en them, so as to catch any
attacking torpedo boat, either by fouling her screw as she advanced, or
by stopping entirely her progress. Moreover, a torpedo boat thus stopped
would, by catching the rope, draw the guard-boat on either side of her,
or right on top of her. I must admit that while torpedoes at that time
were supposed to be in their infancy, the defence prepared against their
attack was also very much in its infancy, so these preparations were of
the most primitive description.

The squadron, as I said, consisted of five vessels, which had been in
the habit of standing out to sea every night, to avoid torpedo attacks.
On the occasion I am writing about, they had returned to the anchorage
on account of bad weather. A Russian steamer with five torpedo boats in
tow started (as we afterwards learnt) from Odessa to hunt for the
Turkish squadron, which, it was known to them through their spies, was
in the habit of cruising off Serpent's Island, about eight miles from
Odessa. The Muscovites were unable to find their enemy, and I don't
wonder at it, for they were not in their usual cruising ground; even had
they been there, to find them would have been difficult, as the Turkish
ships always cruised in open order, burnt smokeless coal, and showed no
lights. On being disappointed in finding what she wanted at sea, the
Russian vessel steamed towards the anchorage off Sulina. As the weather
was bad, her commander decided not to attack, and I fancy had to cast
off his torpedo boats.

One of these boats, if not more (I have never been able to ascertain
precisely what happened to the five torpedo boats that left Odessa),
made a dash at the Turkish squadron; the weather not permitting him to
use his Whitehead, he decided to try what his pole torpedo would do. As
he approached the head-most vessel, he found (as he explained afterwards
to me) that _something_ stopped his way, and he saw at the same time
several black objects approaching him. Nothing daunted, he struggled to
get close to the bows of the ironclad; when he got as near as he could
manage he fired his torpedo, without, however, doing any harm to his
enemy. Scarcely had he done this when he found himself in the water and
his boat gone from under him: the real facts being that the black
objects he had seen were the guard-boats, which were closing on him, the
ropes that connected them together having fouled his screw, and caused
the disaster; his boat was capsized and