Foolhardy Work by German Torpedo Boat Officers
GERMAN TORPEDO BOATS AFTER BREAKING THROUGH THE BATTLE LINE OP THE BIG SHIPS
Photo Taken on German Cruiser During the Maneuvers.
GERMAN TORPEDO HOTS IUSIIINO AT Fl'I.L SPEED IN LINE TO ATTACK BATTLE SHIPS Photo
Taken on Gcrmun Cruiser During Maneuvers.
y.ivr-g HENRY of Prussia, our one
J I time guest, has been put this year
I . I in command of the first torpedo
boat flotilla of the Gorman navy,
putting It through those dashing
maneuvers which are peculiar to this branch
of the German naval service. These Ger
man torpedo boat maneuvers, while their
practical utility has been questioned, and
while they have become notorious for tho
disasters which they have caused, are,
nevertheless the admiration of the naval
world for the dash and "elan" displayed by
the commanding officers of the boats and
the freedom from fear or, as their critics
Fay, even proper caution, which they show
In handling their little vessels.
Some remarkable photographs which have
Just been received In America illustrate this
tendency very well. They were taken dur
ing the maneuvers of Prince Henry's fleet
and show the arrow-like vessels steaming
In line at full speed with such slight in
tervals between the boats that the most
trifling accident to one of them would re
sult in the almost inevitable destruction of
the boats astern; for it is a matter ot frac
tions of a second between safety and de
struction when torpedo boats steam so
closely together at such speed as these are
making.
Germany et 111 believes In torpedo boats of
the very highest speed that can be pro
duced, but England would seem to be mod
erating its ideas in that respect. Hereto
fore the British have set thirty knots as
the standard speed for a torpedo boat, but
the group of four new boats recently com
pleted at Chlswlck have a speed of only
twenty-five knots. By requiring leas speed
it is thought that so much will not have to
be sacrificed for lightness of construction
and the boats therefore will be stronger
and more seaworthy.
With her torpedo boats Germany has
displayed a disposition to take long chances
which has resulted in her losing more ves
sels of this class in proportion to her fleet
than any other nation. The German naval
officers went into torpedo-boat work with
all the enthusiasm and restlessness that
marks the automobllist with a new high
speed machine. In fact, the German tor
pedo boat commanders may not inaptly be
called the "automoblllsts of the sea," be
cause of the way in which they dash about
with the long, lean vessels and because of
the chances they take.
The loss of the torpedo boat commanded
by Duke Frederick William of Mecklen-burg-Schwerln,
a disaster In which the
duke himself went down with his boat and
entire crew, was a catastrophe that called
tho attention of tho whole world to the
things which the Germans were attempting
with their torpedo boats. The rank of the
duke made his loss a matter of such mo
ment as to rivet attention from all parts
of the globe. Since then the torpedo boat
officers of the German navy have been a
little more careful, though they still take
risks which officers of other navies would
consider as unnecessary and unwarranted.
Competent authorities, however, such, for
instance, as the editors of the semi-official
Statesman's Year Book, declare that while
"with the German torpedo boats some ab
solutely remarkable evolutions are per
formed which excite admiration, yet their
value has been questioned," but adds that
"the Germans are probably in advance of
all other nations in torpedo work." This
is the testimony of the highest British
naval authority. So It would seem that,
even if Germany has lost more torpedo
boats in proportion than any other nation,
she has at least accomplished something to
be proud of in the drilling and disciplining
of her officers and crews.
The Germans do not name their torpedo
boats as most of the other nations of the
world do, but give them numbers and let
ters. So in the list of Prince Henry's flo
tilla, instead of reading such suggestive
names as "Viper," "Scorpion," etc., we
find that the fleet of his royal highness
consists of torpedo boats S. 106, S. 102,
S. 103, 104, 105, 107, S. 96, 98, 99, 100 and
101 eleven boats in all of the newest type.
