In the Track of the Troops Part 4

I noticed, too, that the servant who had been summoned by the first Lord while we were discussing the torpedo, was particularly attentive to me, and very careful in seeing me off the premises; and then, for the first time, it flashed across my mind that I had been taken for a madman.

I was so tickled with the idea, that I burst into a sudden fit of hearty laughter, an act which induced a little boy, a policeman, and an old woman, who chanced to be pa.s.sing, to imbibe the erroneous view of the first Lord.

However, although grievously disheartened, I was not subdued. Hope, which tells so many flattering tales, told me that after proper consideration the Admiralty would infallibly perceive the value of my invention; and in regard to the destruction of my fellow-creatures, I consoled myself with the reflection that torpedoes were much more calculated for defensive than offensive warfare.

Before quitting this subject, I may state that from that day to this, I have never heard from the Admiralty in reference to my invention. This fact gives me no pain now, although it did at first. I will explain why.

There is a friend of mine--a grave, kindly, young man, yet withal sarcastic and eccentric--who met me immediately after my visit to the Admiralty. He is a strange being this friend, who crops up at all sorts of unexpected times, and in divers places, when one least expects him.

His name is U. Biquitous.

"My dear Childers," said he, when I had explained matters, "you are a victim;--you are the victim of self-delusion. You were victimised by self-delusion when I first met you, at the time you thought you had discovered perpetual motion. Your torpedo, as you have just described it to me, is an impossibility, and you yourself are--"

"An a.s.s?" said I, looking up in his face.

"No, by no means," returned Biquitous, earnestly; "but you are an enthusiast without ballast. Enthusiasm is a fine, n.o.ble quality. The want of ballast is a grievous misfortune. Study mechanics, my boy, a little more than you have yet done, before venturing on further inventions, and don't theorise too much. You have been revelling of late in the regions of fancy. Take my advice, and don't do it."

"I wont," said I, fervently, "but I cannot give up my cherished pursuits."

"There is no reason that you should," returned my friend, grasping my hand, "and my earnest advice to you is to continue them; but lay in some ballast if possible."

With these cheery words ringing in my ears, I rejoined my mother and sister, and went off to Portsmouth.

It is well, however, to state here that my personal investigations in the matter of explosives had at this time received a death-blow. I went, indeed, with intense interest to see the display of our national destructive powers at Portsmouth, but I never again ventured to add my own little quota to the sum of human knowledge on such subjects; and the reader may henceforth depend upon it, that in all I shall hereafter write, there shall be drawn a distinct and unmistakable line between the region of fact and fancy.

CHAPTER FOUR.

A DAY WITH THE TORPEDOES.

The sentence with which I finished the last chapter appears to me essential, because what I am now about to describe may seem to many readers more like the dreams of fancy than the details of sober fact.

When my mother and I, with Nicholas and Bella, arrived at Portsmouth, we were met by my naval friend, a young lieutenant, who seemed to me the _beau-ideal_ of an embryo naval hero. He was about the middle height, broad, lithe, athletic, handsome, with a countenance beaming with good-will to, and belief in, everybody, including himself. He was self-possessed; impressively attentive to ladies, both young and old, and suave to gentlemen; healthy as a wild stag, and happy as a young cricket, with a budding moustache and a "fluff" on either cheek. Though gentle as a lamb in peace, he was said to be a very demon in war, and bore the not inappropriate name of Firebrand.

"Allow me to introduce my friend, Lieutenant Naranovitsch, Mr Firebrand, my mother and sister; not too late, I hope," said I, shaking hands.

"Not at all. In capital time," replied the young fellow, gaily, as he bowed to each. "Allow me, Mrs Childers--take my arm. The boat is not far off."

"Boat!" exclaimed my mother, "must we then go to sea?"

"Not exactly," replied Firebrand, with a light laugh, "unless you dignify Portchester Creek by that name. The _Nettle_ target-ship lies there, and we must go on board of her, as it is around and in connection with her that the various experiments are to be tried, by means of gunboats, launches, steam-pinnaces, and various other kinds of small craft."

"How very fortunate that you have such a charming day," said my mother, whose interest was at once aroused by the youth's cheery manner. "Do you expect many people to witness the experiments, Mr Firebrand?"

"About five hundred invitations have been issued," answered the lieutenant, "and I daresay most of those invited will come. It is an occasion of some importance, being the termination of the senior course of instruction in our Naval Torpedo School here. I am happy to think,"

he added, with an arch smile, "that an officer of the Russian army will have such a good opportunity of witnessing what England is preparing for her enemies."

"It will afford me the greatest pleasure to witness your experiments,"

replied Nicholas, returning the smile with interest, "all the more that England and Russia are now the best of friends, and shall, I hope, never again be enemies."

In a few minutes we were conveyed on board the _Nettle_, on whose deck was a most animated a.s.semblage. Not only were there present hundreds of gaily-dressed visitors, and officers, both naval and military, in bright and varied uniforms, but also a number of Chinese students, whose gaudy and peculiar garments added novelty as well as brilliancy to the scene.

"Delightful!" murmured Bella, as she listened to the sweet strains of the Commander-in-chief's band, and gazed dreamily at the sun-flashes that danced on the gla.s.sy water.

