LIFE ON A TORPEDOBOAT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8062, 14 July 1904, Page 2

LIFE ON A TORPEDOBOAT.

A TRYING EXPERIENCE. " Put a thirty-knot destroyer into a rough sea," says Sir William White, " and the limit of speed she can make is what- ehe can bear — what the people on her can bear." Travelling at a thirty-knot, speed is going at the rate of a little over thirty-four miles an hour. In selecting officers to command torpedo boats it is endeavoured to get men of about thirty or under. Torpedo boats are the bucking bronchos of the fcea, and it takes a young mam to ride them successfully. A man at the wheel of a torpedo boat going at full speed has no time to calculate distances—he must feel them instinctively. The boat must become as much, a" part of himself as his body is, and the thought in his brain must be translated to a Movement of the rudder as instantaneously and as automatically as his arm. would raise to ward off a blow aimed at his head. An instant's hesitation and his boat crashes i into another craft, plunges upon, the shore, or is capsized by a heavy sea, as was the "S 26" at the mouth of the Elbe. Not only young officers but young men for the creAV are needed on board a torpedo boat— men in whom age and experience h-ave not tamed the dash and daring which Che boat itself typifies, and whose young bodies can adapt themselves to quickly varying conditions. TEN-MINUTE NAPS. A man on a torpedo boat has to catch, his sleep " on the fly," and he becomes exoeeaingly expert,' being young and adaptable, at making up the required amount of slumber in little mosaics of an hour now, half an hour then, and ten minutes later en. He becomes ■ accustomed to drop into a dozs whenever a favourable minute arrives and he is not on duty, and to stay in that condition until a sudden lurch of the boat shakes it out of him. Never at sea does he expect to be able to turn in for a full night's sleep. This difficulty of sleeping oil a torpedo beat at sea is- one of the principal reasons' why the fleet, of destroy - ■ ers sent to Manila had an itinerary arranged for it which provided for ninety days spent in port ujkl only seventy at sea. This ninety days of rest against seventy of active sea-going is calculated to be about the limit of endurance of a picked crew on a torpedo boat. A destroyer, it must be remembered, is only a torpedo boat of a larger growth, and not so much larger as to make any material difference in the amount of discomfort and strain put upon tne crew, especially where the theatre of action is the open ocean. ALL SUFFER ALIKE. On a torpedo boat officers and men suffer alike. The sea is no respecter of persons, and tosses the lieutenant and the appren- , tice boy about and keeps them awake with absolute impartiality. The officers and men of the torpedo flotilla employed .on the Cuban coast during the Spanish war suffered greatly from inability to sleep in ths long spells when the nervous- little craft were kept scouting about amid the blockading squadron, or running on their, frequent errands from the fleet to Key vvest. The crews used to arrive at Key West half dead for want of sleep, and as soon as the boat was alongside the dock all hands' made for their bunks. A man who has had much service on a torpedo boat said to the writer : " Ifc is not only sleep with which you have to play cateh-as-catch-can on board a torpedo boat, '.mr you have to play tag with your food as well. If there was 1 anything like a sea on, we never used to think of sitting down to table, but- took . such food as we could get in one' hand and ato it while we held on with the other." '• When a man first goes to sea in a torpedo boat, 5 ' said a man of experience in that sort of thing, " his muscles, joints, and even his bones at first become sore and strained from the perpetual short, nasty,vicious twitches, jerks, rolls, pitches and jumps of the craft. 10 is so entirely different from the motion of a larger., vessel. But the body becomes accustomed to the motion, adjusting itself automatically, so that it is not strained, in a wonderfully short time. A sort of physical intelligence is- brought into play by the body, which works independently of the mind. All that the man has to remember is to hang on — he must not forget that. His body does the rest automatically in adjusting itself to its new conditions, as far as the motion of the boat is concerned, so that there, is little wrenching and strain-. ing of the muscles. If a man does not remember to hold on to something when on the deck of a torpedo boat in a seaway he is likely to be sent spinning overboard to a watery grave, as was poor Breckinridge from "a torpedo boat running across the Florida Strait." OFF TO THE WAR. " What was the most exciting moment you ever had on. board a torpedo boat^" was asked of a sailor who had spent much time in this sort of craft. — " I think the most exciting, trip I ever made was at the beginning of the Spanish war. We were lying in Key West in a torpedo boat having an official speed of twenty-eight and one-half knot*. The fleet was at Dry Tortugas, 100 miles away.. One night we received a despatch, from Washington, with instructions to take it to the fleet as fast as steam would carry us. Congress bad passed the joint resolution which opened the war, .and the fleet were wanted at once afc Key West. Off we started through the night and Van the 100 miles at a speed which I do not think the boat ever exceeded even on her trial trip. The course lay over the open waters of the gulf — waters lumpy and 'jolty '—but we tore along at a speed which strained both ourselves and the torpedo boat. The excitement of the race against time and a knowledge of the stirring news we bore all added to the effect of the occasion, but we did not feel the "strain at*all then. We felt as buoyant as the boat under us, and the rushing flight over the midnight waters seemed to proceed from our own wills rather than from the efforts of the engines. Having delivered our despatch and having been delayed some time at the flagship, we started back at the same high speed at which we had come. A storm had blown up in the meanwhile, and into the teeth of it we plunged, never letting up in our rush for an instant-, but just flying, now half out of the water and now plunging deep into it, until it seemed as if we were not coming up again. It was important that we should be back in Key West with the least possible delay, and we were. On the 200-mile round trip there was neither eating, sleeping, nor scarcely talking—nothing but feeding the boilers and hanging on as the boat slipped along, first on one side and then the other, now waltzing along on her stern and now seeming to foe trying to travel on her nose."