DEFENDING THE MODERN HARBOUR.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 18, 12 July 1900, Page 1

DEFENDING THE MODERN HARBOUR.

An interesting article in Pearson's Magazine, describing method 2 employed in laying and firing submarine mines, should he of j 'considerable interest to us 'as a colony in preparing the defences of our principal harbours against any possible attack by an enemy. Describing how the modern harbour is defended the writer says :—: — It is a comforting reflection that in time of war a harbour such as Portsmouth may be so perfectly defended that it would be impossible for a hostile fleet; to force entrance. One line of defence after another wottlu eon teat every stage of the enemy's advance, culminating in the submarine mine-field at the harbour's mouth, most potent force of all both in its moral and material effect. Tha first line of defence with a great maritime power is of course the navy. Suppose, however, that the navy is crippled, that the country is thrown altogether on the defensive, and that a hostile fleet finds itself with a clear approach to a harbour, which, if destroyed, will yield the key of a great victory. At a distance of about 'eight miles a hostile fleet would be within range of tho harbour guns. The armour of the ships would pro tect their side and turrets ; but their decks and ends would be open to fatal fire. Closer in, at a distance of between three and six miles, the fleet enter the zone of a deadly storm of mortar shells. At closer ranges still, in the unlikely event of it surviving this attack, iho hidden batteries around the -harbour would begin to talk. The concentrated fire of heavy lOin. and 12in. guns would hurl destruction at the fleet, and tropedoes, steerable and automobile, would dash out and deal death from below. Supposing that the hostile fleet still survives, and pushes on for the harbour, it has yefc to face the most deadly and demoralising weapon of all— for under the smooth water are lines upon lines of mines, awaiting only tho pressure of a button, or the contact of a ship's bottom, to perform in a second the work left undone by the guna.