112 BLOWN UP BY I
I MINE OR TORPEDO. I
||| r^e^Tra^ e^ e^ all DiSaS^ ||l
No navy is free from sad stories of
explosions in its powder and ammuni
tion magazines, and since the begin
ning of our Civil War the number of
vessels destroyed by torpedoes in some
form, or by submarine mines, makes
a grewaome list. Is it generally
known, for example, that in the Civil
War seven monitors and eleven wood
en vessels of war were totally de
stroyed by submarine mines? Had
V-4ITEMEAD HOWELL
C 0 00
the Southerners possessed the same
knowledge at the beginning of the
war, says the New York Herald, the
struggle would have been, at least,
much prolonged, and the disaster to
life and tonnage been greatly increased.
During our early struggles several
vessels were blown up, notably tho
Randolph, of immortal memory, but
the most memorable case, and surely
ou* of the most pathetic, was the de
struction of the Intrepid, commanded
by the gallant Somers. She was fit
ted out as a floating mine, and on the
night of September 4, 1804, started
from off shore under sail for the inner
harbor of Tripoli. Anxious eyes
watched her from the blockading fleet,
and at 3 0 o'clock a thunderous report
was heard, a column of flame was seen
vibrating in the skies, and then the
roar of hundreds of guns mounted
ashore. No one came back to tell the
story, but it is believed that Somers
kept his word not to be taken alive by
the enemy, and blew up the ship to
escape capture,
It was learned that the Intrepid had
grounded on the north ledge of the
harbor, and that she had been attacked
by three gunboats. It was surmised,
but never known, that, to prevent the
HOW Mlrf£ IS OfcMTED FHOM uWITfIt
fcOAR 0 CM SH«*E
MINE IS PLACED AND OPERATED.
killed and about thirty were wound
ed. Tradition haswo\eu many a ro
mantic, many an impossible story
abont this disaster. One yarn told
creepingly how a gunner's mate had
been punishedas he thought unjustly,
and in revenge destroyed the ship. In
so doing he lost his own life, but failed
in killing the object of his hatred, an
officer who had left the ship quietly a
short time before the commission of
the crime.
fha real story seems to be that a
fuddled gunner's mate by some error
made his way into tho magazine with
an exposed lighted candle, stumbled
into the powder barrel of the period
and thus blew the ship skyward.
In tho English service there have
been a number of notable cases of ex
plosion, but mainly in action. One
well known in time of peace was the
destruction of the frigate Amphion,
Captain Israel Pellew commanding,
oft' Plymouth, England. Here, too a
gunner's mate appears as the god in
the machine—for apooryphal or not,
it is believed to thi3 day that the sea
man in question went with a lighted
lamp into the magazine to steal
powder, which then had a ready
market. Several hundred people were
destroyed, among them prominent of
ticials and citizens of the town who
were on board.
1 Among other crimes laid so unjustly
to Irish sympathizers by the English
press and people was the destruction
of the British gunboat Dotterel in the
Straits of Magellan. She arrived off
Punta Arenas abont 9 a. m.on
April 2(1, 1881. The captain went
ashore soon after to pay his official
call, and about ten a. m. two terrible
explosions were heard, and an im
mense cloud of smoke was seen
hovering over the ship in the perfect
calm of tho morniug. Projectiles of
all kinds, masses of human beings, of
ship equipago and of general wreckage
were discovered flying through the
air, and tho water for a quarter of a
mile around tho ship was littered with
debris.
Boats put off from the shore, and
out of the whole ship's company of
over 150 souls, only eight were saved.
Feniau plots were held to be the cause
of the disaster, and South America and
Australia were the scenes of police in
quiry for months. It is now believed
that the explosion was due to the
spontaneous ignition of a paint then
used in the British navy. This, under
deterioration or when exposed to heat,
was found to give off a highly inflam
mable gas, and as the first explosion
occurred iu the u' ; zhborliood of the
paint locker, tn* plausible theory is
now accepted. ur>\g the last twenty
years two other cases have occurred—
one, when iu 1880 a Spanish gunboat
was blown up in the harbor of Santiago
de Cuba, and the other iu 1893, when
a most damaging and distressing ex
plosion occurred on board of the Ger
man armored ship Baden, then at
anchor ott' Kiel.
