The sentence with which I finished the last chapter appears to me
essential, because what I am now about to describe may seem to many
readers more like the dreams of fancy than the details of sober fact.
When my mother and I, with Nicholas and Bella, arrived at Portsmouth, we
were met by my naval friend, a young lieutenant, who seemed to me the
_beau-ideal_ of an embryo naval hero. He was about the middle height,
broad, lithe, athletic, handsome, with a countenance beaming with
good-will to, and belief in, everybody, including himself. He was
self-possessed; impressively attentive to ladies, both young and old,
and suave to gentlemen; healthy as a wild stag, and happy as a young
cricket, with a budding moustache and a "fluff" on either cheek. Though
gentle as a lamb in peace, he was said to be a very demon in war, and
bore the not inappropriate name of Firebrand.
"Allow me to introduce my friend, Lieutenant Naranovitsch, Mr
Firebrand, my mother and sister; not too late, I hope," said I, shaking
hands.
"Not at all. In capital time," replied the young fellow, gaily, as he
bowed to each. "Allow me, Mrs Childers--take my arm. The boat is not
far off."
"Boat!" exclaimed my mother, "must we then go to sea?"
"Not exactly," replied Firebrand, with a light laugh, "unless you
dignify Portchester Creek by that name. The _Nettle_ target-ship lies
there, and we must go on board of her, as it is around and in connection
with her that the various experiments are to be tried, by means of
gunboats, launches, steam-pinnaces, and various other kinds of small
craft."
"How very fortunate that you have such a charming day," said my mother,
whose interest was at once aroused by the youth's cheery manner. "Do
you expect many people to witness the experiments, Mr Firebrand?"
"About five hundred invitations have been issued," answered the
lieutenant, "and I daresay most of those invited will come. It is an
occasion of some importance, being the termination of the senior course
of instruction in our Naval Torpedo School here. I am happy to think,"
he added, with an arch smile, "that an officer of the Russian army will
have such a good opportunity of witnessing what England is preparing for
her enemies."
"It will afford me the greatest pleasure to witness your experiments,"
replied Nicholas, returning the smile with interest, "all the more that
England and Russia are now the best of friends, and shall, I hope, never
again be enemies."
In a few minutes we were conveyed on board the _Nettle_, on whose deck
was a most animated assemblage. Not only were there present hundreds of
gaily-dressed visitors, and officers, both naval and military, in bright
and varied uniforms, but also a number of Chinese students, whose gaudy
and peculiar garments added novelty as well as brilliancy to the scene.
"Delightful!" murmured Bella, as she listened to the sweet strains of
the Commander-in-chief's band, and gazed dreamily at the sun-flashes
that danced on the glassy water.
"Paradise!" replied Naranovitsch, looking down into her eyes.
"What are they going to do?" asked my mother of young Firebrand, who
kept possession of her during the whole of the proceedings, and
explained everything.
"They are going to illustrate the application of torpedo science to
offensive and defensive warfare," said the lieutenant; and just now I
see they are about to send off an outrigger launch to make an attack
with two torpedoes, one on either bow, each being filled with 100 pounds
of gunpowder. Sometimes gun-cotton is used, but this 100 pounds charge
of powder is quite sufficient to send the vessel in which we stand to
the bottom in five or ten minutes. Come this way--we shall see the
operations better from this point. Now, don't be alarmed, there is not
the slightest danger, I assure you.
He spoke in reassuring tones, and led my mother to the side of the ship,
whither I followed them, and became at once absorbed in what was going
on.
The outrigger launch referred to was a goodly-sized boat, fitted with a
small engine and screw propeller. Its chief peculiarities were two long
poles or spars, which lay along its sides, projecting beyond the bows.
These were the outriggers. At the projecting end of each spar was fixed
an iron case, bearing some resemblance in shape and size to an elongated
kettle-drum. These were the torpedoes. I heard the lieutenant explain
to my mother that if one of these torpedoes chanced to explode where it
hung, it would blow the boat and men to atoms. To which my mother
replied, "Horrible!" and asked how, in that case, the crew could fire it
and escape. Whereupon he responded, "You shall see presently."
Another peculiarity in the launch was that it had a species of iron hood
or shield, like a broad and low sentry-box, from behind which protection
the few men who formed her crew could steer and work the outriggers and
the galvanic battery, without being exposed.
