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Posted on 12/21/2003 5:08:19 AM PST by snippy_about_it
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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 The Early Days Ancient history tells us of the use of fire ships and powder ships against fleets of hostile vessels. It remained for Captain David Bushnell, U.S. Navy, to make use of this idea shortly before the American Revolution in the invention of a floating keg-mine. Captain Bushnell's "keg" was loaded with a small charge of gun powder, fired by the pulling of a lanyard led from the keg to the shore. The keg was floated down stream until it fouled the target, when the lanyard was pulled and the explosive charge set off. The Torpedo fish is an electric ray capable of delivering a stunning shock to its prey and in the eighteenth century an American, David Bushnell, first applied the name to a weapon of his invention. This first torpedo was simply a mine which was attached to the hull of a ship and exploded either by remote control or by a clockwork fuze. The name was also applied to floating mines and even blazing barrels of pitch carried into harbours by the tide. Within this general application of the name the history of the torpedo up to about 1860 is synonymous with the history of the mine. In order to give a continuous account of the torpedo's development we will go back to Roman days and note the use of fireships to destroy enemy fleets. The use of drifting weapons of destruction, powered by the ocean currents, is not so very far removed from destructive weapons powered by other means as in the present understanding of the name “torpedo”. The next stage in the sophistication of sea weapons appears in 1585 when the Italian Zambelli destroyed a bridge by means of a drifting boat loaded with explosives which were detonated by a clockwork delay fuze. We next find David Bushnell on the scene again with his submarine, Fig. 1. This remarkable one manpower vessel actually once sank a ship. The operation of the boat is quite obvious from the diagram. The operator used both hands and feet to control the forward and vertical motion by means of screws as well as operating a footpump and rudder.  FIG. 1. Bushnell's Boat (1775). The "torpedo" was a charge of explosive fixed to a ship's hull by means of the woodscrew illustrated and ignited by delayed action fuze. The operator then cranked himself furiously away from tile area before the "torpedo" exploded. The best documented attack by a Bushnell boat was made against the flagship of the British fleet sent to quell the unruly colonists towards the latter end of the eighteenth century. The submarine was successfully positioned under the ship but the woodscrew failed to penetrate the copper sheathing recently introduced onto the hulls of British warships.  Robert Fulton, another American, developed Bushnell's submarine into a more workable version named Nautilus. With this boat he sank several ships during demonstrations but was not very successful in selling his submarine to the American Navy. Working successively with the French against the British, with the British against the French and finally with the Americans against allcomers, he appears to have been a brilliant inventor and an opportunist. A very glamorised account of Fulton's machinations at the end of the eighteenth century appeared on B.B.C. television in the 1960's as a children's adventure series. Fulton must however be credited with the development of the submarine and its weapon, the mine, to a point where it could be used in wartime.  Soon after Fulton's work the name "Torpedo" became applied to a new class of weapons and the development of the mine continued on its own separate path. This new weapon was the Spar Torpedo Boat. Many forms of Spar Torpedo were used, particularly during the American Civil War. Nearly all types were basically the same and consisted of a steam launch having an explosive charge mounted at the end of a long pole projecting ahead of the boat. Fig. 2 shows a typical form as used by the Royal Navy around the 1880's. The launch carried a small crew one of whom viewed the external world through a steel conning tower. The launch approached an enemy ship under cover of darkness and placed the explosive charge against the ship's side and detonated it electrically.  FIG. 2. British Spar Torpedo Boat. The spar torpedo was quite successful and one of the most successful types was the "David" boat operated by the Southern States in the American Civil War. These carried a 60 lb charge on the end of a 25 ft long pole and the explosion was set off 6 ft below the waterline. A crew of eight was used and the boat ran awash. Indeed, it was fitted with hydroplanes for brief dives but these were often fatal. Although spar torpedoes were extensively used by the Americans, French, Russians and Chinese, the British considered them "unsporting" and were late introducing them. Indeed, the spar torpedo arrived in Britain just as the automobile torpedo as we think of it today was entering service and the spar torpedo then soon went into a decline in popularity. The spar boat was easily hit by gunfire and therefore became unpopular. As a result the automobile or "fish" weapon was invented and I shall now begin the story of the weapon known universally as the Torpedo. Whitehead's Flash of Genius  Robert Whitehead was born at Bolton in 1823, the son of the owner of a cotton-bleaching business. He was apprenticed at 14 to an engineer and there after travelled widely throughout Europe showing the way to improve silk-weaving machinery. In 1856 he