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It was during this period that we were hit seventeen times by heavy shell, though, in my position in the after torpedo control tower, I only realized one hit had taken place, which was when a shell plunged into the after turret and, blowing the roof off, killed every member of the turret's crew.
Torpedo boats, more than a score of them, also spread far on either side. Directly behind the single dreadnaught and the battleships came a flotilla of submarines, ready to dash forward at the proper moment and launch their deadly torpedoes. Overhead, and moving forward, were the three giant Zeppelins and a flotilla of other aircraft. Of all the vessels engaged, the Queen Mary was the largest.
Edestone, as quietly as if he were standing on the bridge of the Storm Queen giving instructions for the next day's cruise, turned to "Specs." "Go out and circle them," he said, "meet the leading ship, and then with every gun, aerial torpedo, and bomb dropper destroy them."
"All that I can tell you is, that it was not I," answered Cyrus Harding; "but it was there, and you have been able to judge of its incomparable power!" So, then, all was explained by the submarine explosion of this torpedo. Cyrus Harding could not be mistaken, as, during the war of the Union, he had had occasion to try these terrible engines of destruction.
"Orders" made a temporary reappearance late that evening in the form of a megaphone hail from a British torpedo boat, announcing a truce, and giving the welcome information that food and water were being hurried down the Rhine and were to be found on the barge flotilla lying over the old Rhine above Leiden. . . .
The torpedo experiments against the Resistance were resumed on June 13, when the old ironclad suffered some rough treatment. As the experiment was understood to be the last of the second series, and was fully expected to have a sensational termination, a considerable number of interested spectators were attracted to the scene in Fareham Creek.
It is always a question of great importance just how far below the surface a submarine torpedo boat may go with safety. The greater the depth the more enormous the pressure of the water. At sufficient depth the water pressure is terrific enough to crush in the hull of the stoutest submarine.
All the vessels heretofore authorized are under contract or in course of construction except the armored ships, the torpedo and dynamite boats, and one cruiser. As to the last of these, the bids were in excess of the limit fixed by Congress.
"There was one eccentric Irishman one of the best servants I ever had," continued Redpath, "who once made a sort of torpedo arrangement which achieved wonderful success. The fellow is with me still, and it is a treat to hear Flinn, that's his name, tell the story, but the fun of it mostly lies in the expressive animation of his own face, and the richness of his brogue as he tells it.
"You held the nose of the boat true enough, too, I guess, when I let the torpedo drive. But that infernal Jack Benson was on the watch, and he saw the thing coming. Of course he stopped his boat and put the reverse clutch on just in the nick of time. That young Benson always appears to be in the nick of time!"
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