United States or Ireland ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Movable torpedoes were valuable, but only as an auxiliary a very minor auxiliary compared with submarine mines. We should be cautious not to infer that torpedoes made a satisfactory defense alone, as they must be protected by large and small guns, and they form only a part of the chain of general defenses. The history of the Great Eastern is full of surprises.
The cannon raked the asparagus-bed very effectively, and the musketry of torpedoes and fire-crackers, was really deafening; the British flag was ignominiously hauled down from the Bunker Hill Monument, and the Stars and Stripes raised in its place; every now and then, also, the shrieks and groans of the wounded, were heard from the corn-patch, which added, of course, the pathetic element to the scene.
Chief Engineer Blaine and his staff of the Dewey were assigned to the U-boat with orders to familiarize themselves with the operation of the vessel as quickly as possible. American deck guns were being substituted for the German guns and alterations being made in the torpedo tubes to accommodate made-in-america torpedoes.
The children stand about ten feet away and each in turn throws a beanbag, endeavoring to make the "liberty bell," as it is called, ring. Those who succeed in making it ring receive little bells as a reward. The contents of several boxes of torpedoes may be emptied and hidden around the room. The children hunt for them, and have a jolly time shooting them off after the hunt is over.
"I'm going to send my men up to the hotel, first, for a jolly big feed," proposed Lieutenant Danvers. "They've been on the rail, eating on the jump, and now they'll appreciate a good square meal." "Suppose we all go up to the hotel for luncheon!" proposed Captain Jack. "Then how about having torpedoes aboard when we return?" "How many real torpedoes will you want for to-day, Mr. Danvers?"
Without swerving an inch or halting, Dewey signalled to the other vessels to pay no attention to the torpedoes, but to steam straight ahead. It was virtually a repetition of the more emphatic command of Farragut in Mobile Bay, uttered thirty-four years before. The batteries on shore let fly at the ships, and the first reply was made by Captain Coghlan of the Raleigh.
The condition of Christian humanity with its fortresses, cannons, dynamite, guns, torpedoes, prisons, gallows, churches, factories, customs offices, and palaces is really terrible.
"There it is," he muttered, picking out Arnold's yacht and changing the course of the submarine so that it was headed directly at it, the planes turned so that they kept the boat just under the surface with only the periscope showing above. Forward, about the torpedo discharge tubes men were busy, testing the doors, and getting ready the big automobile torpedoes.
This net, which was intended to protect the repeller against the approach of submarine torpedoes, which might be directed from the shore, was anchored at each end, two very small buoys indicating its position. The crabs then falling astern, Repeller No. 1 lay to, with the sunken net between her and the shore, and prepared to project the first instantaneous motor-bomb ever used in warfare.
But before their arrival our three battle-cruisers had been blown up, supposedly the result of gunfire, although possibly they were victims of torpedoes. "Such close range fighting with battle-cruisers might be criticized as bad tactics, but our fleet, following the traditions of the navy, went out to engage the enemy, and on account of weather conditions could do so only at short range.
Word Of The Day