The fact that the Germans give their tor
pedo boats numbers and letters in place ot
names somehow seems to make the dash
with which they handle them all the more
remarkable. It would seem to the or
dinary person that It would be compara
tively easy to show a little dash when In
command of a torpedo boat named the
"Adder," or the "Wasp." while to display
the same ability on torpedo boat "two ami
carry one," or "X, 10 and a half," would
be next to an Impossibility. But the Ger
mans d it.
Tho lorp.do boats which comprise the
fleet of Prince Henry are built on the
proportion of 183 feet of length to 21
feet of bea.n. Some are larger and some
are smaller, of course, but that is the gen
eral relation of Learn to breadth in I lie
newer torpedo boats of the German navy.
In the older torpedo boats the relation of
beam to breadth was in the ratio of MS
feet of length to 18 feet of beam. Of a still
older type was the torpedo boat, which
foundered at tho mouth of the Elbe some
years ago.
Her loss was a most dramatic affair and
caused much discussion at the time as to
tho possibility of making a torpedo boat
thoroughly seaworthy and etlll have it of
proper dimensions for the uses for which
she is intended.
The German fleet had been maneuvering
In the North sea, and with It was, of course,
a small flotilla of torpedo boats. The
weather became stormy, and the fleet, hav
ing no especial reason for staying out
longer, put into port. The torpedo boats,
which should have been sent into port as
soon as the weather became unfit for them
to be out in, were not ordered to leave the
fleet, and instead of preceding the war
ships into harbor, they stayed out until the
last in what would seem to have been a
spirit of bravado, though the excuse given
and it was a plausible one was that the
officer desired to test thoroughly the sea
going qualities of the boats In heavy
weather.
As the torpedo boats approached the
mouth of the Elbe the sea became more and
more disturbed. One of the two boats which
tried to make the port got through. The
other "turned turtle" Just as she bad
nearly reached the harbor's mouth, and
plunged beneath the waves.
In 1895 the Germans lost the torpedo boat
S. 41 off Jutland, and it was In September
of 1897 that Duke Frederick William of
Mecklenberg-Schwerin went down in his
boat. S. 26.
In 1898 S. 8,r. went down.
In the cimii'ho of the naval maneuvers of
last year the Germans lost torpedo boat
No. 7ti, a vessel ot 1"i0 tons. Only one man
went duvwi with it. Ll July (lie German
torpedo boat S. 42 was run down and sunk
at the mouth of tho Elbe by the British
merchant steamer Firsby. It went down at
night. The night was cloudy but clear and
both vessels had thrir lights burning bright
ly. The torpedo beat sunk about fivo minu
tes after the collision, taking down with
it the commanding officer and three of his
crew. What came near being another fatal
disaster for a German torpedo boat took
place last April while the torpedo boat
division of the training fleet was proceeding
to the Eastern Baltic. Off the Island of
Moen torpedo boat S. 32 came in collision
with the schooner Odin. The schooner sank
at once and the torpedo boat was badly
damaged. It was, however, able to keep
afloat until it got to a dockyard.
The waters of the Baltic and the North
sea are stormy waters most of the time.
Their Intervals of good behavior are not of
long duration and when the winds really
make up their minds to howl and the seas
to roll along their shores they do It with a
will.
Before the Kiel canal was built it used
to be a favorite maneuver with the torpedo
boats to go from Wlhelmshafen on the
Baltic, around the northern point of Den
mark and bo on down to Hamburg or Bre
men. It was almost a foregone conclusion
that before the voyage was completed nasty
weather would be encountered which would
try the seagoing abilities or the torpedo
boats and the nerve of their officers and
crews. If a boat was lost well, it simply
proved that it was unseaworthy; that was
all, and that its type must be Improved
upon the next time one of that class was
built.
The completion of the canal connecting
the Baltic and the North seas has removed
the necessity of sending the torpedo boats
on the perilous voyage around Jutland, and
they probably will be sent over that route
loss frequently than before, though In ma
neuvering they are at any time liable to
be ordered to make tho voyage.
