Although not a steam vessel, it would be regarded as an omission not to mention among war vessels the “Holland” submarine boat, brought into notice in 1898 by the Spanish American war, and designed to dive below the surface and make attack below the water level. Torpedo boats of this type have been acquired by, and now form a part of, the United States Navy.
Among all the types of steam war vessels which have claimed popular attention the most interesting in proportion to its size is the torpedo boat, for none represent such concentrated pent-up energy and deadly effect as this little demon of the sea. A mere shell in construction, with engine and boiler built for highest speed, and crew suffering untold discomforts and dangers below, this modern engine of destruction, with the speed of an express locomotive, and the helplessness and deadly intent of a scorpion, darts up to the monster battleship under cover of darkness, and before being discovered discharges a torpedo and delivers a mortal wound in the side of the big ship which sends her to the bottom, perishing perhaps itself in the destruction which it works. The United States has 37 of these torpedo boats. The torpedo boat destroyer is a larger and swifter boat, whose special duty it is to overtake and destroy this dangerous little fighter.
FIG. 121.—SHIPPING OF ALL NATIONS. RATIO OF STEAM TO SAILS.
The growth of steam navigation during the present generation has been wonderfully rapid. The accompanying diagram, [Fig. 121], from Mulhall’s “Industries and Wealth of Nations,” shows in 1860 30 per cent. of steam to 70 per cent. of sailing vessels, while in 1894 the ratio is 80 per cent. of steam to 20 of sailing vessels. The same authority estimated the total horse power of steam vessels in the merchant marine of the world in 1895 to be 12,005,000. Add to this the growth of the past five years, and about 4,000,000 horse power for the steam war vessels of the world’s navies, which were not included, and the total horse power of the steam vessels of the world would not be far from twenty million.
This cursory review, in a single chapter, cannot adequately treat this great subject, for a whole library is needed to cover the field. Suffice it to say, however, that among the great scenes and acts in the theatre of human action, no figure has occupied so much attention, and none played so important a part in the drama of life, as the steam vessel. Its stage setting has been the majestic waters of the earth, and on it the play of the great warships has vied in power and grandeur with the flash and vehemence of the lightning, and the whirl and turmoil of the elements. Tense with a deep meaning which no stage simulation could approximate, and with the smoke of conflict for a drop curtain, it has laid tragedies upon the pages of history, and changed the maps of the world; while behind the scenes the great passenger steamers, with their uninterrupted traffic of human freight, are more silently, but none the less surely, stirring the peoples of the earth into the homogeneous ferment of civilization, and slowly moulding nations into the solidarity of a common brotherhood.