became manager of an Austrian engineering company, Stabilimeno Technico Fiumano. The company was heavily engaged in providing engines for the Austrian Navy which was at war with Italy. It was through Whitehead's connections with the Navy that he was approached by a Captain Giovanni Luppis who had an idea for controlling a spar torpedo boat remotely by two ropes strung out from the tiller. Whitehead built a model but decided that the idea was not viable. He did however start to think about the problem of setting off explosive charges remotely below a ship's waterline-this being far more effective than above water bombardment. In 1866 his ideas took shape in the form of the first automobile torpedo. The weapon was built with the help of Whitehead's 12 year-old son and an old workman. The exact form of this first weapon is not known because Whitehead never revealed drawings even many years later and refused to describe the machine to inquirers. Eyewitness accounts describe it as blunt nosed "like a dolphin" with four long fins extending almost along the whole body length. The engine was driven by compressed air stored at 370 p.s.i. and regulated to approximately constant speed by a simple valve. The engine is generally described as a twin cylinder Vee but this probably refers to the later models of 1868. The original engine was based on two eccentric cylinders having a sliding vane to divide the volume into two parts. In this fashion the air pressure caused direct rotation of the outer cylinder which was coupled to the single propeller. The weapon was designed to be fired from an underwater tube and a constant depth was aimed at by means of a hydrostatic valve acting directly on the elevator controls. Azimuth control was simply by means of trim tabs set by trial and error over a 400 yards range at Fiume. The weapon achieved about six and a half knots to 200 yards and a further 100 yards at lower speed. The propeller speed on this first weapon was about 100 r.p.m. The depth keeping on this first weapon was very erratic. Within two years two new weapons had been produced which incorporated a device to be known for decades afterwards as "The Secret." This consisted of a hydrostat-pendulum combination after the fashion of Fig. 3. The simple hydrostat controlled depth according to the law d2D/dx2 is proportional to D0-D where D0 is the set depth and x is the distance run. Such a control law has no inherent damping and as a result the original weapon oscillated wildly. The introduction of the pendulum by means of the lever system illustrated introduced an additional term in the above equation proportional to pitch angle which is very nearly proportional to depth rate. Thus a damping term has been introduced. The depth errors were found to reduce from +/-40 ft to as little as +/-6 in. Such was the success of Whitehead's "Secret" that it remained in use virtually unchanged until the end of World War II, a remarkable tribute to a great Victorian engineer.  FIG. 3. Pendulum-Hydrostat depth gear of early torpedoes. In 1868 Whitehead demonstrated two new models before representatives of the Austrian Navy; a 14 in and a 16 in type. The weapons carried wet gun-cotton warheads and achieved speeds of about seven knots to about 700 yards. Fig. 4 shows the probable form of these early weapons. The propeller is shrouded to prevent damage and a large azimuth control vane is at the rear. These two features were soon to disappear however.  FIG. 4. Probable form of Whitehead Torpedo (1868). The Austrian Naval Officers attending the trials were impressed sufficiently to order weapons to be produced but were unable to buy the patent rights outright. British Torpedoes Enter Service In the autumn of 1869 Royal Navy representatives visited Fiume and reported favourably on the weapons being tested. As a result Whitehead was invited to England to demonstrate the ability of his weapons. He brought two types of torpedo with him, a 16 in. by 14 ft. carrying 67 lbs. of wet gun-cotton and a second weapon of 14 in. diameter and a little under 14 ft. in length. This latter weapon carried a warhead of dynamite weighing 18 lbs. The weapons were fired either from the surface or from a submerged tube built by Whitehead into Oberon. Over 100 firings were made during September and October of 1870, the average weapon performance being seven knots to a range of 600 yards. As a grand finale a wooden coal hulk was moored off Cockleshell Hard and surrounded with protective nets. A 16 in. weapon with its warhead charged by Professor F. A. Abel was fired from a range of 134 yards. The weapon, determined to demonstrate its potency, went around the net and blew a hole measuring 20 ft. by 10 ft. in the old corvette and it sank at once. Faced with such conclusive evidence of the weapon's capability the Royal Navy ordered a batch of Whitehead torpedoes which were received in 1870. It was most appropriate therefore that one century later a new torpedo trials ship should have been launched with the name E.T.V. Whitehead. Two types of weapon were received from Whitehead's works at Fiume; these being 14 in. and 16 in. diameter. In 1871 the Admiralty bought the manufacturing rights for £15,000 and production was started at the Royal Laboratories, Woolwich the following year. This sum of money seems very small for such an important weapon especially when only a decade later a certain Mr. Brennan was paid nearly 10 times as much for the rights of an inferior type of torpedo. The example of the Royal Navy was quickly followed by the French, Germans and Chinese and soon Whitehead was exporting his torpedoes around the