a mean draught of 26 feet 10
inches. The present series of experiments was of even greater importance
than the first series. The attack was gradually developed by means of
fixed and outrigger charges of increasing power, and the _coup de grace_
was not given by means of a service Whitehead in actual contact until
various lessons had been derived.

The opening experiment on June 9 consisted of an attack directed against
a new system of torpedo defenses which are to be carried by ships in
action, or when in expectation of an attack, rather than an assault upon
the ship herself. The previous experiments had clearly demonstrated that
a Whitehead, when projected against a vessel at close range, and
consequently with a maximum of motive force, could not get through the
ordinary wire netting before expending its explosive energy in the air,
and that the spars by which the nets are boomed out from the ship's side
could be reduced to 25 ft. in length without danger to the hull. The
ordinary wooden booms employed on board ship, however, are heavy and
unwieldy, weighing, as they do, more than half a ton each. In ordinary
circumstances, the spars cannot be lowered into place and the nets made
taut in less than a couple of hours, and the work of stowing them is
equally slow and laborious.

Mr. Bullivant, who manufactures the torpedo netting and hawsers for the
navy, has devised a method of getting rid of the difficulties complained
of by substituting steel booms for the wooden booms and an arrangement
of pulleys and runners, whereby the protection can be run out and in,
topped and brailed up out of the way, with great facility. The system
was tried at Portsmouth last year with considerable success upon the
Dido, but as it was thought that some of the fittings were somewhat
frail and might collapse beneath the shock of a live torpedo, it was
resolved to submit them to a practical test under service conditions
upon the Resistance. The ship was consequently fitted with three of the
steel booms on the port side. They were 32 ft. long and spaced 45 ft.
apart, and connected by a jackstay to which the nets were attached. Each
steel boom weighed 5 cwt., or less than half the weight of the ordinary
boom, and whereas the latter is fixed to the ship's side by a hook which
is liable to be disconnected or broken by the jerk of an exploding
torpedo, Mr. Bullivant's boom works in a universal or socket joint,
which cannot get out of gear except by