THE TORPEDO-BOAT OF THE FUTURE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1825, 14 April 1885, Page 2

THE TORPEDO-BOAT OF THE FUTURE

" Uu - Ancien Officleb i>e Muiine" has been discoursing on maritime affairs almost as startlingly as hist mythical prototype immortalised by. Coleridge. According to the views wh'ch th'«s out-and-out believer in the torpedo has set forth in the Nouvelle Revue, the armour-clad ship is as completely obsolete as the old threedecker, and in any future war no ironclad ship should venture to put to sea until all her opponent's torpedo boats had heen destroyed. For this reason, no more money should he speut on the construction or keepingup of acmour-clad vessels, and even those in p regress should he abandoned. The best type of boat, says thia tor-pedo-phile, is one almost invisible, and quicker than the largest sea-going vessels. France possesses several that have proved themselves very successful ( theoretically, we presume ) , hut should have at least 400. Those existing are registered at 4G tons, and carry coal for 1000 miles at medium speed. In case of need they could steam 22 knots per hour, are armed with four torpedoes, and cost £7000 each. Ten vessels somewhat larger are now being constructed. The best? type of sea-going torpedo-boat should be ahout 181 feet long or leas, and about 12 feet wide. She should be manned by 15 to J 8 men, should carry provisions for 12 to 15 days, and coal for 1500 to 2000 miles. She should he able to steam 22 to 25 miles an hour, and be armed with six or eight torpedoes and one machine-gun. The cost would be from £12,000 to £15000. As a great nations fleet should not consist entirely of torpedo boats, however, a concession is made in favour of vessels auxil-ary to them but it will be the part of the torpedoboat iv time of war to sweep all vessels of the enemy Avhatever from the surface of the oceau, hoth ironclads, cruisers, transports, and merchant vessels, and this mission it will perform w 'thout let or hindrance. The fleet of transports, packed with troops will fall an especial easy prey. If this modern Ancient Mariner is a true prophet, h's ratiocinations, like those of his more illustrious predecessor, may well make evei'y Englishman " a sadder aud a wise.* man," considering we are to have hut 10 torpedo-boats a year for the next three years, and our present fleet is distinguished by but oue of the qualifications laid down as necessary — i.e., invisibility. There is, however, a grain of comfort left for us. "Un Ancieu Officier " says that any nation must go to the wall in a naval war that does not possess the powers of reproduction of its own engines of destruction. England has alwa} r s shown herself to be the foremost torpedo hoat-huilding country, the hest vessels constructed abroad beiug little more than servile copies of English design. — Engineering.