world. Several countries started building their own pirated copies of the Whitehead but these were notably unsuccessful. The stringent specifications laid down by foreign navies caused Whitehead to give consideration to the improvement of performance. He appears to have regarded the weapon as primarily for use in harbours against moored ships. Under these circumstances a speed of only seven knots is acceptable and the main areas for improvements lie with the accuracy of steering and the reliable operation of the impact fuse. However, the Germans specified a weapon performance of 16 knots to 550 yards. Whitehead carried out various improvements including the replacement of the twin cylinder Vee engine by a three-cylinder engine built by Peter Brother-hood, Ltd., of Peterborough. Thus by 1875 a 14 in. weapon was produced having a performance of 18 knots to a range of 550 yards. In 1872 Whitehead bought the firm and re-named it Silurifico Whitehead. A remarkable feature of this story is the instant success of the novel weapon. The very first experimental torpedo worked well and was being mass produced for export within four years. With the introduction of the new engine and contrarotating propellers (this latter by a foreman mechanic at Woolwich) no significant improvements were then made until the introduction of the gyroscope for azimuthal steering in 1895. Fig. 5 shows the transitional form of the weapon in about 1875. The extended fins thereafter were not needed because of the lack of roll forces. Fig. 5 shows typical Fiume built torpedoes of the 1880s period with their pointed noses and small control fins with the control surfaces placed aft of the propellers. This latter feature distinguished Fiume weapons from the Woolwich types (Fig. 6) which carried the surfaces ahead of the screws. The latter practice persists (unfortunately) to the present time.  FIG. 5. A selection of Fiume weapons (c1874-1880).  FIG. 6. R.G.F. Weapons (c1894). Weapons of various types were produced during the first few decades of the life of the automobile torpedo. In particular, many obscure types of unorthodox propulsion were produced in the United States, as we shall see. The Whitehead type did not however undergo significant charge although many new Mark numbers were introduced. The Germans, in addition to ordering Whitehead torpedoes in 1873, began building their own on the Whitehead principle. The firm of L. Schwartzkopf-later the Berliner Maschinenbau A.G.-began making excellent torpedoes in phosphor-bronze. The firm was soon exporting weapons to Russia, Japan and Spain. In 1885 Britain ordered 50 of these weapons because the output at home and at Fiume could not satisfy the demand. These weapons cost £450 each which was £120 more than the corresponding Fiume type (the 14 in. Mk. II). The 14 in. by 11 ft. weapon was built originally to the specification of the Russians who wanted a minimum speed output of 20 knots. This was achieved and all Whitehead weapons exceeded this speed from this time. The speed improvements were made by increasing the inlet pressure to the engine (with consequent improvements to engine details) and a corresponding increase in air vessel pressure. By 1882 the vessels were being built to withstand at least 1,500 p.s.i. and Britain led the world in the construction of bronze pressure vessels. Figures for weapon range were not reliable up to this time because range was not an important parameter. Ranging at Fiume was carried out from an underwater tube aimed at a net 400 yards distant. The maximum running distance was only measured when requested by a customer. After all, the chance of hitting a ship decreases rapidly with range because of the errors inherent in the weapon and the aiming process so that there was little point in firing a torpedo at a range greater than about 400 yards even if the weapon was capable of greater range. At about this time the Italians built their own version of a Fiume torpedo but it ran at only 7 knots. Whitehead rebuilt it and it achieved 20 knots. As a result the Italians gave up building their own weapons and bought from Whitehead. In external appearance the various weapons were very similar. The torpedoes were often built up with standard tail and nose sections but with different middle sections. These composite torpedoes each carried different mark numbers but were in fact very similar in performance. In 1883 a committee, set up to examine various aspects of torpedo design, carried out trials to test whether the nose shape had any effect on weapon speed. The pointed nose was assumed to cleave the water best but the great hydrodynamicist Dr. Froude advised that blunt head should show no disadvantage in speed performance and would allow much larger warheads to be carried. Comparative trials were carried out using the Mk W Fiume and R.L. Mk XI torpedoes each fitted with blunt and pointed noses. The tests showed that the blunt-nosed torpedoes had a full knot advantage over the pointed nosed version. This meant that heavier warheads could be carried without loss of propulsive performance and the ultimate in blunt nose designs during this period appeared in 1909 with the American hemispherical heads. Fig. 7 shows the development of the torpedo shape to the form (in 1912) from which few departures took place in the following four decades.  