course lying on the beach. This torpedo | wanted at sea, proceeded to the usual had not exploded, and, when discovered place of anchorage of the Turkish squadby the guard-boats, was surrounded by ron off Soulina mouth. Finding the gaping inhabitants who, in their astonish- weather bad, the commander thought that ment, looked upon this unusual apparition as if it were a huge fish still alive and moving his tail that tail being, in fact, the screw, which was still in motion. This proved that, as we had anticipated, the direction of the torpedo had been changed on coming into contact with the planks; and instead of going among the ships at anchor, as was intended, it had gone ashore. I think this experience exceedingly interesting, as it shows that very little will turn the direction of a fish | torpedo.

it was best not to attack; but it appears that one of the torpedo-boats, in disobe. dience of orders, made a dash at the Turkish squadron. This particular boat was armed with the Pole torpedo. The officer in command made a gallant charge at the first Turkish vessel he could discern through the darkness. As he approached her, he found that something all of a sud den stopped his way; and he saw several black objects approaching him. Nothing daunted, he struggled to get alongside the vessel under her bows. Finding that he could not succeed in getting quite close, he, in despair, discharged his torpedo, but without doing any harm whatever to the Turkish ship at which he directed it. Scarcely had he done so when (as he described his own sensations afterwards) he found himself in the water without knowing by what process he had got there, or

On several other occasions attacks were made by torpedo-boats on the ships in the port of Batoum, without any result, beyond a loss to the Russians of three or four torpedoes, which were landed on different parts of the beach, near to which the Turkish men-of-war were lying at anchor. Some of these torpedoes were in such a state of perfection, that Mr. White-how in the world it had all happened, head the inventor, knowing that we had by their capture become the possessor of his secret, made a special contract with the Turkish government, whereby he was bound to give twenty-five torpedoes at cost price, and wherein it was agreed that the Ottoman Admiralty were to pay nothing for the secret (for which other governments were paying from £12,000 to £15,000) so long as they kept it.

I shall now mention a curious incident which happened to a Turkish squadron lying at anchor and protected by guard. boats, placed somewhat in the manner I have already described. I wish my read. ers always to remember that the appliances against torpedoes in the Turkish fleet were of the simplest possible description. The squadron consisted of five vessels, which had been in the habit of cruising every night to avoid torpedo attack. On this occasion they had, in consequence of the bad weather, returned to their anchorage. A Russian vessel, carrying five torpedo-boats in tow, started from Odessa to hunt for the Turkish squadron, which was supposed to be cruising off Serpent Island, about eighty miles from Odessa. The Muscovites were unable to find their enemy, and I don't wonder at it, for even had they been cruising off that night, the Ottoman ships used smokeless coal, sailing in open order for safety against collisions, and without showing any lights. The Russian vessel with the torpedo-boats being disappointed in finding what she

the real facts being that the black objects he saw were the guard-boats, which were being drawn closer and closer to him by the ropes that connected them together, which ropes fouling his screw had been the cause of the disaster. His boat was capsized and went to the bottom, whither he would have gone too if he had not been fished out by the crew of one of the Turkish guard-boats and taken prisoner. The greater part of his crew were drowned. The name of this daring young officer was Putskin; and his cool courage was very amusing, for when brought before the commanding officer of the Turkish squadron in a half-drowned condition, he could only exclaim, in excellent English, "Why the devil didn't I blow up that ship!"

He was asked if he had any idea as to what stopped him, and it was suggested to him that a rope between the guard-boats might have fouled his screw.

"Something of that sort must have happened," he answered. "But why the devil didn't I blow up that ship!"

The poor fellow seemed to have no thought regarding the sad plight he was in: he only grieved for not having succeeded in carrying out his object.

