Page:The Development of Navies During the Last Half-Century.djvu/240

 the tail is outside, and then the propellers take it onward. After years of research and experiment this has been accomplished, and large ships are now fitted to discharge their torpedoes under water.

When the Whitehead torpedo was introduced it was at once seen that for boat attack it had enormous advantages over the old method of carrying a tin of explosive at the end of a pole. The ship need not be approached within 600 yards, and thus the operation was not one of such great hazard. But any chance of success and escape afterwards would be much increased if it were possible to command in the boat very high speed, so as to reduce the time during which the boat would be under fire in its approach or retreat. Such a consideration led to the development of the high speed torpedo boats which we now see in the hands of nearly every nation. At first it was thought a boat about 80 ft long would answer all requirements, and Russia in 1877 constructed a hundred boats 75 ft. long and 10 ft. beam. The size was such that they could be transported from the Baltic to the Black Sea by rail. Mr Yarrow, the eminent torpedo boat builder on the Thames, supplied some sets of machinery and drawings from which other sets could be made in Russia. The first of these boats tried on the Neva had a speed of 18 knots. This was a great advance in a boat of such dimensions.

In the meantime Messrs Thornycroft, at Chiswick, had constructed for us the first torpedo boat, which was about 15 ft. longer than the Russian type, and her speed, 19 knots, was considered so remarkable that we