The experience gained by the officers and
men of the German torpedo boat flotilla
and the points which have beeu revealed
to naval constructors by th plunge of
torpedo boats from tho Baltic to the North
Sea by way of the northern point of Den
mark have done as much as anything else,
if not more than any other one thing, to
develop tho German torpedo boat service
go that it stands today in tho position it
does. It is seldom that a German officer
will take chances on running his torpedo
boat ashore, but he will take all sorts
of chances in keeping her out to sea when
the officers of other nations, with boats
of similar build, would seek a harbor.
When the German torpedo boats are ma
neuvering with a Beet of warships ot larger
growth, a favorite performance is for the
entire flotilla to make a sudden dash and
try to get Inside the line of the men-of-war.
This is done In all navies when the
torpedo boats go out to play at war with a
fleet; but in other navies, as a rule, it
is the sneaking up of single boats to try -and
torpedo a battleship before she Is
discovered which Is the favorite game. But
a whole flotilla, making a dash for a lot
of men-of-war in line of battle, has some
thing desperate about it which seems to
appeal to the Germans who command the
little stinging midgets of the sea. In the
last two years the British have plied up a
list of torpedo boat disasters which makes
the German record seem tame, but It must
be remembered that England has a much
larger torpedo boat flotilla than Germany
with which to invite disaster. Last year
and this year the British have lost three
torpedo boats, the Cobra, Viper and No.
81, and have had no less than sixteen other
torpedo boat accidents, some of them seri
ous ones. In the same time France has
lost one torpedo boat and had two serious
torpedo boat accidents. Italy has had one
accident to her torpedo boats, and that not
a very serious one. She does not Indulge
In torpedo boat maneuvering as much as
England and Germany. Russia had one ac
cident, not serious, In her torpedo fleet.
Gleanings From the Story Tellers' Pack
ill
UMBERLESS are the stories which
go to Bhow that an Englishman
finds it almost impossible to see
an American joke. George II.
Daniels, general passenger agent
of the New York Central, Is refponslble for
a late specimen. It Is of an American who
told an Englishman that he dreamed he
was dead, but the heat woke him up. "Aw,
baw Jove," said John Bull, "you must have
tremendously hot weather in your country
if It wakes a fellah out of his sleep."
At a musical where Rev. Thomas P. Mo
Loughlin, known as the "singing priest of
Chinatown," was a guest, relates the New
York Times, a young woman, with a robust
soprano voice did most of the entertaining.
She was very proud of her accomplish
ments and her musical education. Sh
sang songs in German, Italian, French and
English. When she appeared to have ex
haust! d her repertoire and the company
present were wishing for a change in the
program Father Mclaughlin paid her some
compliments and added:
"Why, Miss Jonee, I think you could sing
ad infinitum."
"I really don't know it," responded the
obliging young woman, "but If the music is
here, 1 11 try it."
"I had business in a small town out
west," said a Boston man. quoted by th.
Baltimore Herald, "and I left the address a:
home, so that some Important letters could
be forwarded to me. I figured out about
when they ought to arrive and went down
to the postoffice to inquire for them.
" 'No letters here for you,' said the post
master, who was also a Justice of the
peace.
' 'Couldn't have got here yesterday, as
old Brown, who carries the mall, was drunk
and didn't go over to Iosco after it.'
"'And how about today?'
" 'Well, he's Bober enough today, but
his old woman has cut her foot.'
"'But there will be a mail tomorrow?" I
queried.
" 'Skassly, sir. We don't have no mail
on Thursdays.'
" 'Then how about next day?'
" 'Fridays is sort of off days with the
Iosco postmaster and he generally goes
fishing. If he don't he sends the boy over.
I never count on it, however.'
" 'You see.ii to have a slipshod way of
running postal affairs out in this country,'
I said as I turned away.