Of the war inventions employed to
destroy ships by submarine or aerial
projectiles or by mines the number is
I legion. Wo were among the earliest
to employ these, and our contribu
tions to the history of torpedo war
fare have been very many and very
rotable. The famous "Battle of the
Kegs" has been sung in mock heroio
verse, and the Philadelphians of 1777
had many a merry jest over the valorous
attaok made by the British grenadiers
'ipon these innocnous barrels.
Captain David Bushnell, of Con
.ecticut. wns one of tho earliest ex
perimenters with torpedoes. Chough
Robert Fulton was the first to call a
magazine of powder intended for use
under water by this name. This great
inventor made many experiments, and
the partisans and opponents of the
new system filled the journals of that
day with acrimonious discussions.
The failure of torpedoes in the War
of 1812 and the general feeling
against this mode of warfare as in
TOM>EDO COATS ATTACKING A FLEET.
human and barbarous caused, how
ever, its practical abandonment for
many years.
Submarine boats had been gener
ally employed in all experiments up
to the beginning of the Civil War, and
it was really not until 1863 that mov
able or fixed isolated torpedoes were
bronght into general use. The Con
federate torpedoes were usually made
of copper and lillod with powder,
varying in weights, according to cir
cumstances of employment, from fifty
to one hundred and fifty pounds.
These were carried on spars attached
to ships or boats, were anchored on
the bottom, or were sent drifting
singly or in pairs, connected by long
linos, down tide streams. The fuses
fitted were generally of the percussion
type, and fulminate of mercury en
tered largely into their composition.
SIN&CRS
if
\LJ ISL^BROOKS
~.—— ' ITORPCDO •
" " fe'^ToRPEDO.
The Housatonic was destroyed by
a submarine boat, but the Albemarle
was blown up by Cushing with a tor
pedo, carried on the end of a spar.
This torpedo was made of a stout
cylindrical copper case and fitted with
a hollow tube, which carried at its
bottom a fulminu. oap. A small
sized grape shot, secured with a pin,
was hold at the top, and by releasing
this at the eventful moment Cushing
destroyed the Albemarle and his own
boat at the same time, and then made
one of the most daring aud romantic
escapes in the annals of naval his
tory.
Many improved systems were em
ployed aud much ingenuity was dis
played, the most inventive of all ex
perimenters being a Confederate
officer, who, previous to the war, had
been a well-known dancing master.
For a season towing torpedoes were
in great favor. These were handled
from the ship, and by certain dextrous
sliiftings of the connecting lines were
carried off each quarter at a safe
angle, and made to dire at the desired
moment. They proved to be danger
ous, however, and all effort was there
after directed to the dirigible, or the
automobile torpedo. Generally de
scribed the dirigible torpedo is one
that contains its own propelling and
firing mechanisms, aud is piloted
from the shore by means of electric
cables, whioh function the machinery.
The automobile torpedo is a weapon
that is shot from a tube, generally
called a torpedo gun, and takes up its
line of progress by machinery con
tained in its body. There are many
forms of these, like the Howell fend
the Whitehead, for example, and some
extraordinary results have been ob
tained with both. The Whitehead is
discharged from the tube by steam or
powder, and just as it leaves the muz
zle a lock automatically opened re
leases the compressed air carried in a
flask and sets in motion the machinery.
Three things must be done by it. It
must go through water at a high speed,
preserving its linear direction; it must
float at a constant depth, and on strik
ing it must explode. The ingenuity
and simplicity of the mechanism which
effects these three things are really
marvellous.
The Howell torpedo is based upon
the well-known principal of the gyro
scope. Its speed and surety of direc
tion are given by the functioning of an
inner wheel, which is relatively very
heavy on the periphery, and revolves
with snoh velocity and in such a con
stant plane that high speed and great
straiglitness of trajectory are secured.
There are many other forms, but these
two are employed in onr service, and
the Whitehead is used by nearly all
the navies of the world.
