Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/745

1885.] Plan No. 1.

The wire-rope between the boats is sunk sufficiently to catch the screw of the torpedo-boat, and buoyed half-way between the boats to prevent its sinking more than necessary.

N.B. The 4 vessels are 120 yards long. The two pairs, breadthways, are 50 yards apart. There are 24 boats, each 8 to 9 yards long; and the 24 spaces between the boats are 54 yards each. The radius of the circle described by the boats is 550 yards, which keeps them 400 yards from the ships.

It seems to me that this system, carefully applied, would prove a most efficient and thorough defence against torpedo attack. I am aware that the present torpedoes are fitted with screws so sharply edged that they would cut through any rope placed to stop them. With the wire-rope this would be impossible. This system of defence would apply to single ships at anchor in the same way as it would apply to a squadron or to a detachment, and I see no reason why a larger number of ships than I have shown on the plan should not be protected in a similar way – the only question being, that the radius would have to be increased according to the number of ships, which might prove, if overdone, inconvenient, if not impossible. Objections might be made that in bad weather boats could not keep their