8th Affair.
The Final Attack.—The eighth and last attempt was made on the night of the 25th-26th of January, 1878.
This was originally intended to be an attack on the Turkish fleet at Batoum, but on entering that harbour the two Russian torpedo boats, the Tchesme, Lieutenant Zatzarennyi, and the Sinope, Lieutenant Stchelinski, were met by a Turkish revenue steamer, against which the boats discharged their Whitehead torpedoes, resulting in her complete destruction, at the same time arousing the squadron, and causing the boats to beat a retreat.
Though the vessel destroyed was not a frigate, yet the expedition was successful in so far as proving that it is possible to project Whitehead fish torpedoes from boats at a distance of 70 to 90 yards from an enemy's ship, on a dark night, and strike her with them.
This concludes the whole of the offensive torpedo operations that were carried out during the war, of which two out of eight attempts were successful, which is without doubt a fair percentage.
There seems every probability that the present struggle between Chili and Peru, in the Pacific, will afford torpedoists further experience of the various offensive torpedoes, when subjected to the test of active service.