He explained to me that the other torpedo-boats which started with him were all armed with the Whitehead torpedo, but that it was impossible to use it in bad weather. The Pole torpedo might have done the deed he was so anxious to per form, and with it he might have succeeded

in "blowing up that ship." He was too plucky a fellow to be allowed to go back to the enemy, so we kept him a prisoner till the conclusion of the war; and I only hope that, for its own sake, the Russian Admiralty did not lose sight of such a dashing and determined officer.

than to the Harvey torpedo, though I do not think that either of them counts for much when a sharp look-out is kept. In my opinion the most useful torpedo is a fixed one, fired either by contact or by electric batteries at a distance, especially when they are used in defence of the apWhile writing on incidents of the war, I proaches to forts, the entrances of harwill mention another interesting occur- bors, of estuaries, etc. According to rence. A Turkish ironclad was lying off general opinion, the perfected Whitehead Soukoum Kali. That place being an open or Swartzkoff torpedo is the only weapon roadstead, she was very much exposed, for active service at sea. Let us examine and an excellent object for torpedo attack. how they can best be utilized. My opinA fast Russian cruiser was always hover-ion is that for attack they are of very ing about, but the cordon of guard-boats doubtful efficacy. I remember on one connected by ropes prevented her torpedo occasion I followed in a very fast frigate boat from making any attempt. This (my flag-ship) the emperor of Russia's torpedo-boat was armed with a Harvey yacht Livadia too near to the fire of the torpedo. One night there was to have forts of Sebastopol. I say too near, bebeen an eclipse of the moon. Now there cause I drew on my ship such a fire, that, is a superstition among Orientals regard- bad I not "cleared pretty quickly out of ing an eclipse, which caused the look-out that," I should not have been here to-day to be somewhat relaxed, and the guard to tell the story. Since the war, a Rusboats to be withdrawn, and nearer the sian naval officer, whose name was Captain man-of-war than they should have been Makaroff, A.D.C. to H.M. the emperor in fact, I fear they had gone quite along- of Russia, told me that he had under his side, thinking more of the mysterious command seven torpedo-boats, with which eclipse than of their active enemy. he volunteered to go out in the daytime it must be remembered - and attack me. We discussed at some length the probable result, and I think that even he admitted that he could have done nothing. Here is my view and argument. I said to him: "When I saw you and your torpedo. boats coming out, I should have run away. Now I could go thirteen or fourteen knots. You could steam about nineteen. Thus your speed following me would have been about five knots -no great speed at which to approach a vessel armed to the teeth with Nordenfeldt guns, guns en barbette firing grape, shrapnel, etc. I am convinced that we should have destroyed all the torpedo-boats; and this, I believe, would be the fate of any day attack at tempted by them.”

As the eclipse only lasted for about a couple of hours, the steamer carrying the torpedo-boat must have been near in the offing, and should have been seen; although I found, on inquiry, that the system of no lights and no smoke was carried out in the strictest sense by the Russian torpedo-carrying vessel. However this may be, half an hour after the moon was eclipsed the attack was made by a boat carrying a Harvey torpedo. This boat succeeded in getting so near that she was able to make the circuit necessary for firing her torpedo, and, though attacked by the guard-boats, fired it within ten feet of the Turkish ship. A great explosion and much smoke was the result. The lookers-on on shore telegraphed to Sebastopol that they saw the vessel sink. However, so far from that being the case, I found, on visiting her two or three days afterwards, that, except for a slight mark on her side close to the water's edge, no damage was done. On the vessel's return to Constantinople she was put into dock, when it was found that she had been very slightly damaged; in fact it was not necessary to change any of her outside plates. I think that the manoeuvres nec essary to make the Harvey torpedo effica cious render it a weapon on which little or no reliance can be placed, unless all the hands on board the attacked ship are asleep. I would rather trust to the Pole

66

Well, then," said my friend, "I should have followed and attacked you during the night."