FIG. 7. Evolution of the Blunt Nose Torpedo. The United States had not taken advantage of the offers in 1869 and 1874 to manufacture Whitehead torpedoes under license and followed an independent and generally unsuccessful development programme of her own. Last Cold Compressed Air Whitehead Weapons Whitehead torpedoes were being manufactured at a considerable rate during the last 15 years of the 19th century. From Fiume the Silurifico Whitehead was sending hundreds of weapons around the world and many more were being manufactured under license in foreign countries or being simply pirated. The German Schwartzkopf firm were manufacturing about 400 weapons annually which were sent to Spain, Italy, China and Britain. It was soon after the mid-1880s that torpedo performance began to improve. This was largely as a result of competition from improved gunnery. Indeed, in 1904 the battle of Tsushima was settled by gunfire at a range of 6,000 yards and no torpedo could at that time compete with such performance. The torpedo's saving grace was its ability to deliver with stealth an explosive charge to the most vulnerable part of a ship. Torpedo range was increased by the introduction of the l8in. Whitehead weapon in 1888 but not by a very great amount; the advantage being taken rather to increase the size of warhead. Meanwhile at Woolwich torpedo performance improvements made the specially constructed canal too short and a new range was set up at Horsea Island in 1888 and 10 years later the Bincleaves range was set up near Weymouth. In 1890 Whitehead opened his factory at Weymouth which survived until recently under the ownership of Vickers, Armstrong Ltd. In 1893 the Royal Navy decided to transfer the torpedo works at the Royal Laboratories to the Royal Gun Factory (thus weapons became known as R.G.F. types) and as a result the Weymouth works did not get the British orders that were expected. Henceforth the Whitehead torpedoes produced at Weymouth were mostly sent for export to countries not able to manufacture their own. Similarly, Whitehead had opened a factory at St. Tropez at the same time as the Weymouth venture and this also exported to countries such as Brazil, Holland, Turkey and Greece. Some torpedoes from the Weymouth works did enter service with the Royal Navy especially during the 1914-18 war period. The last association of the works with the Royal Navy appears to have been in the early stages of the Mark 23 torpedo in the mid-1950s. Whitehead always regarded his torpedoes as primarily for launching from underwater tubes. The Royal Navy however 'seems to have favoured above-water firing devices. Under water tubes can be placed either in the bow where the ramming effectiveness of the ship is weakened (ramming was a most popular means of naval warfare in the 1 870s) or they can be placed across the ship for broadside shots. In the latter position the torpedo experiences a strong twisting force as it emerges due to the water flow along the ship. A device for overcoming this effect was invented by Capt. A. K. Wilson, V.C. and consisted of a guide bar projecting from the ship along which the emerging weapon slid until free of the disturbing effect of the ship's motion. Another device ejected a tube with the torpedo for a distance of several feet such that the water flow forces were taken by the tube and not the weapon. These devices were adopted by the British but were not generally popular. The first above water launching was made by sliding a l4in. weapon off a mess table out through a porthole and, having thus proved the feasibility of the scheme, several methods were evolved for launching weapons from a ship's deck. Most of the early methods consisted of a simple frame for holding the torpedo over the water and releasing it in approximately the right direction. Light torpedo boats used a frame which was lowered about 2ft. into the water for launching. The tube working on the pea shooter principle was invented in about 1880. The weapons were ejected by compressed air but within a few years the propelling gas was generated by slowburning gunpowder in granular form. This remained the method of tube launch for many decades; indeed the present deck-mounted tubes work on exactly the same scheme but with different propelling cartridges. The British method of discharging torpedoes from above the waterline was viewed with some concern by Whitehead. His son-in-law and partner, Count George Hoyo's, reported after a visit to Britain that "such delicate weapons are not meant to be fired like shot from a gun" but the weapons 'seemed to tolerate their rough treatment for in 1879 there were already 33 British warships fitted with launching equipment. Introduction of the Gyroscope In 1895 came the first significant improvement to the torpedo since its invention. Whitehead introduced the gyroscope for azimuth control using the type invented by an Austrian, Ludwig Obry. In this device a 1.75 lb. wheel some 3in. in diameter was held in gimbals with its axis along that of the torpedo. The wheel was spun up to maximum speed 2,400 r.p.m. by means of a pretensioned spring. The wheel reached this speed before the weapon left the tube so that the torpedo followed the aimed-for track in the water irrespective of the impulsive forces acting on hitting the water. This greatly improved the overall accuracy of firing and with the new device fitted it was possible to fire to an accuracy of ~ thus enabling a beam-on target to be hit at a range of about 7,000 yards-except that torpedoes at that time had ranges not exceeding 1,000 yards. This clearly provided a considerable impetus for torpedo designers to increase performance. The original Obry gyroscope wheel only contained a maximum of 20ft. - lbs. of energy. This had the effect of allowing the gyro to topple after an inconveniently short time of running. The toppling was induced by the fact that the gyroscope gimbals were required to