FOOTNOTES:
[M] Extract from 'European Ships of War,' &c., by J. W. King, U.S.N., page 312.
[N] Extract from Engineering, under date April 13, 1877.
[O] Extract from letter of Captain Ericsson that appeared in Engineer, under date Nov. 8, 1878.
[P] Extract from the Engineering of the 10th of January, 1879.
CHAPTER VII.
TORPEDO OPERATIONS.
A REVIEW, however brief, of the numerous torpedo operations that have of late years been carried out in actual war, must prove not only of great interest, but of material aid to those who may be desirous of studying this branch of naval warfare, for the experience so gained ought alone to be the basis on which a system of submarine offence and defence should be constructed.
No new torpedo invention should be adopted, however theoretically perfect it may be, until it has been subjected to a very severe practical test, under conditions as nearly analogous to those that would occur on active service as it would be possible to obtain. The vast importance of a carefully planned and executed system of submarine defence is an established fact, and it only remains to discover what are the best weapons for, and most practicable mode of manipulating a system of submarine offence, to establish torpedo warfare in all its branches as a necessary function of naval warfare.
It would be a mere waste of time to dwell on the Anglo-French and American wars of the beginning of this century (1797-1812); though during that period various attempts were made by Fulton and others to destroy hostile vessels by means of submarine infernal machines, inasmuch as they all partook more or less of the nature of experiments, and were all failures, but come at once to the Crimean war (1854-1856), when what may be termed a systematic employment of torpedoes for harbour defence was first employed.