This little boat seemed to me like a vicious wasp, as it left the side
of the ship with a rapid throbbing of its engine and twirling of its
miniature screw.
When at a sufficient distance from the ship, an order was given by the
officer in charge. Immediately the outrigger on the right or starboard
side was run out by invisible hands to its full extent--apparently
fifteen feet beyond the bow of the launch; then the inner end of the
outrigger was tilted violently into the air, so that the other end with
its torpedo was thrust down ten feet below the surface of the water.
This, I was told, is about the depth at which an enemy's ship ought to
be struck. The launch, still going at full speed, was now supposed to
have run so close to the enemy, that the submerged torpedo was about to
strike her. Another order was given. The operator gave the needful
touch to the galvanic battery, which, like the most faithful of
servants, _instantly_ sent a spark to fire the torpedo.
The result was tremendous. A column of seething mud and water, twenty
feet in diameter, shot full thirty feet into the air, overwhelming the
launch in such a shower that many of the unprofessional spectators
imagined she was lost. Thus an imaginary ironclad was sent, with a
tremendous hole in her, to the bottom of the sea.
That this is no _imaginary_ result will be seen in the sequel of our
tale.
"Why, the shock has made the _Nettle_ herself tremble!" I exclaimed, in
surprise.
"Oh, the poor boat!" cried my mother.
"No fear of the boat," said young Firebrand, "and as to the _Nettle_--
why, my good fellow, I have felt our greatest ironclad, the mighty
_Thunderer_, of which I have the honour to be an officer, quiver
slightly from the explosion of a mere five-pounds torpedo discharged
close alongside. Few people have an adequate conception of the power of
explosives, and still fewer, I believe, understand the nature of the
powers by which they are at all times surrounded. That 100-pounds
torpedo, for instance, which has only caused us to quiver, would have
blown a hole in our most powerful ship if fired in _contact_ with it,
and yet the _cushion of water_ between it and the tiny launch that fired
it is so tough as to be quite a sufficient protection to the boat, as
you see."
We did indeed "see," for the waspish little boat emerged from the deluge
she had raised and, steaming swiftly on, turned round and retraced her
track. On reaching about the same position as to the _Nettle_, she
repeated the experiment with her second torpedo.
"Splendid!" exclaimed young Naranovitsch, whose military ardour was
aroused.
"It means, does it not," said Bella, "a splendid ship destroyed, and
some hundreds of lives lost?"
"Well--yes--" said Nicholas, hesitatingly; "but of course it does not
always follow, you know, that so _many_ lives--"
He paused, and smiled with a perplexed look. Bella smiled dubiously,
and shook her head, for it did not appear to either of them that the
exact number of lives lost had much to do with the question. A sudden
movement of the visitors to the other side of the ship stopped the
conversation.
They were now preparing to show the effect of a gun-cotton hand-grenade;
in other words, a species of bomb-shell, meant to be thrown by the hand
into an enemy's boat at close-quarters. This really tremendous weapon
was an innocent-looking disc or circlet of gun-cotton, weighing not more
than eight ounces. Innocent it would, in truth, have been but for the
little detonator in its heart, without which it would only have burned,
not exploded. Attached to this disc was an instantaneous fuse of some
length, so that an operator could throw the disc into a passing boat,
and then fire the fuse, which would _instantly_ explode the disc.
All this was carefully explained by Firebrand to my astonished mother,
while the disc, for experimental purposes, was being placed in a cask
floating in the water. On the fuse being fired, this cask was blown
"into matchwood"--a wreck so complete that the most ignorant spectator
could not fail to understand what would have been the fate of a boat and
its crew in similar circumstances.
"How very awful!" said my mother. "Pray, Mr Firebrand, what _is_
gun-worsted--I mean cotton."
The young lieutenant smiled rather broadly as he explained, in a glib
and slightly sing-song tone, which savoured of the Woolwich Military
Academy, that, "gun-cotton is the name given to the explosive substance
produced by the action of nitric acid mixed with sulphuric acid, on
cotton fibre." He was going to add, "It contains carbon, hydrogen,
nitrogen, and oxygen, corresponding to--" when my mother stopped him.
"Dear me, Mr Firebrand, is a _popular_ explanation impossible?"