"There again,” I said, “I think that you would have failed, because if you had been in range of my small guns as well as of shell, say at about three thousand yards, before dark I should have destroyed you. After dark I should have changed my course, and how would you have found me? However, supposing that I had stopped in the night and put down my defences, what could you have done? I don't think that a ship can be seen so as to be fired at a distance of more than four hundred yards on a dark night, and a

moving ship would be a still more difficult | torpedo is never sure of being fired with mark. If a torpedo-boat came nearer than accuracy when projected from a height four hundred yards, she would have been greater than two or three feet above the caught by the line of defence, should I water. In fact it has been proved that to have thought it prudent to stop." On obtain the so-called accuracy at which they this point we had a long and somewhat profess to have arrived, the torpedo must warm discussion, which ended at least be fixed as close as possible to the water's I flattered myself it did in the Russian edge, and in the boats now in construction officer remarking that really he thought, the most important element is the close after all, that he could have done nothing. proximity to the water in which the tubes I find that naval men have, as a rule, are placed. I myself have seen torpedoes great confidence in a system of defence fired from a ship's broadside, and although against torpedoes by means of nets, and I on one or two occasions they have been understand that the ingenuity of the age launched with considerable accuracy, I has invented a plan enabling a ship to have seen one of them immediately after steam seven or eight knots without any its submersion fly straight up in the air inconvenience from this modern crinoline. and endanger the safety of the ship from For my part, I do not ignore the utility of which it had been fired; so I think that this system for want of a better; but I little confidence can be placed, at present, hear rumors of torpedoes which will be in the efficacy of torpedoes fired from able to attack ships at a point that cannot ships' batteries. be protected by this plan namely, under the bottom of the ship, where the protect-gards the efficacy of sea-going torpedoes ing net would have no power. But the torpedo, of whatever description, is generally carried in a boat, and if you can manage to catch or destroy the boat, there is an end of the matter.

There is another essential point as re

during a naval engagement. A torpedo. boat might in the mêlée mistake a friend for an enemy. Again, let us suppose that two ships are hotly engaged, and that one of them succeeds in capturing the other. Now with regard to the power of torpe- If the conquering ship neglects to hoist on does for attacking purposes. I hear it her prize the flag of her nation, a torpedo. said that during a naval engagement tor- boat coming from a distance, and belongpedoes can be utilized to a very great ex-ing to the captor's nationality, is as likely tent. In this I am inclined to agree. If as not to blow the prize up. This may torpedoes can accompany squadrons and be rather far-fetched, but more unlikely act independently either against disabled ships or even against ships which might be approached unperceived, there can be no doubt that they would play an important part in a naval engagement. But the difficulty seems to be their remaining constantly at sea in company with a fleet. The French already are drilling their torpedo-boats to accompany a sea-going squadron; but I have a suspicion that, for different reasons, these boats are constantly obliged to return to port. It must be remembered that a torpedo boat is built of the lightest material, and is of the finest workmanship. Very little would therefore tend to put her out of order. I have seen a torpedo-boat before a gale, in a gale, and after a gale, at sea; and although I should be sorry to discourage those who have put faith in her capacity as a seaboat, still I must say that in the last state the boat presented a very dilapidated appearance.

things have really happened in naval warfare. Coming naval engagements will be soon decided, the time would be too short and the confusion too great to allow of any accurate action on the part of torpedo-boats. Independent action would be dangerous. I should suggest that torpedo-boats of a smaller class that can be hoisted up should be carried on board men-of-war. These could be used or not as required, by responsible captains, who would be capable of forming an opinion as to the time when they should be utilized.

Now one word about offensive torpedo warfare. Torpedo-boats could be sent from blockading squadrons into an enemy's port, and if the enemy's ships were unprepared, could do, no doubt, a vast amount of injury. Further than this, I am at a loss to perceive how they can be utilized.