directly operate a rudder servo control. Whitehead soon introduced an intermediate servo however which greatly reduced the forces acting on the gimbals and the way was then opened up for long range weapons. The version of the Obry gyroscope supplied to the United States was provided with an angling gear which enabled the weapon to change course after firing, thus giving greater flexibility in the firing procedure. This refinement was introduced into the Royal Navy in 1900. The turn of the century saw a radical change in torpedo design with the introduction of the heated, or steam torpedo. This is therefore an opportune time to study the torpedo development of nations, such as the United States, who did not adopt the Whitehead compressed air method of propulsion. Departures from Whitehead Principles The Torpedo Test Station was set up in 1870 at Rhode Island, U.S.A. to work on spar torpedoes but in 1871 an automobile torpedo was built, Fig. 8. This was built on the supposed lines of the Whitehead weapons and indeed the propulsive performance was similar, i.e. 7 knots to a range of 300 yards. The warhead was 70 to 90 lbs. of dynamite or guncotton. Here the similarity to the White-head torpedo ends for the American version refused to run a straight course. This is not surprising in view of the minimal control surface area provided. Another weapon was built in 1874 but this was no more successful. The air vessel was made of bronze in the latter case because no American firm would undertake to make a steel vessel of sufficient strength. The British were masters of the forging and rolling art for pressure vessels at this time. The Japanese had many failures in this respect and eventually bought their pressure vessels from England.  FIG. 8. First United States Automobile Torpedo. Having failed to produce a working automobile torpedo and having turned down two offers of the Whitehead plans the Torpedo Test Station set about building under the inventive eye of J. L. Lay, an officer in the U.S. Navy, a series of strange and generally unsuccessful weapons. Most of the weapons floated and thus did not have the ability to vary the striking depth at the enemy ship. The Lay torpedoes floated with only a few inches of hull showing and were controlled by an operator by means of electrical impulses sent down a wire. The power unit was a gas engine driven by compressed carbon dioxide and the steering impulses transmitted down the wire operated electromagnetic relays on the rudder. The position of the weapon was indicated by two flags or discs. Fig. 9 shows an early form of the Lay Torpedo as built in the 1870s. A later form used liquefied C02 as the power source with the liquid warmed in pipes external to the weapon. Still later we find the Lay-Haight weapon driven by gas generated by the action of sulphuric acid on lime. The later weapons had their propeller near the forward end of the hull partially recessed to avoid damage. It also avoided efficient propulsion!  FIG. 9. Lay Dirigible Weapon. These weapons were never really successful on account of their unreliability and vulnerability to gunfire. In a trial carried out off the British coast for the Royal Navy the Lay weapon heeled over badly so that the propeller was only half under the surface. Two Lay torpedoes were sold to the Peruvian Government for use in the war against Chile. In 1879 a Lay weapon was fired from the Peruvian ironclad Huascar at a Chilean ship. Half-way to the target the weapon turned around and "hurtled" at 15 knots back at the mother ship despite the frantic knob twiddling of the operator. The ship was saved by the heroic action of a ship's officer who swam out to intercept the weapon and deflect it. The relieved captain promptly took the two weapons to a local graveyard where they were buried only to be later exhumed by the Chilean rebels! The vulnerability of these weapons was overcome in the 'Patrick ' and 'Wood-Haight' 'torpedoes by suspending them beneath unsinkable floats. These floats were either wood or thin copper sheet cylinders containing water-proofed cotton waste. The floats could be shot again and again without sufficient buoyancy being lost to sink the weapon. The propulsion was by compressed carbon dioxide gas expanded through a gas engine-usually a three-cylinder Brotherhood type, similar to the version used extensively by Whitehead. The electric torpedo made its appearance in about 1873 with the Ericsson which was propelled by sending power down a cable unreeled from the weapon. A direct development of the Ericsson torpedo was the Sims-Edison which was similarly powered down a trailing wire. A speed of 10 knots was attained using a Siemens motor drawing 30 amps at 600 volts. Several versions of this weapon appeared, all carried under a large float and very similar in external appearance to the weapon of Fig. 10, and the last version built in 1889 carried a 4001b. warhead to a range of over two miles.  