"Paradise!" replied Naranovitsch, looking down into her eyes.

"What are they going to do?" asked my mother of young Firebrand, who kept possession of her during the whole of the proceedings, and explained everything.

"They are going to ill.u.s.trate the application of torpedo science to offensive and defensive warfare," said the lieutenant; and just now I see they are about to send off an outrigger launch to make an attack with two torpedoes, one on either bow, each being filled with 100 pounds of gunpowder. Sometimes gun-cotton is used, but this 100 pounds charge of powder is quite sufficient to send the vessel in which we stand to the bottom in five or ten minutes. Come this way--we shall see the operations better from this point. Now, don't be alarmed, there is not the slightest danger, I a.s.sure you.

He spoke in rea.s.suring tones, and led my mother to the side of the ship, whither I followed them, and became at once absorbed in what was going on.

The outrigger launch referred to was a goodly-sized boat, fitted with a small engine and screw propeller. Its chief peculiarities were two long poles or spars, which lay along its sides, projecting beyond the bows.

These were the outriggers. At the projecting end of each spar was fixed an iron case, bearing some resemblance in shape and size to an elongated kettle-drum. These were the torpedoes. I heard the lieutenant explain to my mother that if one of these torpedoes chanced to explode where it hung, it would blow the boat and men to atoms. To which my mother replied, "Horrible!" and asked how, in that case, the crew could fire it and escape. Whereupon he responded, "You shall see presently."

Another peculiarity in the launch was that it had a species of iron hood or shield, like a broad and low sentry-box, from behind which protection the few men who formed her crew could steer and work the outriggers and the galvanic battery, without being exposed.

This little boat seemed to me like a vicious wasp, as it left the side of the ship with a rapid throbbing of its engine and twirling of its miniature screw.

When at a sufficient distance from the ship, an order was given by the officer in charge. Immediately the outrigger on the right or starboard side was run out by invisible hands to its full extent--apparently fifteen feet beyond the bow of the launch; then the inner end of the outrigger was tilted violently into the air, so that the other end with its torpedo was thrust down ten feet below the surface of the water.

This, I was told, is about the depth at which an enemy's ship ought to be struck. The launch, still going at full speed, was now supposed to have run so close to the enemy, that the submerged torpedo was about to strike her. Another order was given. The operator gave the needful touch to the galvanic battery, which, like the most faithful of servants, _instantly_ sent a spark to fire the torpedo.

The result was tremendous. A column of seething mud and water, twenty feet in diameter, shot full thirty feet into the air, overwhelming the launch in such a shower that many of the unprofessional spectators imagined she was lost. Thus an imaginary ironclad was sent, with a tremendous hole in her, to the bottom of the sea.

That this is no _imaginary_ result will be seen in the sequel of our tale.

"Why, the shock has made the _Nettle_ herself tremble!" I exclaimed, in surprise.

"Oh, the poor boat!" cried my mother.

"No fear of the boat," said young Firebrand, "and as to the _Nettle_-- why, my good fellow, I have felt our greatest ironclad, the mighty _Thunderer_, of which I have the honour to be an officer, quiver slightly from the explosion of a mere five-pounds torpedo discharged close alongside. Few people have an adequate conception of the power of explosives, and still fewer, I believe, understand the nature of the powers by which they are at all times surrounded. That 100-pounds torpedo, for instance, which has only caused us to quiver, would have blown a hole in our most powerful ship if fired in _contact_ with it, and yet the _cushion of water_ between it and the tiny launch that fired it is so tough as to be quite a sufficient protection to the boat, as you see."

We did indeed "see," for the waspish little boat emerged from the deluge she had raised and, steaming swiftly on, turned round and retraced her track. On reaching about the same position as to the _Nettle_, she repeated the experiment with her second torpedo.

"Splendid!" exclaimed young Naranovitsch, whose military ardour was aroused.

"It means, does it not," said Bella, "a splendid ship destroyed, and some hundreds of lives lost?"

"Well--yes--" said Nicholas, hesitatingly; "but of course it does not always follow, you know, that so _many_ lives--"

He paused, and smiled with a perplexed look. Bella smiled dubiously, and shook her head, for it did not appear to either of them that the exact number of lives lost had much to do with the question. A sudden movement of the visitors to the other side of the ship stopped the conversation.

They were now preparing to show the effect of a gun-cotton hand-grenade; in other words, a species of bomb-sh.e.l.l, meant to be thrown by the hand into an enemy's boat at close-quarters. This really tremendous weapon was an innocent-looking disc or circlet of gun-cotton, weighing not more than eight ounces. Innocent it would, in truth, have been but for the little detonator in its heart, without which it would only have burned, not exploded. Attached to this disc was an instantaneous fuse of some length, so that an operator could throw the disc into a pa.s.sing boat, and then fire the fuse, which would _instantly_ explode the disc.

All this was carefully explained by Firebrand to my astonished mother, while the disc, for experimental purposes, was being placed in a cask floating in the water. On the fuse being fired, this cask was blown "into matchwood"--a wreck so complete that the most ignorant spectator could not fail to understand what would have been the fate of a boat and its crew in similar circ.u.mstances.

"How very awful!" said my mother. "Pray, Mr Firebrand, what _is_ gun-worsted--I mean cotton."