"Not impossible, madam, but rather difficult. Let me see. Gun-cotton
is a chemical compound of the elements which I have just named--a
_chemical compound_, you will observe, not a mechanical _mixture_, like
gunpowder. Hence it explodes more rapidly than the latter, and its
power is from three to six times greater."
My mother looked perplexed. "What is the difference," she asked,
"between a chemical compound and a mechanical mixture?"
Firebrand now in his turn looked perplexed. "Why, madam," he exclaimed,
in modulated desperation, "the ultimate molecules of a mixture are only
placed _beside_ each other, so that an atom of gunpowder may be
saltpetre, charcoal, or sulphur, dependent on its fellow-atoms for power
to act; whereas a chemical compound is such a perfect union of
substances, that each ultimate molecule is complete in its definite
proportions of the four elements, and therefore an _independent_ little
atom."
"Now, the next experiment," continued Firebrand, glad to have an
opportunity of changing the subject, "is meant to illustrate our method
of countermining. You must know that our enemies may sometimes sink
torpedoes at the entrance of their harbours, to prevent our ships of war
entering. Such torpedoes consist usually of casks or cases of
explosives, which are fired either by electric wires, like the
telegraph, when ships are seen to be passing over them, or by _contact_.
That is to say, an enemy's ship entering a harbour runs against
something which sets something else in motion, which explodes the
torpedo and blows it and the ship into what natives of the Green Isle
call smithereens. This is very satisfactory when it happens to an
enemy, but not when it happens to one's-self, therefore when _we_ have
to enter an enemy's harbour we _countermine_. This operation is now
about to be illustrated. The last experiments exhibited the power of
offensive torpedoes. There are several different kinds, such as Mr
Whitehead's fish-torpedo, the Harvey torpedo, and others."
"Dear me," said my mother, with a perplexed air, "I should have thought,
Mr Firebrand, that all torpedoes were offensive."
"By no means; those which are placed at the entrance of harbours and
navigable rivers are defensive. To protect ourselves from the offensive
weapon, we use crinolines."
My mother looked quickly up at her polite young mentor. "You play with
the ignorance of an old woman, sir," she said, with a half-jocular air.
"Indeed I do not, madam, I assure you," returned Firebrand, with much
earnestness. "Every iron-clad is provided with a crinoline, which is a
powerful iron network, hung all round the ship at some distance from
her, like--pardon me--a lady's crinoline, and is intended to intercept
any torpedo that may be discharged against her."
Attention was called, at this point, to the counter-mining experiments.
It may be said, in regard to these, that they can be conducted in
various ways, but always with the same end in view, namely, to destroy
an enemy's mines by exploding others in their midst.
For the sake of illustration, it was supposed that the surrounding
sea-bottom was studded with invisible torpedoes, and that the _Nettle_
was a warship, determined to advance into the enemy's harbour. To
effect this with safety, and in order to clear away the supposed sunken
torpedoes, a counter-torpedo was floated between two empty casks, and
sent off floating in the desired direction by means of the tide. This
countermine consisted of an iron cylinder, containing 300 pounds of
powder, and was electrically connected with the _Nettle_. A small
charge of gun-cotton was fixed to the suspender that held the torpedo to
its casks. When at a safe distance from the ship, this charge was
fired. It cut the suspender and let the torpedo sink to the bottom.
There it was exploded with terrific violence, as was quickly shown by
the mighty fountain of mud, water, and smoke that instantly shot up into
the air. It has been proved by experiment that 500 pounds of gun-cotton
exploded below water, will destroy all the torpedoes that lie within a
radius of 120 yards. It is obvious, therefore, that a warship could
advance into the space thus cleared and then send a second countermine
ahead of her in the same way. If neither tide, current, nor wind will
serve to drift the casks, the operation might be accomplished by a small
boat, which could back out of danger after laying each torpedo, and
thus, step by step, or shot by shot, the advance could be made in safety
through the enemy's defences.
After this, twelve small charges of gun-cotton were sunk in various
directions, each representing a countermine of 500 pounds. These were
discharged simultaneously, to demonstrate the possibility of extending
the operations over a wide area. These miniature charges were sent down
in small nets, and were quite unprotected from the water, so that the
gun-cotton was wet when fired.
This fact caught the attention of my mother at once.
"How can it go off when _wet_?" she exclaimed, turning her bright little
eyes in astonishment on her young companion.
