COMMENDED ESSAY, 1893 . 
405 
time cannot be spared to sweep thoroughly, two gun-boats, protected 
by torpedo-catchers, can drag a chain along the bottom. When it is 
thought that electrical mines are being approached slow creeping must 
be commenced. 
(2.) Slow creeping. The object of this operation is to pick up the 
enemy’s cables, having first of all broken the continuity of the core 
and under-run the cable to see if it leads to a multiple cable with 
mines attached, and if so cut the multiple cable and render the mines 
useless. It should be carried out at night, and is only possible when 
not under heavy fire from the fortress. 
(3.) Rapid creeping must be substituted for slow creeping when 
under heavy fire. The boats are towed by steam launches, and do not 
stop on hooking a cable. 
(4.) Countermining. As soon as the channel has been well crept 
over the countermine launches should be ready to run the counter¬ 
mines. They will then run the first two lines of countermines, and 
fire them at once, and so on till the channel is cleared. If there is a 
boom a line of countermines can be run over which can be discharged 
by the leading ironclad ramming. This will destroy any boom. 
Should the channel be cleared, the defence will immediately try to 
fill it up again, and possibly make it worse than before. Hence the 
operation of clearing should be so timed as to conclude just at day¬ 
break, so that the ships may be able to see if the defenders attempt to 
lay more mines. 
Now-a-days there is not the least use in ships trying to go through an 
intricate channel at night. In addition to the difficulty of clearing 
obstructions, electric lights turned on from the fortress would render 
steering extremely difficult, and the risk of going on shore would be 
great. Daybreak is the proper time. 
It will probably be better for the ships to take in their nets, and 
trust to small craft (which should be plentiful) to protect them from 
torpedoes, as the nets would greatly hamper their speed. 
Dredges might be used as protection against mines. 
Line ahead will be the formation, there will not be room for any 
other. 
It has been advocated by some naval authorities that an old ship 
should take the lead, but this expedient would be of no avail except 
against the obsolete mechanical mine. Also, an old ship would be 
more vulnerable to artillery fire, and, if sunk, would stop the whole line. 
The ships’ fire will be directed towards the personnel of the fortress 
and any position or range-finding cells the locality of which may be 
known, the object being to subdue or upset the fire as much as possi¬ 
ble, not to destroy the forts, which would, of course, be impossible. 
Hence quick-firing and machine guns would be utilised as much as 
possible. 
All available data, as regards the batteries, should be carefully 
studied, and each ship should know exactly at what points to direct its 
fire. 
Should the wind be such that the smoke from the ships’ guns might 
