MILITARY AND NAVAL TOPICS

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15606, 3 May 1911, Page 11

MILITARY AND NAVAL TOPICS

(“Canterbury Times.”) General Gordon was killed at Khartoum on January 26, 1885, two days before the relieving force came in Sight, of the town. Although comparatively short, the life of General Gordon was exceptionally eventful, the vicissitudes of his career making an interesting story. Born at Woolwich, in the year 1833, and educated gt Taunton, ho entered the Royal Military Academy, AVoolwich, in 1848, Four years later he obtained a commission in the Royal Engineers. In December, 1854, be received orders to leave for the Crimea, and took part in the assault on the Redan. In 1859 General Gordon, or Chinese Gordon, as ho was sometimes called, was promoted to tho rank of captain, and, in the same year, was appointed second adjutant of the corps at Chatham- This position, however, was only hold by him for one year, for in 1880 ho took part in the expedition to China, having joined the forces of Sir James Hope Grant, who was operating in conjunction with the French. Ho was present at tho capture of Pekin, and, for his notable services in this campaign, he received a brevet majority. In 1863 ho went to Sung-Kiong, having been appointed mandarin and lientenant-calonel in the Chinese service. His forces, which were composed of three or four thousand Chinese, officered by Europeans of various nationalities, were known as the “ever victorious army,” a title for which they showed ample justification; for, after over thirty engagements, the Taiping rebellion was stamped out. In 1865 Gordon wa6 made a C. 8.. and appointed to command the R.E. at Gravesend. On the retirement of Sir Samuel Baker he succeeded him a 3 Governor of the equatorial provinces of Central Atrica, but. owing to the trouble which followed on his efforts to put down the slave trade, in which he was ?ersistentlv thwarted by Ismail Pasha aeoub, Governor-General of the Soudan, lie resigned his appointment, and, in 1876, returned to England. In the following yoar, however, lie returnee! to Cairo, and was appointed GovornorGeneral of the Soudan, Darfour, the Equatorial Provinces, and the Red Sea Littoral. During tho same year he lvas installed as Governor-General of Khartoum, but resigned his appointments in 1879. Greatly to the surprise of his countrymen lie accompanied tho Marquis of Ripton to India ir. 1880, as private secretary, but this post he very soon resigned, as he found himself unsuitod to his now duties. In 1884. being then unattached, lie was requested by tho British Government, to assist in tho E unification of tho Soudan, and found is way alone to Khartoum, which

place he successfully defended during * siege of 317 days. Belore the arrival of the expeditionary force sent out .to relieve the city, the Mahdi’s forces sricceeded, at the end of this time, in effecting; an entrance into the place, and Gordon fell, as lie had _ always hoped to do, in the service of his country, onlv a few day 6 before the longpromised help arrived. Particulars concerning the trial of large shells charged with explosive geatine against tho hull of, the U.S.A. war vessel Puritan will prove interesting. The shells were of the - Tsham typo, which has been improved, and when Mr Taft was Secretary for War he desired that it should be tested against a warship. The Army Department carried out a test against armour plate, but. after the Russo-Japanese war it was desired to make a final trial of tho possibility of using shells of this class with effect. The object-was:,to determine the effect of 12in gelatinecharged shells exploded against the turret and belt armour. Mr Isham thought tho test had proved conclusively that battleships could be destroyed with his shell, a fact which' -he thinks had been clearly demonstrated already by the incidents of the RussoJapanese war, as reported bv Captain Somenoff. The following are facts taken from the official report: —The explosive was “explosive gelatine,” well known to be the most powerful of all .the nitroglycerine compounds employed, and in each round the charge was 2001 b, which is believed to be the largest of this explosive ever detonated. The Puritan was selected because she waa available, and not because she actually represented a modern battleship. Her turret armour is 8i« thick, as against 12in or 14in in present-day battleships, and her side armour is lOin thick, tapering to sin at the lower end of the belt. Tlie explosion against the turret drove back the plate, dishing it considerably, and opening a number of deep cracks, some of which probably ■vxtended through, while the seams (between this and adjoining plates wete opened. AVhen the report was made-it was not. known whether the turret could be trained, but no pipes or joints in the mechanism were disturbed, and there was no evidence inside the turret of any disturbance whatever. Two chickens and a cat which had been placed there were entirely uninjured. The second round was against the armour plate, and the plate was buckled, bringing the edges outward, and opening up tho seams at the ends. The lower edge of the plate was also buckled, and a bad leak was started, through which the watertight compartment affected was rapidly flooded. There were no indications that serious damage had been done below the belt, but the narrowness of the Puritan’s belt very largely increased the result, while the. largor plates of a battleship. would hare resisted buckling more effectively, and flooding would have been reduced within narrow limits. The report stated that the attack to which the ship was subjected was such-as would never ho repoated in warfare, though it- is probable that ’'uportant lessons can he drawn from the results in conh«iossn with the mariner of hacking armorir to secure the maximum protection againirt any kind of attack. There seems to have been no test of the effects of the shells upon the deck and "upper Work# of the Puritan. •• v-