"Ha, that is one of the strange peculiarities of gun-cotton," replied
Firebrand, with an amused look; "you don't require to keep it dry like
powder. It is only necessary that there should be one small lump of dry
gun-cotton inside the wet stuff, with a detonator in its heart. A
detonator, you must know--"
"Oh, I know what a detonator is," said my mother, quickly.
"Well then," continued Firebrand, "the exploding of the detonator and
the dry disc causes the wet gun-cotton also to go off, as you have seen.
Now they are going to exhibit one of the modes of defending harbours.
They have sunk four mines, of 300 pounds of gunpowder each, not far from
where you see yon black specks floating on the water. The black specks
are buoys, called _circuit-closers_, because they contain a delicate
contrivance--a compound of mechanism and galvanism--which, when the
buoys are bumped, _close_ the electric circuit and cause the mine to
explode. Thus when a ship-of-war sails against one of these
circuit-closers, she is immediately blown up."
"Is not that rather a sneaking way of killing one's enemies?" asked my
mother.
Young Firebrand laughed, and admitted that it was, but pleaded that
everything was fair in love and war.
In actual warfare the circuit-closers are placed just over the mines
which they are designed to explode, but for safety on this occasion they
were placed at a safe distance from their respective mines. A
steam-launch was used to bump them, and a prodigious upheaval of water
on each explosion showed clearly enough what would have been the fate of
an iron-clad if she had been over the mine.
"Oh, shade of Nelson!" I could not help exclaiming, "how shocked you
must be if you are permitted to witness such methods of conducting war."
"Ah, yes!" sighed Firebrand; "the bubble reputation, you see, is being
transferred from the cannon's mouth to the torpedo."
I made no reply, for my mind reverted to my laboratory in Devonshire,
where lay the working-model of the terrible weapon I had spent so much
time in perfecting. It seemed strange to me now, that, in the eager
pursuit of a scientific object, I had scarcely ever, if at all,
reflected on the dire results that the use of my torpedo involved, and I
felt as if I were really guilty of the intent to murder. Just before
leaving home I had charged my model, which was quite a large one,
capable of holding about 50 pounds of dynamite, in the hope that I might
prevail on the First Lord of the Admiralty and some of his colleagues to
come down and see it actually fired. I now resolved to throw the
dynamite into the sea, break up my model, and have done with explosives
for ever.
While my mind was running on this, I was startled by an explosion close
alongside. On turning towards the side of the ship, I found that it was
caused by the rending of a huge iron chain, the links of which were more
than one and a quarter inch in thickness. This powerful cable, which
could have held an iron-clad, was snapped in twain like a piece of
thread by the explosion _against_ it of only two and a half pounds of
gun-cotton.
"Very well done," I said to Firebrand, "but I think that a much smaller
quantity of dynamite would have done it as effectively."
"Now, Mrs Childers," said the young lieutenant, "the last experiment is
about to be made, and I think it will interest you even more than the
others. See, they are about to send off the electrical steam-pinnace."
As he spoke, a boat was being prepared alongside the ship.
"Why!" exclaimed my mother, almost speechless with surprise, "they have
forgotten to send its crew in it."
"No, madam," said Firebrand, with one of his blandest smiles, "they have
not forgotten her crew, but there are services so dangerous, that
although the courage of the British sailor will of course enable him to
face _anything_, it has been thought advisable not to put it to too
severe a test, hence this automatic boat has been invented. It is
steered, and all its other operations are performed, by means of
electricity, applied not on board the boat but on board of the
_Nettle_."
This was indeed the case. The electric pinnace went off as he spoke,
her steam-engines, steering-gear, and all the other apparatus being
regulated by electric wires, which were "paid out" from the ship as the
boat proceeded on her mission of supposed extreme danger. Right under
the withering fire of the imaginary enemy's batteries she went, and
having scorned the rain of small shot that swept over her like hail, and
escaped the plunging heavy shot that fell on every side, she dropped a
mine over her stern, exploded it by means of a slow fuse, turned round
and steamed back in triumph, amid the cheers of the spectators.
This last was really a marvellous sight, and the little boat seemed
indeed to deserve the encomiums of Firebrand, who said, that, "If cool,
calm pluck, in the face of appalling danger, merited anything, that
heroic little steam-pinnace ought to receive the Victoria Cross."