FIG. 10. Nordenfelt Wire-Guided Electric Torpedo. The Nordenfelt torpedo, illustrated in Fig. 10, was invented by the great Swedish engineer who also produced the first really successful submarine. Motive power was from a vast stack of batteries, the early version having 108 storage cells which produced 18 S.H.P. Guidance was by means of electrical impulses transmitted down a wire paid out from the weapon. A British intelligence report of the period described the early weapon as being supported by a wooden float and carrying one mile of guidance wire. The weapon described by Sleeman and illustrated in Fig. 10 was said to have been buoyant and held down by the heavy fins. It is difficult to see how this weapon could have remained upright. The sloping edge to the fin was supposed to assist the weapon to pass under torpedo nets. This weapon, the forerunner of the present generation of wire-guided electric torpedoes, achieved 16 knots to a range (for the later version) of two and a half miles. Superheated steam was a popular means of propulsion in the 1880s and the American 'Hall' torpedo was typical. Water at 5500F and under high pressure was fed directly from the boiler of the torpedoboat. Evaporation of the water under reduced pressure provided a propulsive performance comparable with con-temporary Whitehead models. None of these steam torpedoes reached the production stage. largely because of the lengthy preparation time required. Hall's weapon had a strange roll control system based on a transverse mercury-filled U-tube. Any rolling action of the weapon caused wings to be pushed in and out under the action of the mercury. The wings were angled to provide lift in such a fashion that the weapon maintained, in theory at least, an even keel. Another superheated water weapon, the Paulson, was kept on a straight heading by a mariner's compass in the nose. Electrical contacts on the compass could be set just before launch and the weapon followed that setting after launch.  FIG 11 Cunningham's Rocket Torpedo. Rocket propulsion has been often considered even up to the present time. One of the first automobile torpedoes built after the Whitehead model made its appearance was rocket propelled. Both the Weeks and the Ericsson rocket achieved about 40 to 60 knots to a range of 100 yards. Lt. F. M. Barber of the Naval Torpedo Station, Rhode Island, produced an underwater rocket in 1873. This was 7 ft. long by 1 ft. diameter and weighed 287 lbs. The warhead was 48 lbs. of gunpowder and the 51 lbs. of rocket fuel were stored inside a cast iron tube wrapped in asbestos and having an outer casing of oak! Mr. Cunningham, an American shoemaker, built rocket torpedoes and once celebrated the 4th July by setting off one of his torpedoes up the town's main street. It shot off at high speed scaring old ladies and horses and finally came to rest in the butcher's shop where it set fire to the icebox. The Berdan (sometimes called the Borden) was a rocket propelled floating torpedo which towed another small weapon. Fig. 12 shows how the rocket ower was converted to rotary power by means of a turbine acting on a set of propellers. When the Berdan struck the torpedo nets surrounding a ship the slackening of the towline caused the small weapon to go into a programmed dive under the nets and strike the ship under the keel in theory that is ! British intelligence reports of trials carried out before the Turkish Navy indicate that this weapon was not a success.  FIG. 12. Berdan Torpedo. Rockets were not the only alternative propulsion systems to challenge the conventional propeller drive. One torpedo invented during this period was propelled by an umbrella like contraption at the rear. This was operated by an oscillating shaft which opened and shut the "umbrella" and so propelled the vehicle rather in the fashion of a frog's foot! During WWII the Germans devised a torpedo propelled by a flapping wing. This was claimed to be at least as efficient as a conventional propeller and much quieter. The advantages of blunt noses on torpedoes might also have been realised earlier if the first torpedoists had studied the salmon. Only two torpedoes, apart from the White-head patterns, went into successful quantity production before the turn of the century. (The Lay weapon was exported to Russia for harbour defence work but only in small quantities). The Brennan torpedo was invented by an Australian watchmaker and was driven by pulling two 18 gauge piano wires out of the weapon. This was achieved by a steam winch mounted on the shore. The use of this torpedo from ships was ruled out by the need for a stable winch platform. The wires were unreeled from two drums inside the weapon and these directly drove the contrarotating propellers. Steering was achieved by varying the relative tension of the wires. This caused the weapon to heel over and a compensating pendulum applied steering control. Fig. 13 shows a later version of this weapon where the drums were on a common longitudinal axis. A depth control similar to that used by Whitehead was installed. The performance of the Brennan was 20 knots to a range of 3,000 yards-this being considerably better than the contemporary Whitehead weapon-and the range was only limited by the length of wire carried. The weapon was used exclusively for coastal defence by the Royal Engineers over a 20 years period around the turn of the century. The huge Brotherhood winches were installed in concrete blockhouses and the 'torpedoes were run down to the water on rails. The derelict remains of a Brennan torpedo station have been discovered on the Thames estuary.  FIG. 13. The Brennan Torpedo. A scandal blew up over the adoption of this torpedo when the Government paid Brennan no less than £110,000 for his invention and paid him a vast salary to act as production chief. Compare this sum with the miserable £15,000 paid for the manufacturing rights of the much more worthy Whitehead weapon only 15 years previous. Maxim, brother of the famous gun manufacturer, produced in the United States a wire-powered torpedo suspiciously similar to the Brennan except in the detail of depth keeping. The Maxim torpedo actually pumped water into or out of a ballast tank. Such fanciful devices are not confined to the last century. In 1944 a torpedo was built in Britain that varied its depth by pushing the main battery to and fro to alter the position of the centre of gravity. Finally we will consider the Howell torpedo which was the mainstay of the United States Navy for 20 years up to about 1895 and was a serious contender to the supremacy of the Whitehead torpedo outside the United States. Fig. 14 shows the appearance of the weapon and Fig. 15 shows the internal construction. The propulsive power was derived from a heavy flywheel and transmitted to twin propellers. The weapon was ship-launched from a tube and the flywheel was spun just prior to launching by a steam winch external to the launching tube.  