COMMANDER HARVEY ON THE TORPEDO PROBLEM.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 3, 7 May 1872, Page 3

COMMANDER HARVEY ON THE TORPEDO PROBLEM.

Commander Harvey writes to us as follows: —"In your "Gazette" of December 30, there is an interesting article upon torpedoes, in which the Harvey Sea Torpedo is mentioned. As that is a matter which has engaged my thoughts for some years, I would ofFer upon it the following remarks : —The problem of the sea torpedo has not yet been solved in right good earnest, nor will it be, I am inclined to think, till war shall arise between maritime States that are prepared for, and practised in the management of, torpedoes in combat upon the ocean. Experiments have been made, and the results have been such as to warrant a belief that torpedoes for sea service can be manufactured of great destructive and of a form that admits of their being used effectively under conditions that would probably obtain upon the ocean, which would embrace rough weather —rough treatment. Torpedoes adapted to such service, charged, as they would be, by some one of the various powerful explosives now known, would, I confidently believe, bilge the strongest vessel that can be constructed. Skill in the management of the sea torpedo is a condition that is essential to its effective application; but the skill required is such that a sailor can soon acquire, as has been shown in the experiments I have conducted, or at which I have been present. The experiments I conducted, in which the Royal Sovereign was the object of attack, and the Camel, tug, the j torpedo attacking vessel, were successiul, j though conducted under the disadvantage of working with appliances that had not before beeTi tried, and with men not perfectly instructed in the work they 1 a 1 t) perform. The Royal Sovereign did all that could be done, skilfully handled as she was, to avoid the torpedo being brought into effective collision, but in which she utterly failed. With regard to the siuking of a fast, handy torpedo vessel by being ran into by a comparatively unwieldy ram, I believe it to be impracticable. The l-arn must, to run down the torpedo vessel, go at her head on, the very position the torpedo vessel would desire to bring* her torpedo into effective collision. When we become better acquainted with the violent action of explosives that can be safely used in torpedoes, it is quite possible the violent force of such explosives, in practicable quantities, may be sufficiently gi eat to so shake the side of an iron clad, at a depth of only two or three feet below the surface of the water, as to render her unseaworthy. If such should be the fact, the sooner it can be ascertained the better; it may save us from being surprised, and from losses that should be avoided, though at a cost of great disappointment in the invincibility of our monster iron-clads. Some maritime States are constructing vessels expressly for the service of torpedoes ; such a course is, I think, judicious, as much ckill and labour that have been, and are how being wasted, may be profitably employed.—Army and Navy Gazette." -