The term "submarine mine" is ap
plied to defensive mines or to those
which would be used to obstruct the
channels of a river or estuary, or the
approaches to a fortified or unprotected
seaport. Colonel Samuel Colt, the
inventor of the American revolver,first
demonstrated the practicability of
blowing up vessels by submarine mines
fired by electricity. In 1842 he blew
up the old gunboat Boxer and in 1843
he destroyed a brig in thePotomao
River while the vessel was under way,
sailing at the rate of five miles an
hour.
Many forms of mines were used hers
and abroad, and they were success
fully employed against us in the Civil
War. Every system of coast defense
concerns itself with their distribution
and use, and every well-known harbor
of the world is at this day so mapped
out that the planting of those mines
may be done on a plan which prom
ises the greatest utility. Some of
these are constant depth mines—that
is, such as will float always at a certain
depth below the surface, no matter
what may be the state of the tide;
some are fitted to explode on contact,
and most are so arranged that they
may be exploded at will by observers
stationed at points of refuge, in bomb
proof and lookout stations ashore.
VICTORIA'S OLDEST SERVITOR.
Sergeant Sweeney, "Headsman of th
Tower," Entered Iler Service In 1837.
The oldest servant of Queen Victoria
is Yeoman Gaoler Stephen Sweeney,
of the Tower of London.
He now holds the most picturesque
and obsolete office under Her Majesty.
He ia the Headsman of the Tower, the
official descendant of the executioners
who exercised their calling when that
historic building was a State prison.
He has a great big axe, which he
keeps sharp and bright, but never
uses except for show.
Like the Yeoman of the Guard, or
Beefeaters, the Yeoman Gaoler wears
a costume of the reign of Henry VIII.
His axe is just such a one as was used
to cut off the heads of Henry's wives
and courtiers.
Sergeant Sweeney is a living relic o!
an institution that has passed away,
but which will live forever in history
and romance. There is no more pic
turesque, fascinating and gloomy
building in England than the Tower
of London. The headsman was its
dark presiding genius.
Hundreds of great nobles, beautiful
women, princesses and princes have
entered its gates, there to lay their
heads upon the block and suffer
death by the axe.
Sweeney is an old soldier and late
Troop Sergeant-Major of the Four
teenth King's Light Dragoons. En
listing in that regiment on February
14, 1887, he was present at the procla
mation of the Queen on June 20 of tho
THE HEADSMAN OF TIIE TOWER.
same year, and at Her Majesty's cor
onation on June 28, 1838. In 1841
Sergeant Sweeney left Canterbury foi
India, where he distinguished himsell
in mauy an action. In all he served
nearly twenty-six years, and has three
war medals with four clasps. It was
in 1864 that he took up duty at the
Tower of London as one of Her Majes
ty's yeoman warders, and later on he
was appointed yeoman gaoler.
Uncle Sam's Pigeon Exhibit.
There was a display of Uncle
Sam's homing pigeons at the poultry
and pigeon show in Madison Square
Garden, February Ito 5. Mr. How
ard Carter, who has charge of the cote
at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, repre
sented the United States Navy during
the show.
Eight of these carrier pigeons hav»
seen active service in carrying t
patches from the fleet at sea to tu.
home station, and several have made
as many as thirty flights from various
battle-ships.
The longest distances were from the
Texas and the Annapolis, 100 miles,
the birds carrying messages to the
commandant of the North Atlantic
Squadron. The messages will also be
exhibited.—New York World.
iCbiUfrcrft Column
The Mercury's Plaint.
I (lon't know why I'm slandered so.
If Igo high— if Igo low —
There's always some one who will say,
'•Just see thut mercury today!"
And whether toward the top I crawl
Or down toward zero I may fall.
'l'hey always fret, and say that I
Am far too low or far too high.
And though I try with all my might
I never seem to strike it right.
Now I admit it seems to me
They show great inconsistency.
But they imply I am to blame.
Of course that makes my auger ilamo,
And in a flery fit of pique
I stay at ninety for a week.
Or sometimes in a dull despair,
I give them just a frigid stare;
And as upon their taunts I think
My spirits down to zero sink.
