was almost capsized
by the shock.

A veritable storm of abuse and condemnation followed the introduction
of torpedo warfare. All countries and all peoples pronounced it
treacherous and cowardly, and the English press was particularly loud
in its denunciations. Yet the torpedo had won its place in the
armaments of nations; and to-day we see all the nations of Europe
vieing with each other in the invention and construction of powerful
and accurate torpedoes and swift torpedo-boats.

The germ of another feature of modern naval organization is to be
found in the annals of the War of 1812. The first war-vessel propelled
by steam was launched by the Americans for service in this war. She
was designed by Robert Fulton, and bore the name of "Fulton the
First." In model she was a queer craft, with two hulls like a
catamaran, with the single propelling-wheel mounted between them
amidships. Her armament was to consist of thirty thirty-two-pounder
guns, and two one-hundred-pounder columbiads. A secondary engine was
designed to throw floods of water upon the decks and through the
port-holes of an enemy. While the vessel was building, reports
concerning her reached England; and soon the most ludicrously
exaggerated accounts of her power were current in that country. "She
mounts forty-four guns," said an English paper, "four of which are
one-hundred-pounders, mounted in bomb proofs, and defended by
thousands of boarding-pikes and cutlasses wielded by steam; while
showers of boiling water are poured over those boarders who might
escape death from the rapidly whirling steel." Unfortunately for the
American cause, this much dreaded vessel did not get into the water in
time to take any active part in the war.

In June, 1813, while the British blockaders in the Sound were
exercising all their ingenuity to keep off the torpedoes, there was
fought off the Massachusetts coast, near Boston, an engagement which
must go down to history as one of the most brilliant naval duels of
the age of sails. The United States frigate "Chesapeake" was refitting
at Boston, after a cruise of four months, during which she had more
than justified her reputation as an unlucky ship. Though she sailed
the waters most frequented by British merchantmen, she returned to
port having captured only four vessels. Three men-of-war were sighted,
but could not be spoken. Strangely enough, the frigate sailed over the
spot where lay the sunken "Peacock" the very day after