I was still meditating on this subject, and listening to the animated
comments going on around me, when I myself received a shock, compared to
which all the explosions I had that day witnessed were as nothing.
It suddenly recurred to my memory that I had left a compound in my
laboratory at home in a state of chemical preparation, which required
watching to prevent its catching fire at a certain part of the process.
I had been called away from that compound suddenly by Nicholas, just
before we left for London, and I had been so taken up with what he had
to tell me, that I had totally forgotten it. The mere burning of this
compound would, in itself, have been nothing, for my laboratory was an
old out-house, quite unconnected with the dwelling; but in the
laboratory also lay my torpedo! The worst of it was that I had inserted
a detonator and affixed a fuse, feeling quite secure in doing so,
because I invariably locked the door and carried the key in my pocket.
My face must have turned very pale, for Nicholas, who came up at the
moment, looked at me with anxious surprise, and asked if I were ill.
"No," said I, hurriedly; "no, not ill--but--yes--it is a slow process at
best, and not always certain--sometimes takes a day or two to culminate.
The fusion may not have been quite completed, or it may have failed
altogether. Too late, I fear, too late, but I cannot rest till I know.
Tell my mother I'm off home--only business--don't alarm her."
Regardless of the amazed looks of those who stood near me, I broke from
the grasp of Nicholas, leaped into one of the boats alongside, seized
the oars, and rowed ashore in mad haste.
Fortune favoured me. The train had not left, though it was just in
motion. I had no time to take a ticket, but leaping upon the moving
footboard, I wrenched open a carriage-door and sprang in.
It was an express. We went at full sixty miles an hour, yet I felt as
if we moved like a snail. No words can adequately explain the state of
my mind and body--the almost uncontrollable desire I felt to spring out
of the train and run on ahead. But I was forced to sit still and think.
I thought of the nearness of the laboratory to our kitchen windows, of
the tremendous energy of the explosive with which the model-torpedo was
charged, of the mass of combustibles of all kinds by which it was
surrounded, of the thousand and one possibilities of the case, and of my
own inexcusable madness in not being more careful.
At last the train pulled up at the town from which our residence is
about two miles distant. It was now evening; but it was summer, and the
days were long. Hiring a horse at the nearest hotel, I set off at a
break-neck gallop.
The avenue-gate was open. I dashed in. The laboratory was not visible
from that point, being at the back of the house. At the front door I
pulled up, sprang to the ground, let the horse go, and ran forward.
I was met by Lancey coming round the corner. I saw at once that all was
over! His face and hands had been scorched, and his hair singed! I
gasped for breath.
"No one killed?" I asked.
"No, sir, nobody killed, but most of us 'orribly scared, sir."
"Nobody hurt, Lancey?" I asked again, leaning against the side of the
house, and wiping my forehead.
"No, sir, nor 'urt," continued my faithful groom, hastening to relieve
my mind; "you've no need to alarm yourself, sir, for we're all alive and
'earty, though I must say it's about the wust buster, sir, that you've
yet turned out of 'ands. It sent in the kitchen winders as if they'd
bin made of tissue paper, sir, an' cook she went into highstericks in
the coal-bunker, Margaret she swounded in the scullery, and Mary went
into fits in the wash'us. But they're all right again, sir,--only
raither skeery ever since. We 'ad some trouble in puttin' it out, for
the cumbustibles didn't seem to care much for water. We got it under at
last, early this morning."
"This morning?"
"Yes, sir. It blow'd up about two hours arter you left for London, an'
we've bin at it ever since. We _was_ so glad your mother was away, sir,
for it _did_ make an uncommon crack. I was just sayin' to cook, not
'alf an hour since, the master would have enjoyed that, he would; it was
_such_ a crusher."
"Any of--of--the torpedo left, Lancey?" I asked, with some hesitation.
"The torpedo, sir. Bless your 'art, it went up to the 'eavens like a
sky-rocket, an' blowed the out-'ouse about to that extent that you
couldn't find a bit big enough to pick your teeth with."
On hearing this I roused myself, and hastened to the scene of
devastation.
One glance sufficed. The spot on which my laboratory had stood was a
blackened heap of rubbish!
"Now, mother," said I next day, after relieving her mind by a full and
rapid account of what had happened, "there is nothing that I know of to
detain me at home. I will therefore see to having the yacht got ready,
and we shall all go to sea without delay."