Wine is indeed a hopeless case —
To try to please the human rai'>*!
—Carolyn Wells, in Youth's Companion.
Ilawtlinrne'd Bear Story.
In "Hawthorne's First Diary," be
gun at his home in Raymond, Maine,
when he was a small boy, he tells a
bear story, which is vouched for by
his editor. Hawthorne gives it as
follows:
Mr. Henry Turner of Otisfield took
his axe and went out between Saturday
and Moose ponds, tct look at some
pine trees. A rain had just taken off
enough of the snow to lay bare the
roots of a part of the trees. Under a
large root there seemed to be a cavity,
and on examining closely, something
was exposed very much like long black
hair.
He cut off the root, saw the no9e of
a bear, and killed him, pulled out me
body, saw another, killed that, and
dragged out the carcass, when he
found that there was a third one in
the den, and that he was thoroughly
awake, too; but as soon as the head
came in sight, it was split open with
fhe axe, so that Mr. Turner alone, with
only an axe, killed three bears iu less
than half an hour, the youngest being
a good-sized one,aud what the hunters
call a yearling.
This is a pretty good bear story,but
probably true, and happened only a
few weeks ago; for John Patch, who
was here with his father, Capt. Leu
Patch, who lives within two miles of
Saturday pond, told me so.
George's Doll.
"O—o!" cried Kittie, running into
the barn. "Oh, dear, lam so fright
ened!"
Jack was making willow whistles,
but he looked up.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"Oh!" said Kittie, again, "I was
coming across the cornfield, and there
was a horrid man there and he tried
to catch me."
"A man?" said Jack.
"Oh, yes. A great horrid, ugly
man like a tramp, and all in rags."
"Don't you be frightened, Kittie,"
said Jack, who was a brave little fel
low. Father and George are over in
the east meadow getting the hay, but
I'm here, and I'll go and see what he
wants."
Kittie begged him not to, for fear
the man might hurt him, but Jack
said stoutly:
"He might be after the chickens or
the new calf, and I must look after
things when father is not here. I'll
take Towser."
He whistled to Towser, and ran off
to the cornfield. Kittie was afraid to
stay alone, and so she followed him,
but at a safe distance. Baby Dick
trotted at her heels. Just as they
were getting under the fence they
heard a ringing shout from Jack, who
was in the middle of the field; and
when they came in sight, they fonnd
him shaking the arm of the "trump."
"Oh, Kit, you goose!" he cried.
"It's only a scarecrow George made
yesterday to keep the birds awav from
the corn."
"Why," said Baby Dick, "he's
nuffin but a drate big dolly."
"Yes, that's what he is," said Jack.
"He's George's doll."
George's dol! stood in the field all
summer, and the children went often
to see him.
And so, when things frighten you,
if you can only be brave, like little
Jack, and go right up and look at
them, you will very often find them
only scarecrows.
MIU.V'H Rudeness.
?«lilly had to get her lessons ready
for the morrow. She was always sup
posed by her schoolmistress to spend
au hour over this work. As a rule,
Milly's mother sat with her to give her
a little help from time to time, but
that afternoon she was too busy; HO
she left her little girl,telling her to do
her lessons well while she was away.
But Milly found it was very hard to
do as her mother told her. it was so
hot she felt as if she could not think.
Then she thought it was just the sort
of a day when it would have been nice
to sit in the garden under the trees
-»nd read her new story book. Instead
'hat she had to be at work in the
■»»& Jt was really almost more
tha\ **e could stand without growing
as crb.Vas a little girl could very well
be.
It was true that, once tte hour was
over and tea finished, she would be
able togo into the garden and enjoy
herself as much as Bhe pleased. But
that was just the tiresome part. The
hour would not pass. She silt with
her face to the clock, for she thought
then she should be able to see how
the time went, and that would help
her to work; but she felt very helpless
over it all.