I have ventured in this paper to throw some doubt upon the great efficacy of the so-called fish torpedo, inasmuch as I think its danger can be averted. I will now turn to other torpedo inventions, which I think, when perfected, will prove better adapted

In regard to the fixed torpedoes I have already referred to, the admiral command

on one occasion he was steaming in line, his flag-ship being second in the order of sailing, when suddenly the ship ahead of them disappeared altogether, having struck on a mine; and that he found these mines the most deadly enemies to deal with, especially when the water was not very deep. I have seen a clever invention of Colonel Ley tried at Constantinople. This invention, which is now being put into shape by Mr. Nordenfeldt, struck me as being the weapon of the future, if the present somewhat serious defects namely, its want of speed and immersion

tried, it was steered by electricity, and went very straight for more than a mile. But it was too visible in the water, and only obtained about nine knots' speed, and thus, I think, would have been easily destroyed in the daytime. However, I am

to naval warfare. It must be remembered | rating the fact of the injury done to the that the origin of the torpedo was in Amer- frigate, and stating that the torpedo-boat ica during the great war between the was got up, with four dead bodies in her North and South. The torpedo used, hold. Here is one system which might although at that time in its infancy, proved be utilized in naval warfare if perfected, itself to be a most deadly weapon of de- and I am given to understand that a subfence. Placed at the mouths of great riv- marine torpedo-boat is already invented by ers, in the rivers themselves, and in shoal Mr. Nordenfeldt. water, wherever an enemy was likely to be cruising, it did good service on many occasions. I think I am right when I saying the American squadron told me that that more than fifteen vessels were destroyed by torpedoes during the time that the war lasted. This torpedo was, with some very rare exceptions, used as a mine placed either floating, or at the bottom of the sea or river, and several vessels were thus destroyed while passing over these spares. More than one case of conspicuous daring on the part of the Southern naval officers occurred during the war, while using most effectively what is called the cigar torpedo-boat. This was a craft which, when in motion, was entirely immersed, except the top of the funnel, and might almost be called a submarine tor-could be overcome. When I saw it pedo. I remember on one occasion during the war, when I was at Charleston, meeting in a coffee-room at that place a young naval officer (a Southerner), with whom I got into conversation. He told me that that night he was going to sink a Northern man-of-war which was blockad-given to understand that Mr. Nordenfeldt ing the port, and invited me to see him off. I accompanied him down to his cigarboat, as he called it, and found that she was a vessel about forty feet long, shaped like a cigar, on the bow of which was placed a torpedo. On his stepping on board with his crew of four men, his boat was immersed till nothing but a small piece of funnel was visible. He moved off into the darkness at no great speed-say at about five miles an hour. The next evening, on visiting the coffee-house, I found my friend sitting quietly smoking his pipe. He told me that he had succeeded in making a hole in the frigate Now in this paper I have spoken of the which he had attacked, which vessel fish or Whitehead torpedo, the Harvey, could, in fact, be seen lying in shallow the Pole, the fixed or mine torpedo, the water, some seven miles off, careened Ley or Nordenfeldt, the cigar-boat, and the over to repair damages. But he said that, Berdan. I have no doubt that there are on the concussion made by firing the tor- other inventions, because the fact remains pedo, the water had rushed in through the that the torpedo is not perfect - no, not hatches of his boat, and she had sunk to by any means. When it is so, we had the bottom. All his men were drowned. better act like the 'coon up a tree in AmerHe said that he didn't know how he es-ica, who says to the sportsman, whom he caped himself, but he fancied that he came knows to be a dead shot, "Don't shoot up through the hatches, as he found him- I'll come down;" for war would then be self floating about, and swam on shore. too awful. This affair was officially reported by the American blockading squadron, corrobo

has partially, if not entirely, overcome the above-named defects. If so, he has a good chance of taking a lead in torpedo manufacture, as he does now in machineguns. General Berdan also promises great things in torpedoes. If he can do what he professes, he will cut every one out; for he undertakes to give speed, distance, safety against nets and other obsta cles, easy steering powers, certainty of direction, etc. I wish him well, but he has been a very long time about it, and so far his trials have shown few satisfactory results.

