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oes far to prove that except a vessel be taken unawares, it will be impossible for a torpedo to come into actual contact with it. At the experiments last year the wooden booms were unhinged and splintered under a much less violent shock. But the steel booms employed, though somewhat bent, remained unbroken and in position, and the joints were quite uninjured. All that is necessary for perfect defense is that the booms should be made a little heavier. The torpedo experiments against the Resistance were resumed on June 13, when the old ironclad suffered some rough treatment. As the experiment was understood to be the last of the second series, and was fully expected to have a sensational termination, a considerable number of interested spectators were attracted to the scene in Fareham Creek. The torpedoists resorted to severe measures, but with a distinctly useful purpose in view, having bound the ship hand and foot, so to speak, in such a way that her name became a solecism. They exploded 95 lb. of gun cotton 20 ft. below the water, and in contact with her double bottom. This amount of explosive represents the full charge of the old pattern 16 in. Whiteheads; but as the hulk was, for prudential reasons, moored close to a mud bank, and as the water was consequently much too shallow to allow of a locomotive torpedo being set to run at the required depth, a fixed charge was lashed fore and aft against the bottom plating of the ship and electrically exploded from No. 95 torpedo boat. In previous experiments this year the ironclad was attacked on the port side, which had been specially strengthened for the occasion, and the result was a victory for the defense. On June 13 the starboard side was selected for attack, in order that a comparison might be instituted with the effects produced under different conditions by a similar experiment. Last year in the latter case the double bottom was filled with coal; and after the charge, which was lashed against the ship in the same way, had been exploded, it was found that the bilge keel had been shivered for a length of 20 ft., while the lower plating had been much bulged above the bilge keel. Four strakes of the skin plating extending up to the armor shelf had also been forced inward and fractured where they crossed the longitudinal frames. They had parted in the middle for a distance of 8 ft., while some of the butts had been opened so that gashes 2 in. or 3 in. wide appeared be
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