TORPEDO SWIMMERS.—OLD AND NEW.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 3385, 3 August 1885, Page 3

TORPEDO SWIMMERS.— OLD AND NEW.

{Scientific American.) For some days past the British war steamer Garnet has been lying at anchor m the harbor of New York, her officers and crew the recipients of the usual hospitalities accorded to visitors from friendly nations. In view of the various dynamite outrages that of late have been perpetrated, especially m London, it was rumored that the Garnet was especially guarded with a view to prevent any secret attempt at injury to her hull. This rumor led Captain Paul Boy ton, the famous swimmer, to undertako a practical tost of one of his theories. It has long been maintained by him that by his swimming unit he can approach any vessel, however well guarded, and can fasten a torpedo to hor bottom, and get away to a safe distance from which to view her destruction. Ho believes it hardly possible to detect him, and possible only after the work has been done. Torpedo warfare, conducted by the regular torpedo boat, is confessedly hazardous and costly. Several lives are exposed and sovoral thousand dollars risked at each attempt. But Boyton's method of swimming ovit to a voasol, sinking undorneath her, rising at tho end that cuts tho tido, and fastening his deadly and timed machine to hor anchor chain, exposes only one life, risks only a few dollars of value, and accomplishes, with fifty times tho cortainty of any other scheme, a destruction sure, terrible, and complete. On the night of May sth Ust tho gallant Captain — who, by the way, is an Englishman — undertook to show to some of his friends thecorrectness of his assertions. According to the Tribune [he provided himself with tho shell of a torpedo of tho usual pattern, nbont two feet long, with clockwork at one end so arranged as to Bet it off fivo minutes aftor themaohinery was started. It was loaded with little cracked stones instead of explosivo material. It contained nir . chambers of sufliciont sizo to float it easily, and was supplied with about ten yards of rope with which to tow it and to tie it up against the ship. The rope was slipped around tho swimmer's foot, and ho started off from tho Statcu Island ihore toward tho Garnet, half a

mile or so distant. As the swimmer approached the war vessel, he expelled the air from his suit and sank deep into the water, drifting with the tide under the ship, and reappearing near her anchor chains at the starboard bow. He reconnoitred gingerly about this perilous spot. If he was detected, tho probability that they would shoot first and inquire afterwards W3Bfullyimpressed on his mind. He had no disposition to submit himself to this risk. He could hear the men m the bows whispering faintly, and the heavy plod, plod, of the watches on the decks. Finally he touched the anchor chain. He came nearer and nearer, and grasped it with his hand. Drawing his foot up, he undid the knot which had held the torpedo m tow, and carefully threw the rope over the anchor chain. He drew its end toward him, and tied it securely m three knots. Then he swam down to the torpedo, and placed it against the vessel on the starboard side just amidships. He shoved himself off. In fWe minutes more, had the torpedo been charged, the Garnet would have been blown up. This recent midnight prank of Boyton'B recalls the attempt of Sergeant Lee, of the American army, to blow up Lord Howe's flagship Eaglo m the same waters m 1770. It is curious to note how closely that earliest attempt to use a submerged torpedo m actual warfare was imitated by Boyton, save that he wa3 clad m rubber instead of oak, and loaded his torpedo with broken stone and an advertising card instead of gunpowder and means for exploding it. Both adventurers meant business, but not precisely m the same sense. Sergeant Lee operated a torpedo boat invented by David Bushnell, afterwards captain m the patriotic army. It had been tried with some success experimentally, and gave promise of being useful m serious warfare. The first opportunity for such use was offered when the British fleet of thirty-seven men-of-war and 400 transports took possession of New York harbor. The fleet lay m the lower bay, just inside Sandy Hook. From the description given of tho Bushnell boat, it would seem to be more like a barrel than a boat. It was of oak, iron-banded, and only large enough for one person. When floating upright, the navigator's head was a little above the level of the water. By means of two force pumps, worked by the occupant's feet, the ■ ■ '>■ "M be made to sink or rise m the t. ..:.., .y forcing water out or m, and so changing its specific gravity. Its progress horizontally was governed by two revolving paddles m front, turned bya crank inßide. The torpedo was fastened to the back of the boat by a screw, the release of which set m motion a clock connected with a gun-lock and flint. After the predetermined interval of time had elapsed, the clock would strike and iguite the powder. The torpedo carried by Lee against the Eagle was charged with 150 pounds of powder (some say 130 pounds), and the clock was sot to explode the charge m thirty minutes after the torpedo was placed. Lee was towed to the neighborhood of the fleet by a party m whale-boats, and then proceeded to attack the fleet alone. He succeeded m reaching the Eagle, a C4-gun ship, undetected, and spent a long time m a rain attempt to fasten a torpedo to her bottom with hooks and screws ; a band of iron at the edge of the copper sheathing proving an especially serious obstacle. Ab daylight approached, he was compelled to leave the fleet and return to the city. Off Governor's Island he was intercepted by a British bargo, when, to avoid capture, he exploded his torpedo, escaping from his pursuers during the panic which the explosion excited. A Bushnell torpedo boat was used more successfully a year lator m the harbor of New London, Conn., where a prize schooner, m charge of the man-of-war Cerberus, was blown up and destroyed. As an act of discourtesy to a friendly visitor, Boyton's prank has little to commend it. As a practical demonstration of a new risk to war ships at anchor, even m a friendly port, it has a different and wider bearing. BushneM's idea of matching one man against a ship may, after all, be the tmo one. It is obvious that one torpedo placer, able to swim Boyton-fashion on or under water, is much less liable to detection than a torpedo boat, and much less easily guarded against ; for he could approach unseen and piss under the booms aud networks which suflico to explode or ward off torpedoes of the usual sort. If Sergeant Lee's torpedo had been provided with a strong magnet, tho strip of iron which thwarted him would have insured the success of his undertaking, and the use of torpedoes iv naval warfare might have been hastened half a century, materially changing the current of more recent naval and political history.