She hail to find all the capitals of
Europe,and mark them upon her map,
and learn their names by heart. There
was Athens, which would not te
found. If the geography book had
not stated so decidedly that it was in
Greece, Milly would have felt quite
sure that it must be in some other
country. She supposed, however,that
the man who wrote the geography
book was right; after coming to which
opinion she looked at the clock and
sighed. Five minutes past four, and
she had to work till live!
She fell to hunting once more for
Athens. It seemed to her a very long
time that she had been wandering
over that corner of Europe known as
Greece, when she again glanced at the
clock. Seven minutes past four.
Only seven minutes past four! And
had thought at least ten minutes
must have passed.
■ She began her search for Athens
once more. At lust she found it, and
then she looked at the clock anew.
Three minutes more had passed, that
was all. Milly stamped her foot
angrily. "It is too horrid!" she said
aloud, as if speaking to the bronze
man who held up the clock. "The
time will never go!"
She glanced listlessly at her lesson
book. She could not remember the
names of those stupid capitals at all.
They went out of her head as quickly
ns she found them on the map. Why
did countries want capitals?- Only to
make another horrid hard lasson for
little boys and girls. That was all;
she was sure of it.
Milly drummed lier fingers on the
table for a few moments after settling
this point and gazed wearily at the
clock. Then she took a resolve.
She would be a wise, good girl. She
would read the names of the capitals
ten times over without stopping, and
never look at the clock once until she
had done. I)ei end upon it, when she
had finished her task, ever so much
time would have passed.
She started. Once—twice—thrice
—faster—faster—faster—did she read
over the uames of those capitals
which always managed to escape her.
By the time that she was going over
them for the tenth time her speed was
almost equal to that of an express
train.
Then she looked at the clock again.
She did so with a delightful feeling of
hope. More tlmn hope; she felt sure
that the hands must have moved on a
long way. She looked and looked
again, and then she Eat and stared at
it with grief and anger.
O bad untrustworthy clock—its
hands had barely moved oil five
minutes!
Barely five minutes! Impossible!
It must have sto) ped. Yes, that was
the rea'ion it showed so little progress.
There was but little doubt.
Milly crossed the room, and putting
her ear close to the clock, she listeueil
hopefully. Alas! Alas! It had been
wrongfully accused. It was doing its
duty faithfully. Tick—tick—tick—it
was going as fast as its works and
time would allow it to.
The hour would never pass—never
—never —never! Milly sat on the
hearth-rug and burst into tears. It
was just at that moment that her
mother came into the library.
"Why. Milly,child, what is wrong?"
she asked, raising her from the floor
ami kissing her.
"The time won't go," she sobbed,
"and I am so tired of doing lessons!"
"Who.e have you been working?"
said lier mother. "Oils I see," she
added, as she glanced at ' iqks on
the table. "I see," she repeated",
added, "Now I want you to be very
rude."
"Very rude!" Milly said with sur
prise. "Why, you are always very
angry when I am rude."
"Yea,but I want you to be so now,"
her mother said, smiling. "You know
1 have often told you that it is not
polite t > turn your back upon any one|
but I wish you to do so now. I wish
you to turn your back upon thi?
bronze gentleman who holds the clock.
I think that yon will work much
hotter and the time will go much
faster."
So Milly did ns her mother wished,
and she was quite surprised when tea
time .-ame and the hour was over.
"It really was very, very fn ~ny,
mother," she said. "The time went
so slowlv at first, and so quickly afterl
It must have been because when I be
gan I had my face 10 the clock and
afterward 1 had my back to it."
"That was it," replied her mother.
"And if one is feeling idle, and mor«
inclined for play than lessons, it is
much better tr> work with one's back
to the clock. It is wonderful how it
shortens the time.—Youth's Com
panion.
Birds Made to Order.
The Japanese are ruthless in their
tampering with nature. If they de
cide that they want a bird or au ani
mal of a certaiu shape or color they
set about manufacturing the article,
so to speak, by the exercise of exceed
ingly clever ingenuity and untiring
patience. Here, for example, is how
the white sparrows are produced
They select a pair of grayish birds
and keep them in a white cage in •
white room, where they are attended
by a person dressed iu white. The
mental effect on a series of genera
tions of birds results in completely
white birds. —Rural World.