Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Marine Review (Cleveland, OH), 17 Nov 1898, p. 19

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1898.] MARINE detsroyers lately ordered by our government are a decided improvement in this class of vessel, but we do not think they are fitted even yet to meet the special conditions of service on the Pacific. The annexation of the Hawaiian islands requires a much greater radius of action for such a vessel, and, we think, a different treatment. In fact, we maintain that if 80 knots or over is aimed at as the supreme speed, a sufficiently staunch sea-going vessel cannot be produced in the present state of the art, and that the present so-called 30-knot torpedo boat destroyers have not, in fact, the speed with which they are credited as being available when required. The supreme efforts required, under expert management and with special trial trip crews, to reach the contract requirements are seldom or never repeated in the life of the boats. If these boats and their machinery were made more substantial, so that their full power could be exerted at any time and without risk, and the hull stand a moderate sea without danger, the 30-knot boat, by reason of the extra displacement, would drop to about 27 knots; yet we venture to assert that such a boat, ordered to reach a point at sea, say one hundred miles distant, in the short- est possible time, would reach the objective point in less time than the regulation 30-knot boat that is said to get a horse power in 50 pounds weight of machinery. A large proportion of naval vessels rated at high speeds, especially those over 20 knots, have obtained such speeds under conditions that cannot be reproduced when the speed is most needed, and a Boo: reliable, heavy-engined, 16 or 17-knot boat may outstrip them in a ght. Whatever speed a fighting ship has ought to be produced when ordered from the bridge. An Atlantic liner would not be considered a success if in ordinary weather she could not cross the ocean at very near her trial speed, and if the machinery of a naval ship were as substantially built she could do the same if necessary as long as her coal held out. Merchant ships are now making the longest possible sea voyages with a steady and continuous production of steam greater than that produced per foot of grate in naval vessels in three, four or six hours forced draft trials that are said to be so destructive to boilers. In the merchant service machinery is built for REVIEW. 19 We have, in this vessel, purposely omitted all deck torpedo launching tubes, believing that they should form no part of the armament of a sea. going torpedo boat destroyer, as such a vessel must be prepared to go into action along with the fleet of which it forms a part, superior speed would DETAIL DRAWINGS ILLUSTRATING THE PAPER BY G. W. DICKIE. enable her to choose the kind of vessel with which she would engage. The deck tubes would, in such a case, if there was any intention to use it, con- tain a chargtd torpedo that would, in such an exposed position, be a con- stant source of dread to those on board. We have, therefore, arranged for two special submerged torpedo tubes in a protected compartment aft of the engine room. Owing to the limited width of the vessel, these tubes would be designed to open on top instead of at the inner end. We believe that there is no mechanical difficulty in designing the discharging tube and the DECK PLANS OF THE TYPH OF TORPEDO BOAT DESTROYER SUGGESTED BY G. W. DIOKIE. full power as a normal condition. In the navy full power is only to be resorted to under great necessity, and maintained at a terrible risk, hence the difference. Returning to the subject proper of this paper, we would propose for a torpedo boat destroyer adapted for service on the Pacific coast the follow- ing general characteristics as necessary to meet the conditions of the varied service required, the outline drawings accompanying this paper being illus- trations of how we would embody these qualities in a sea-going vessel: Length on normal water line, 250 feet; extreme width, 25 feet; depth, moulded, 15 feet; draught of water on trial, 8 feet; draught of water loaded, 9 feet 5 inches; displacement on trial, 640 tons; total load displacement, 800 tons; indicated horse power on trial, 7,000; speed on trial, 25 knots; radius of action at 12 knots, 3,200 knots; best speed from San Francisco to Honolulu, 15 knots; best speed from San Francisco to Puget Sound naval station, or San Diego, in good weather, 20 knots. The weights provided for are as follows: Ordnance, 36 tons; machinery, including water in pipes and boilers, evaporating plant, tools, spare parts, water in water tanks, etc., 230 tons; hull, complete, and fittings, 800 tons; crew and effects, including portable furniture, 14 tons; coal at normal trim, 60 tons; making the normal displacement 640 tons and the coefficient at 8 feet draught .448. With bunkers full of coal there would be 160 tons added, the full coal capacity being 200 tons. : ; 'A's will be observed by the outboard profile, we have designed this vessel to have a full forecastle, extending to the forward fire room, and a half poop extending to the engine room. Between the poop and naece gc a 'hammock berthing extends the full lengths. The 6-pounder guns, : which there are six, would be carried on rail mounts above the 'hammoc berthing. This arrangement would give very good quarters, one for officers and crew. 'Casings around the two smoke pipes are carrie Lae high enough to carry the inner ends of the boat skid beams. ais oe es four boats to be carried, while the casings furnish room for the ga eS on deck. We propose to carry two 4-inch rapid-fire guns, one. on t' : forecastle deck and one on the poop. The conning tower 1s 0 pane nickel steel. There is a chart house aft of the conning tower, and a bridge above. There is also an after steering house on the poop. This gouers the stairs to the officers' quarters and carries the search-light above. [I is light would be controlled from the forward bridge. The rachis yeu occupy a space at the forward on S re eee ee ee eee a leadin ine room, aft of which wou aheee aa The total complement of officers and crew would be seventy-five. impeller that carries the torpedo clear of the skin of the vessel before re- lease, so as to admit of the torpedo being placed in the tube from the top side. The sloping sides of the torpedo room would be of 1-inch nickel steel. Wie have also provided l-inch nickel steel protection extending the whole length of the engine and boiler compartments, so as to give a mod- erate amount of protection when the coal bunkers are empty. We have shown four Thornycroft boilers in our design, and four- cylinder, triple-expansion engines of 7,000 horse power. We have allowed 30 tons extra weight for the machinery above that allowed for the satne horse power in the usual types of torpedo boat destroyer, so as to have a fair margin of safety in all main parts of the engines and boilers. In this design our aim has been to produce a sea-going torpedo boat destroyer that can go to sea and remain at sea without any special risk, and at sea can maintain a speed of 25 knots for a few hours when such a speed is re- quired; that can make extended voyages, thus serving the purpose of a scout or dispatch boat, whenever or wherever such service is required; that carries a battery that makes her a torpedo boat destroyer in fact. This boat would show better speed under regular service conditions than any of the so-called 30-knot torpedo boat destroyers, and for sea-worthiness, thabitability or fighting capacity far outranks them. HOLLAND SUBMARINE BOAT. CAPTAIN W.H. JACQUES OF THE HOLLAND SUBMARINE TORPEDO BOAT CO. PRE- SENTS A TREATISE ON THE CRAFT IN GENERAL, In my paper on submarine torpedo boats read in London, last April, at the thirtieth session of the Institution of Naval Architects and in recent issues of a current magazine I have emphasized my belief in the value of submarine boats in warfare and given my reasons for thinking they will greatly influence the torpedo boat architecture of ithe future. A careful study of the types experimented with for the past fifteen years has lead me to believe that the principles of the Holland type are the simplest and most easily controlled. You will remember that its fun- damental principle is to dive, like the porpoise, and not to be controlled as in the foreign types, either by the inlet or outlet of water or by down- haul screws alone. This principle, combined with an unmovable center of gravity assures perfect control. The Spanish boat Peral is said to function well and the boats of the Morse type in France are much prized

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