The romance of the ship; the story of her origin and evolution . ured to direct them (afterhaving left the ship) by means of wireless and again one hears of one of these weapons gettinglost during practice and being picked up by are costly instruments and are valued at c£^500. It was, then, for the purposes of carrying and firingthese new creatures of destruction that the torpedo-boatswere built. They were to be of great speed, light ofhull, to rush forth and discharge their torpedo, and thenwithdraw as fast as they could. The early types ofthese torpedo-boats wer


The romance of the ship; the story of her origin and evolution . ured to direct them (afterhaving left the ship) by means of wireless and again one hears of one of these weapons gettinglost during practice and being picked up by are costly instruments and are valued at c£^500. It was, then, for the purposes of carrying and firingthese new creatures of destruction that the torpedo-boatswere built. They were to be of great speed, light ofhull, to rush forth and discharge their torpedo, and thenwithdraw as fast as they could. The early types ofthese torpedo-boats were of limited capacity, and couldcarry but little fuel. Later on they were given quick-firing guns as well as the torpedo-tube, and by nowthey are of about 300 tons, with a speed of about25 knots and more. Their hull is necessarily made ofsuch thin steel as to be unable to withstand any firefrom the enemy, and the slightest collision with any hardsubstance injures them at once. Extremely narrow andlong, they are not particularly weatherly, and in a sea-way 234. THE SHIP IN ACTION very wet and lively. The forward end has a long turtle-deck, forming the roof of the mens quarters, which,considering the size of the ship, are particularly engines are amidships, and the two officers quartersright aft. Another lesson which the Japanese War afforded wasthe terrible amount of danger to be feared from floatingmines, whose known presence might be able to deter inthe future the approach of a squadron of battleshipsacross a certain space of water. In order to possesssuitable ships for clearing the sea of these mines, theAdmiralty have recently purchased a number of high-class steam trawlers which, by means of their trawlinggear, will be able to remove such objects of danger andclear the channel for the approach of the fleet. Men-of-war have also been lately fitted with suitable gear forthis work, in addition to the trawlers. It is generallysupposed that the known presence of mines


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookd, booksubjectshipbuilding, booksubjectships