As the torpedo scare may extend to merchant vessels, I will say a few words

From The Saturday Review.

THE QUEEN'S DRAWING-ROOM. A DRAWING-ROOM day has formed the subject of many a social essay, and has been introduced as a feature in many a novel. The block of carriages in St. James's Street, the club windows full of ogling and criticising dandies, the silver wigs of the coachmen, the bouquets and calves of the footmen, and the retiring loveliness of the bashful débutantes, affording a charming contrast to the maturer charms of the mothers and dowagers, have all been expatiated upon over and over again. The queen's drawing-room is, in fact, an old-established British institution, and is justly looked upon by a cer

of consolation on that head. A merchant this paper, I think that I am justified in vessel need not fear the torpedo cruiser, saying that fish-torpedo warfare is to a because if the vessel carrying the boats great extent a bugbear, and though not to which launch that nasty weapon can get be entirely despised, may be designated near enough for them to use it, she will as the "naval scare of the day." be near enough to go alongside, for the capture of valuable property is of more importance than its destruction. Moreover, it would be useless to send out torpedo-boats alone to look for prizes. Where could they be sent from? Where would they get coals? And what would they do with the prizes after they had taken them? They cannot carry prize crews; and to destroy a vessel for the sake of destruction would be a wanton act, which would be universally condemned. Besides, a torpedo is a very expensive article to throw away for the sake of destroying an enemy's merchant vessel. So I think that the captains and crews of merchant vessels may breathe freely as far as torpedoes are concerned. It is intended, I understand, to use torpedoes on board regular sea-going vessels of from three to four hundred tons. This seems to me to be a practicable idea; and should the dis-tain section of the public as one of the few tance a torpedo can be fired be increased, these vessels would be serviceable craft: but so long as four hundred yards is the maximum distance, they would, unless attacking a craft of their own size, be liable to be knocked to pieces before they could get within torpedo range of the enemy; and it must be remembered that they would be a much larger target than the torpedo-boats.

One word more. I would ask my naval friends how they would judge distance at night when firing their torpedoes, and how they propose to approach ships guarded with nets and boats? Remember, also, that ships can cruise with their nets down. The fact is, that what frightens people is the great speed at which they see the devilish-looking torpedo-boat | dashing by them. They do not take into consideration the damage that great speed would cause to the torpedo-boat itself, in the event of its meeting any obstacle, or being obliged to stop suddenly. For example, a curious case occurred lately on this coast. A torpedo-boat was obliged to stop suddenly, the result being that her machinery came to utter grief, and three men were killed by the fires being thrown out of the furnaces, and on to them; and I repeat that a boat fouling a wire rope was capsized and sunk, through the sudden check of her great impetus through the water. Taking into consideration all the experiences that I have narrated in

gratuitous shows afforded by a residence in, or a visit to, the metropolis.

But to those who can remember the glories of a drawing-room forty or fifty years ago, the ceremony of the present day must present but a sorry and insignificant spectacle in comparison with what they were accustomed to in their youth. "The old order changeth, giving place to new," is in this case an unusually apt quotation, and from a spectacular point of view the new order certainly cannot hold a candle to the old. The stately C-spring chariot, which in the old days was considered the only suitable carriage for a person of any distinction to go to court in, has almost entirely dropped out of every. day use; and although a few will still be brought out for State occasions, they form the exception instead of the rule, and it cannot in the nature of wood and iron work be very long before the last of them disappear altogether. In their place we find "landaus" of various builds and various degrees of smartness, and every variety of brougham, from the neat and exquisitely finished productions of Barker or Thrupp to the shapeless and weatherbeaten vehicle with dingy panels and generally shabby-genteel appearance. With the decadence of the chariot has also supervened a falling off in the style of the once magnificent retainers who accompanied it. A cluster of three or perhaps four stately footmen up behind, now only