Owing to the extreme darkness of the night, the Russians managed to evade the guard boats, and when, as they imagined, some 60 to 65 yards from a Turkish ironclad, the Tchesme and Sinope's Whitehead fish torpedoes were started on their deadly mission; but, owing most probably to the want of practice of manipulating these somewhat delicate instruments, also to the darkness, and the slight swell there was on at the time, both missed their mark, and were landed high and dry on the beach astern of the ship.
One of these weapons was perfect, the other minus her fore compartment, this having been knocked off by the torpedo colliding with some hard object. No explosion was heard or seen by the Turks.
This was the second time that the fish torpedo had been employed on actual service, and, as in the previous instance, failed.
The guard boats and barrier of the Turks seem to have been of little avail.
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.