been the case 
had the momentum of the second boat not been arrested by 
the wire-rope stay which surrounds the craft at the water- 
line, and of which only a strand or two were cut. The 
attacking boat was even worse damaged, her sharp stem 
being broken and distorted, and the bow plates bent and 
bulged from their fastenings. The forward collision bulk- 
head, however, performed its work admirably, and did not 
permit even so much as a weeping of water to penetrate 
beyond the foremost compartment. Though both vessels 
were disabled, no one was injured. The boats were about 
to be forwarded in the Wivern for use in China, and others 
will now have to be substituted.” 
We may expedt to see these torpedo-boats used as auxiliary 
to defence as well as for offensive purposes, and they will 