" 'Waal, I dunno but we have,' he ad
mitted as he looked at me over the top
of his spectacles, 'but as long as nobody
but Uncle Bill Simpson ever gets any mail,
and that's only a circular about how to
kill cockroaches, we kinder take things
easy and let the United States run along
without bustin' her biler.' "
Booker T. Washington, talking what he
calls "hard sense" to a gathering of his
race, was trying to eyplaln the shades of
difference between telf-hclp and the mere
moral obliquity of self-interest. He told
them that there Is little or nothing to be
obtained without work, adding:
"There was an old negro, professionally
pious, who wanted a luxurious Christmas
day dinner, and who night after night
prayed to the Lord to send a turkey. The
days passed, Christmas approached and
the old fellow undertook to compromise by
asking the Lord to send him to a turkey. He
got one that very night."
An elderly and dignified man appeared
one morning recently in the office of a
railway passenger agent in the city of
Ilcston. The official he wanted to see was
out.
"Perhaps," suggested the visiter to the
lordly office boy, "you can direct me- "
"No," replied the magnate thus addressed,
"I kin do nothln'. No one here gives passes
'eept the boss. You'll have to wait until
he comes in."
At this Juncture one of the clerks recog
nized the callt r as Senator Hoar and offered
his services.
"I wkh to ascertain," said the senator,
"to whom I owe the price of a meal for
which I forgot to pay yesterday when I
left the dining car at Worcester. Someone
had to pay for what I ate and I want to
reimburse him."
"Oh. that's all right. Mr. Hoar." re
turned the clerk, "I guess we need not
bother about the matter."
"No, it isn't all right and we will bother
about it," replied tho senator. And he
made the clerk search the office records
with the result that the name of the waiter
responsible for the collection of the check
was duly ascertained. Then with as much
evident satisfaction as though he had suc
ceeded In getting an Important bill through
congress the senator paid the clerk $1.50,
to be credited to the waiter.
"Is Mr. l)i pew In?" said a life Insurance
agent, bunding his card to the office at
tendant. "I'll see, sir," replied the minion, going
into the Senator's sanctum, reports the New
York Times.
Mr. Depew glanced at the card and shook
his head in the nt native. Although the up
per part of his body was hidden from public
view by his desk, the senator's legs were
plainly visible as he sat with his side
towaid the desk.
"Mr. Depew Is out," said the attendant.
"Well," said the insurance solicitor,
pluming through the half-open door, "I
wish you'd tell him when he comes in that
I think my company would positively re
fuse to accept him as a first class risk un
less he will agree to always take his legs
with him when he goes out."
A rather good story is told at the expense
of "Jack" Daly by Special Officer Garr of
the Eleventh and Race streets police sta
tion, relates the Philadelphia Telegraph.
Daly, before becoming a member of the
"force" was one of the best known light
weights who ever stepped In the "yquari'd
circle." and his trim athletic figure shows
to advantage in his policeman's uniform. A
few days ago, according to Garr, Daly, at
tired in full uniform, was standing on Ninth
street when an elderly lady stepped up and,
after looking him carefully over, naively
Inquired: "Are you a policeman?" When
Jack recovered his breath he solemnly said:
"Honest I am, lady. If you don't believe
me, I'll show you my badge."
.v-
Among other well meaning northern men
who bothered Lincoln in '64 with imprac
ticable plans for euding the war was a
kindly, bland and bald old fellow wh-se
flow of conversation was simply madden
ing to the good-natured, but busy presi
dent. By hook or crook the old fellow
managed to get by the sentinels, and Lin
coln was too soft-hearted to give him per
emptory orders to remain away. One after
noon, when he had Interrupted Important
business for nearly an hour, the president
auddenly rose, hurried to a cupboard and
drew forth a large bottle.
"Did you ever use tbis remedy for bald
ness?" the unwelcome caller was asked.
"Never," he replied, examining the label.
"Well," said Lincoln, with an air of
ono conferring an especial favor, "you
may have It. Here take the bottle, go
home, rub it well Into the head and corns
back say In three months snd let me
know if it did you good."
And he hustled the hairless old chap
through the door and bowed him off.