FIG. 14. The Howell Flywheel Torpedo (1892).  FIG. 15. Howell Torpedo. A wheel speed of 12,000 r.p.m. was obtained in the later versions of the weapon and with a wheel weighing 130 lbs. this gave a weapon performance of 30 knots to 800 yards with a decreasing speed for a further 400 yards. This was comparable with the Whitehead weapons of the same period. This relatively good performance combined with simplicity of construction and operation resulted in the Whitehead torpedo not making its appearance in the United States until 1892. The Howell torpedo had three advantages over the Whitehead apart from simplicity. The weapon left no track, it did not vary its trim and. more important, it kept to a straight course. This latter was achieved by using the gyroscopic action of flywheel. Because the wheel axis was transverse any departure of the weapon from a straight line caused the weapon to heel over. This was detected by a transverse mounted pendulum which was directly connected to rudders which produced a correction to the course and hence a righting torque. This was in fact the first application of the gyroscope to torpedoes. When the Obry gyroscope was used in Whitehead torpedoes in 1895 Howell started a legal battle over patent rights. The above weapons were departures from the Whitehead compressed air principle but one weapon, again the brainchild of Ericsson, eliminated the heavy air vessel by supplying compressed air through an 800 ft. hose. The drag on the hose greatly slowed down the weapon however. Having taken the technical development of the torpedo up to the turn of the century we will finish this section with a look at the aggressive use of the weapon. The first sinking by a torpedo was during the Chilean revolutionary war. Two Birkenhead-built torpedo boats attacked the Blanco Encalada on the night of April 23rd, 1891. The first boat, Almirante Conte fired three Whiteheads at the ironclad but these all missed. The second torpedo boat, the Almirante Lynch fired another salvo of three weapons and one hit. The effect of the 58 lb. of guncotton in the 14 in. weapon was to blow a hole 15 ft. by 7 ft. below the waterline. The ship sank immediately with the loss of 180 officers and men. The ship had left her torpedo nets at port and the water-tight doors were not closed. One consequence of the explosion was the ejection of the Captain, Don Luis Goni, up a ventilation shaft and into the sea where he was later seen swimming ashore with one arm around the ship's mascot, a tame llama. The animal was then taken as mascot onboard H.M.S. Warspite until it was sent to the London Zoo in disgrace for eating the epaulettes off an Admiral's dress uniform! The Chinese had little success with their Schwartzkopf weapons in the war of 1894 largely because theirs were fired at very long ranges. Local fishermen recovered them from the beaches and sold them back to the Chinese for 100 dollars each. Such inefficiency is only to be expected from officers who pawned their ship's guns in the ports!      |
BTW, I grew up not too far from the torpedo test stand at Morris Dam, North of Azusa, CA.
LOL. We say that a lot. Why put it out there if you don't want anyone to use it. We of course provide all material presented at the Foxhole for educational purposes and we don't always send a letter to the author, it depends.
I didn't know about the torpedo test stand in California, thanks.
"From November 1943, until her demise in June 1945, the American destroyer USS WILLIAM D PORTER was often hailed.....whenever she entered port or joined other Naval ships.....with the greeting....."Don't shoot, we're Republicans!"
Assigned as one of three escorts to the battleship Iowa for President Roosevelt's trip to meet with Stalin and Churchill in 1943, the Porter backed away from her moorings and scraped the railings, a life raft, and the captain's gig off the ship beside her. One day out, a depth charge was accidentally dropped overboard, to the captain's embarrassment. A wave washed over her decks, taking a man and miscellaneous equipment, and then one of the boilers failed.
At sea..USS William D Porter participated in some manuvers near USS Iowa...shooting down some target ballons which had drifted out of Iowa gunners range as the Battleship demonstrated Her firepower to a watching President.
Willie D,'s Captain Walker watched the fireworks display with admiration and envey. Thinking about career redemption and breaking the hard luck spell, the Captain sent his impatient crew to battle stations
"Down on the torpedo mounts, the crew watched, waiting to take some practice shots of their own at the big battleship, which even though 6,000 yards away, seemed to blot out the horizen. Lawton Dawson and Tony Fazio were among those responsible for the torpedoes. Part of their job involved ensuring that the primers were installed during actual combat and removed during practice. Once a primer was installed, on a command to fire, it would explode shooting the torpedo out of its tube.
