Torpedo tube

“ It is now usually discharged, like a projectile from a gun, by means of a small charge of gunpowder, or compressed air, from a tube which it accurately fits. In most cases the tube is a few feet above the water line, and the torpedo is launched at any given moment. ”

“ In firing torpedoes from above-water tubes the torpedo is liable to be hit by the enemy, and it is generally considered that if the tube be hit by even a small projectile it must inevitably explode; the submerged tube affords protection both to the men and the weapon, while the torpedo is less deflected on entering the water. ”

“ The torpedo tube is not opened by the passage of the torpedo through it. It is opened by the operation of a lever in the conning tower."
"So much the better," said Tom. "Now, then, my plan is this: I will creep into the torpedo tube. When I am inside it, one of you will close the inside end. The outer end will then be opened by Sam, who will remain by the opening lever. As the water rushes in, I will dive outward and shoot up to the surface. We know pretty well where Mr. Ironsides is confined. I shall swim to the bow of the tug and see what chance there is of getting him out. ”

“ Every torpedo tube of the station suddenly belched forth deadly, fifteen-foot torpedoes, most of them mud-torpedoes, torpedoes loaded with high explosive in the nose, a delayed fuse, and a load of soft clinging mud in the rear. The mud would flow down over the nose and offer a resistance foot-hold for the explosive which empty space would not. Four hundred and three torpedoes, equipped with anti-magnetic apparatus [64] darted out. One hundred and four passed the struggling fields. One found lodgement on a Miran ship, and crushed in a metal wall, to be stopped by a bulkhead. ”

“ The automobile torpedo was at first used only for the armament of ordinary war-ships; it was not until 1879 that an American engineer named Mortensen designed a submarine with a torpedo-tube in the bows. His example was followed by Berkeley and Hotchkiss in 1880, by Garrett in his first Nordenfelt boat of 1881, and by Woodhouse and by Lagane in the same year. ”

“ It takes, on an average, a minute for a torpedo to reach its mark, after it leaves the torpedo tube. The officer in the tower is in a position where he can see the effect of the shot. If the torpedo struck, however favorable the blow, it would take at least fifteen or twenty minutes for the ship to go down. Sometimes the bulkheads will keep the ship afloat an hour or more. In fact, there are records of ships which have been torpedoed, that were actually towed into harbors and saved," answered the captain. ”

“ A torpedo is fired from a tube, and immediately it strikes the water its engines begin to work. It then rushes towards its target at the rate of forty or fifty miles an hour for a distance of three miles or more. By means of a very remarkable piece of apparatus, it is steered back to its line of fire if it should be turned out of its course. If the aim is sure, and the torpedo hits its mark, the gun-cotton explodes with such terrific force that it will sink or cripple the biggest ship afloat.
On ordinary warships a torpedo can be fired from a tube either above or below water. ”

“ Theoretically, yes, but what of practice? We have been down to forty metres several times during this trip, and not once have we had a chance on the surface of getting at the two external tubes; add to which our depth gear, with the pivots of the weight exposed to water if the tube does flood and then you have rust, corrosion and heaven knows what complications.
I saw a British Mark 11.50 torpedo at the torpedo shop at Bruges the other day, and I was much struck with their deep depth gear, which is of the unrestrained Uhlan type, i.e., weight and valve interdependent. ”

“ At last, under direction from the captain, the lieutenant gave this order through the speaking tube:
"Have the men slide a torpedo into one of the forward tubes."
Eager to witness this operation, Irving sprang to the stairway and was soon down on the lower deck. There he saw several members of the crew remove the safety attachment from the nose of a sixteen-foot phosphor-bronze torpedo, which was seventeen or eighteen inches in diameter, and slide it into a tunnel-like hole in the midst of a maze of operating machinery. ”

“ Her armament consisted of one torpedo tube forward and an aerial torpedo gun for firing aerial torpedoes, designed to be used somewhat on the same principles as used on the gunboat "Vesuvius."
The heat was so intense that the trial crew found it impossible to live in the boat, so for their full power dock trials valve stems were run up through the deck to enable the engines to be started from there. Arrangements were made also to take the indicator cards from the deck. She [189] was also fitted with a heavy armored conning tower, as per [190] Mr. Holland's description previously quoted. ”

“ In fact, it would not be worth while to risk losing so costly a shot. A torpedo at present prices is worth not far short of £2000, and we only carry two for each tube.
You look long and hard at this dazzle-ship. She doesn’t give you any sensation of being dazzled; but she is, in some queer way, all wrong—her proportions are wrong, she is somehow not herself, not what she ought to be. If you fix your attention on one end of her, she seems to point one way—if you look away at her other end, she is doing something different. ”

“ The system, moreover, has the disadvantage of weakening the ram, the construction of which should be of immense strength. There is the further liability of ramming with a torpedo in the bow tube, which would be as disastrous to friend as foe. This method of submerged discharge has therefore given place to ejecting the torpedo from the broadside. Considerable difficulty attached to getting the torpedo clear of the ship from this position without injury, especially when the vessel was proceeding at speed. ”

“ Our friend invited us to accompany him on board an old frigate moored a little way up the harbour, from which we could see some interesting torpedo experiments.
As we pulled along he gave us an explanation of the fish torpedo—a wonderful instrument of destruction which has been invented of late years. It is a cylinder, which carries the explosive material at one end and the machinery for working the screw which impels it at the other. It can be discharged through a tube with such accuracy that it can strike an object several hundred yards off. ”

