placidly accepted these assurances concerning the activity of the
honoured corps.

For a long time England blundered in the same way over the matter of
torpedo boats. They were authoritatively informed that there was nothing
in all the talk about torpedo boats. Then came a great popular uproar,
in which people tumbled over each other to get to the doors of the
Admiralty and howl about torpedo boats. It was an awakening as
unreasonable as had been the previous indifference and contempt. Then
England began to build. She has never overtaken France or Germany in the
number of torpedo boats, but she now heads the world with her
collection of that marvel of marine architecture--the torpedo boat
destroyer. She has about sixty-five of these vessels now in commission,
and has about as many more in course of building.

People ordinarily have a false idea of the appearance of a destroyer.
The common type is longer than an ordinary gunboat--a long, low,
graceful thing, flying through the water at fabulous speed, with a great
curve of water some yards back of the bow, and smoke flying horizontally
from the three or four stacks.

Bushing this way and that way, circling, dodging, turning, they are like
demons.

The best kind of modern destroyer has a length of 220 feet, with a beam
of 26-1/2 feet. The horse-power is about 6500, driving the boat at a
speed of thirty-one knots or more. The engines are triple-expansion,
with water tube boilers. They carry from 70 to 100 tons of coal, and at
a speed of eight or nine knots can keep the sea for a week; so they are
independent of coaling in a voyage of between 1300 and 1500 miles. They
carry a crew of three or four officers, and about forty men.

They are armed usually with one twelve-pounder gun, and from three to
five six-pounder guns, besides their equipment of torpedoes. Their hulls
and top hamper are painted olive, buff, or preferably slate, in order to
make them hard to find with the eye at sea.

Their principal functions, theoretically, are to discover and kill the
enemy's torpedo boats, guard and scout for the main squadron, and
perform messenger service. However, they are also torpedo boats of a
most formidable kind, and in action will be found carrying out the
torpedo boat idea in an expanded form. Four destroyers of this type
building at the Yarrow yards were for Japan (1898).

The modern European ideal of a torpedo boat is a craft 152 feet long,
with a beam of 15-1/4 fee