t. When the boat is fully loaded a speed of 24
knots is derived from her 2000 horse-power engines. The destroyers are
twin screw, whereas the torpedo boats are commonly propelled by a single
screw. The speed of twenty knots is for a run of three hours. These
boats are not designed to keep at sea for any great length of time, and
cannot raid toward a distant coast without the constant attendance of a
cruiser to keep them in coal and provisions. Primarily they are for
defence. Even with destroyers, England, in lately reinforcing her
foreign stations, has seen fit to send cruisers in order to provide help
for them in stormy weather.

Some years ago it was thought the proper thing to equip torpedo craft
with rudders, which would enable them to turn in their own length when
running at full speed. Yarrow found this to result in too much broken
steering gear, and the firm's boats now have smaller rudders, which
enable them to turn in a larger circle.

At one time a torpedo boat steaming at her best gait always carried a
great bone in her teeth. During manoeuvres the watch on the deck of a
battleship often discovered the approach of the little enemy by the
great white wave which the boat rolled at her bows during her headlong
rush. This was mainly because the old-fashioned boats carried two
torpedo tubes set in the bows, and the bows were consequently bluff.

The modern boat carries the great part of her armament amidships and
astern on swivels, and her bow is like a dagger. With no more bow-waves,
and with these phantom colours of buff, olive, bottle-green, or slate,
the principal foe to a safe attack at night is bad firing in the
stoke-room, which might cause flames to leap out of the stacks.

A captain of an English battleship recently remarked: "See those five
destroyers lying there? Well, if they should attack me I would sink four
of them, but the fifth one would sink me."

This was repeated to Yarrow's manager, who said: "He wouldn't sink four
of them if the attack were at night and the boats were shrewdly and
courageously handled." Anyhow, the captain's remark goes to show the
wholesome respect which the great battleship has for these little
fliers.

The Yarrow people say there is no sense in a torpedo flotilla attack on
anything save vessels. A modern fortification is never built near enough
to the water for a torpedo explosion to injure it, and, although some
old stone flush-with-the-water castle might be badly c