"Dawson, on this particular morning, unfortunately had forgotten to remove the primer from torpedo tube #3. Up on the bridge, a new torpedo officer, unaware of the danger, ordered a simulated firing. Fire 1, Fire 2 and finally Fire 3. There was no fire 4 as the sequence was interrupted by an unmistakable "whoooooooshhhhing" sound made by a successfully launched and armed torpedo.
"Lt H. Steward Lewis, who witnessed the entire event, later described the next few minutes as what hell would look like if it ever broke loose. Just after he saw the torpedo hit the water, on its way to the IOWA and some of the most prominent figures in world history, Lewis innocently asked the Captain., "did you give permission to fire a torpedo?" Captain Walker's reply will not ring down through naval history.....although words to the effect of Farragut's immortal "Damn the torpedos'" figured centrally within.
"Initially there was some reluctance to admit what had happened or even to warn the IOWA. As the awful reality sunk in, people began racing around, shouting conflicting instructions and attempting to warn the flagship of imminent danger. First there was a flashing light warning about the torpedo which unfortunately indicated it was headed in another direction.
"Next, the PORTER signaled that it was going reverse at full speed! finally, they decided to break the strictly enforced radio silence. The radio operator on the destroyer transmitted "Lion (code for the IOWA), Lion, come right." The IOWA operator, more concerned about radio procedure, requested that the offending station identify itself first.
"Finally, the message was received and the IOWA began turning to avoid the speeding torpedo. Meanwhile, on IOWAs bridge, word of the torpedo firing had reached FDR, who asked that his wheelchair be moved to the railing so he could see better what was coming his way. His loyal Secret Service guard immediately drew his pistol as if he was going to shoot the torpedo.
"As the IOWA began evasive maneuvers, all of her guns were trained on the WILLIAM D PORTER. There was now some thought that the PORTER was part of an assassination plot. Within moments of the warning, there was a tremendous explosion just behind the battleship. The torpedo had been detonated by the wash kicked up by the battleship's increased speed. The crisis was over and so was Captain Walker's career. His final utterance to the IOWA, in response to a question about the origin of the torpedo, was a weak, "We did it."
"Shortly thereafter, the brand new destroyer, her Captain and the entire crew were placed under arrest and sent to Bermuda for trial. It was the first time that a complete ship's company had been arrested in the history of the U.S. Navy. The ship was surrounded by Marines when it docked in Bermuda, and held there several days as the closed session inquiry attempted to determine what had happened. Torpedoman Dawson eventually confessed to having inadvertently left the primer in the torpedo tube, which caused the launching. Dawson had thrown the used primer over the side to conceal his mistake.
"The whole incident was chalked up to an unfortunate set of circumstances and placed under a cloak of secrecy. Someone had to be punished. Captain Walker and several other PORTER officers and Sailors eventually found themselves in obscure shore assignments. Dawson was sentenced to 14-years hard labor. President Roosevelt intervened; however, asking that no punishment be meted out for what was clearly an accident.
"The destroyer was banished to the upper Aleutians. It was probably thought this was as safe a place as any for the ship and anyone who came near her. She remained in the frozen north for almost a year, until late 1944, when she was re-assigned to the Western Pacific.
"Before leaving the Aleutians, she accidentally left her calling card in the form of a 5-inch shell fired into the front yard of the American Base Commander, thus re-arranging his flower garden.
"In December 1944, she joined the Philippine Invasion Forces and acquitted herself quite well. She distinguished herself by shooting down a number of attacking Japanese aircraft. Regrettably, after the war, it was reported that she also shot down three American planes. This was a common event on ships, as many gunners, fearful of Kamikazies, had nervous trigger fingers.
"In April 1945, the destroyer was assigned to support the invasion of Okinawa. By this time, the greeting, "Don't Shoot, We're Republicans" was commonplace and the crew of the "Willie D" had become used to the ribbing.
"But the crew of her sister ship, the USS LUCE, was not so polite in its salutations after the PORTER accidentally riddled her side and superstructure with gunfire.
"On 10 June 1945, PORTER's luck finally ran out. She was sunk by a plane which had (unintentionally) attacked underwater. A Japanese bomber almost made entirely of wood and canvas slipped through the Navy's defense. Having little in the way of metal surfaces, the plane didn't register on radar. A fully loaded Kamikaze, it was headed for a ship near the PORTER, but just at the last moment veered away and crashed alongside the unlucky destroyer. There was a sigh of relief as the plane sunk out of sight, but then it blew up underneath the PORTER, opening her hull in the worst possible location.
Mr. Cunningham, an American shoemaker, built rocket torpedoes and once celebrated the 4th July by setting off one of his torpedoes up the town's main street. It shot off at high speed scaring old ladies and horses and finally came to rest in the butcher's shop where it set fire to the icebox.
Sounds like something Darksheare and I would do. :-)
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