“ These two vessels have a displacement when submerged of 450 tons. Their oil engines of 650 H.-P. give a speed of 13 1⁄2 knots an hour on the surface, and their electric motors of 300 H.-P. give 8 knots an hour when submerged. Their surface range of action is 2,000 miles, and their armament consists of two bow 114and one stern torpedo tube with six torpedoes, and two 14-pdr. quick-firing, high-angle guns on disappearing mountings. The complement is seventeen officers and men. ”

“ The torpedo-boat destroyer, contrary to general belief, does not carry any heavy guns, but depends on its great speed and its ability to cripple a torpedo-boat with its 6-pounders while keeping out of range of the enemy’s tubes. All torpedo-boat destroyers carry torpedo tubes themselves, so that they can be used against the enemy’s battle-ships or cruisers if the occasion offers. ”

“ OPERATION OF TORPEDOES
“The course of the torpedo from the time it is released in the tube by the lever trip is interesting,” said Captain Lake. “These torpedoes are made at a cost of $5,000 each, much of which is spent in testing. With their high charge of explosive placed well forward and a little plunger on the nose, connecting with a percussion cap, their interior presents the same view as that of a large steamship. The officer is a little gyroscope, impelled by compressed air. ”

“ The loading hole of the priming case is at the bottom of the case, and arranged with cork and cap upon the same principle as the loading holes for main charge. A powerful spanner is provided for screwing in the priming case and caps of main loading holes, which are fitted with leather washers to form a water-tight joint. The priming case can be stored separate from the torpedo if preferred, but there is no necessity for so doing unless it is charged with a dangerous compound. When the torpedoes are being stored, a wooden plug is inserted into the brass tube of the priming case ”

“ In the bow compartment, where the torpedo tubes are built into the U-boat and the torpedoes themselves are stored, there was feverish activity from the minute we saw the hostile ship and the alarm was sounded. It is cramped in the forward part of a U-boat, very cramped, and it is necessary to have a special crew of very skilled men to be able to accomplish their purpose in this network of tubes, valves, and pumps. The officers’ mess, which is just back of the torpedo compartment, is quite roomy and comfortable. ”

“ There you will find the torpedo chamber for the submarine, like the cigar to which it is so often compared, carries its fire at its front tip. The most common type of boat will have two or four torpedo tubes in this chamber. The more modern ones will have a second torpedo chamber astern with the same number of tubes and carry other torpedoes on deck which by an ingenious device can be launched from their outside cradles by mechanism within the boat. In the torpedo chamber are twice as many spare torpedoes as there are tubes, made fast along the sides. ”

“ The disposition of the armament is such that four 12-in. and five 9·2-in. can fire on each broadside. An outstanding defect is the smallness of the double 9·2-in. turrets, which hardly give elbow room to the crews and do not allow full advantage to be taken of the extraordinary rapidity with which the 9·2-in. piece can be worked when there is plenty of space.
On the whole, however, these ships are extremely powerful units. For driving off torpedo craft there are twenty-four 12-pounder quick-firers mounted in the superstructure. Five torpedo tubes are fitted. ”

“ When this is done, it will be possible for the submersible commander to tell a great deal about the positions of the vessels above him, and thus his [xxviii] artificial ears will compensate to a great extent for his blindness. By the addition of a greater number of torpedo-tubes, and the improvement of their centralized control in the hand of the commander at the periscope, along lines which we are now developing, it will be possible for the submersible to achieve a greater effectiveness in its torpedo fire. ”

“ There'd be heaps of room for their ammunition in the torpedo magazine.'
GUNS AND TORPEDOES
We are blessed with a pair of deck torpedo-tubes, which weigh about ten tons, and are the bane of our lives. Our class is a compromise, and the contractors have generously put in a little bit of everything. But public opinion (except the Gunner) is unanimous in condemning those dangerous and hampering tubes.
'Torpedoes are all rot on this class unless they're submerged. Two more four-inchers 'ud be a lot better. They're as handy as duck-guns. ”

“ The torpedo itself is destined to play a part more important than has yet fallen to its lot in war. Not only will it be launched from the tubes of the battleship or cruiser or destroyer at the distant foe, but it will be dirigible, controlled and steered by wireless telegraphy, and extra speed, or counter explosion, or gun-fire, or the disablement of the vessel sending it forth will alone be the means of rendering it ineffective. Torpedo nets may be of value when ships are at anchor or travelling slowly, but not at any other time. ”

“ Then, firing torpedoes is not at all like firing big guns. At a range of five miles a shell will still be making 2000 feet a second or 1400 miles an hour. At the same range a torpedo like those used at Jutland would be making only 50 feet a second or 35 miles an hour. Thus shells whizz through the air forty times faster than torpedoes sneak through the water. A torpedo, in fact, is itself very like a submarine, more or less cigar-shaped, and with its own engine, screw, and rudder. Hitting with a torpedo really means arranging a collision between it and the ship you are aiming at. ”

“ The torpedo rests on cushions fixed to the deck, with its axis parallel to that of the boat, but as soon as it is moved by a lever to the position for firing, the water pressing against it frees the torpedo by opening the air valve. The only inconvenience of the system is that it is not easy to fire at the exact angle required, but it has the great advantage of doing away with all the machinery of valves and safety appliances which are necessary when submerged tubes are employed. Further experiments will doubtless make the system still more efficacious. ”

“ It is not beyond imagination to conceive a net so light and large of mesh, that it will diminish by no more than one knot the speed of the ship which carries it, and will yet catch and deflect a torpedo in the act of passing through it. For it must be remembered that the real problem is not how to stop a torpedo in its full 30-knot career, but how to prevent it from striking the ship with its head at an angle not too fine for the detonator to be fired. A turn of the helm, or the mere wave from the cut-water of a fast ship, has often sent a torpedo running harmlessly away along the quarter. ”