A TORPEDO ATTACK ON AN IRONCLAD.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 3307, 4 May 1885, Page 3

A TORPEDO ATTACK ON AN IRONCLAD.

The Melbourne papers contain the following narrative of a torpedo attack on the ironclad Cerberus. It would seem to show that, notwithstanding the electric light and a careful watch, a torpedo boat would probably reach an ironclad. The narrative m the Argus says: — "After gaining such a signal victory over the forts, and passing the Heads unchallenged, the gunboats made for Capel Sound, accompanied by the Childers, m order to blow the Cerberus up. This torpedo attack was notified beforehand by Captain Thomas, who, m addressing the men of the Cerberus just before ' he left this morningjto board the Albert, characteristically said : ' To-night there will be a torpedo attack upon the ironclad. It will take place sometime between 7 p.m. and 9 a.m., so for that short time you can keep a good look out. ' The look-out, I venture to. say, will be excedingly sharp if we are detected on such a night of Egyptian darkness as this. A doublemillion .magnifying microscope, like that Samuel Weller said was necessary to see through Mrs Bardell's drawing room door, would be requisite to detect ' anything moving ten yards away, while the sky frowns as it does to-night ; but these are the nights which befriend torpedo boats, and are always chosen by them. If the Cerberus cannot sink us to-night, how would she sink a real enemy. On deck the men are still under arms ; but no more ammunition for the big guns has been served out. It has been a long day for the crew, but they are full of cheerfulness and esprit de corps. The work is very much to their taste, and there is no slackness or loafing, such as the commandant complained about this morning. After all, it is a different and far more appetising job to sink a firstclass ironolad than to cat and fish an anchor. We are still piloted by the indefatigable Albert, which seema to know the dark passage by instinct. Right ahead the pilot light throws a bright beam down the channel. We are out m the channel, discarding all harbor regulations, for are we not men-of-war, and, like the king, can do no wrong. The engines are at full speed now, and we have nine miles to go before we reach our expected prey. The officers converse m groups, the men one by one clandestinely drop into the forecastle. What can pick us up? What, indeed, but the electric light ! There it flashes all at once from the deok of the Cerberus, searching with its bright light every arc of the horizon. Our hopes of a surprise sink so low that they cannot be said to be hopes at all. The laßt vestige of confidence m our scheme deserts ua as the powerful light flashes against our rigging. But its flash is too momentary. We have not been picked up, or the light would have dwelt upon us. It would have ' fixed ' us, and traced us yard by yard m our progress up the channel, and the ship would have been ready to receive us with a broadside. It goes up and down and all round the channel like a will-o'-the-wisp, which is here, there, and everywhere. The pall of night protects us, but we are still a long way from the Cerberus. The wind rises higher till it blows a gale, and the spray is driven into our eyes, but no one marks it or 'seeks the seclusion which the cabin grants. ' OttT eyes are get upon the Cerberus, her masthead lights, and her varying electric light, which now lights up the channel till it is as clear as noonday, and then leaves everything m blackness. All this time we are getting nearer and nearer to the ironclad. The light, when it bursts out, goes high, goes low, hovers slowly on the right and left, but with a strange fatality it never halts over the line of the gun-

boats nor the Childers, which is following us. In a few minutes the pile light is rounded, and the Albert, having put out the rushlight at her stern, approaches the turret-ship, which is clearly visible to us as she flashes her light everywhere but on ourselves. The electric light is out once more. It glows again, it lights up the firmament. Have we been aeen ? Has Captain Fullarton been toying with us, to sink us with a broadside at the crisis of our ardent expectations ? It seems so. The light brightens all round ; another moment and it will glare upon us, to allow the gunners m the turrets to lay their guns upon us at point-blank range. No ! After all the light is still searching wildly. It flickers for an instant over us, but too high, and then shoots far behind us, miles down the channel. The Albert dashes m ahead of us ; we follow with the engines at full speed. Then we hear the crack of rifles, and discover that the Childers has got alongside without being seen until she had gone through the form of discharging her torpedo, and announced her triumph by firing rifles. The Albert and Victoria both blaze away. The Cerberus fixes her light upon us, and replies from her turret guns. Captain Thomas says that the Childers torpedo would have sunk the Cerberus at such close quarters before the ironclad would have had an opportunity of firing. The action is very brisk for a short time. The Cerberus having treated us to a broadside, turns the light upon the torpedo boat and fires into her. The action moves briskly for ten minutes, and the display of big fireworks produces splendid scenic effects. Amid a heavy downpour of rain, which damps our ardor, we are j glad to get back to our comfortable quarters aboard the Nelson. The lesson of the night's operations is that a formidable ironclad is almost helpless on a dark night against the attack of a torpedo fleet.