The person who performs the ceremony cuts the cord which holds the weights, the weights fall, the dog shores are knocked away, and the ship is free. Slowly at first, but gathering speed every moment, she moves majestically downwards into the water, being ultimately brought to rest by means of chains.
Whether done by the simple dodge of cutting a cord or by the more refined method of pressing an electric push, the launching is generally preceded by
the breaking of a bottle of wine against the bows and the pronouncement of the vessel's name.
Once safely afloat, the vessel is towed away and berthed alongside a wharf whereon are cranes and other machines which lightly drop on board of her the massive turbines and boilers which in time will propel her, and the guns with which she will fight. All the multitudinous little finishing touches are here put into her until at last she sallies forth on her trial trips to show what she is capable of, after which follow trials of her guns, and then she takes her place in the fleet.
Thus, briefly sketched, we see the history of the warship from her inception in the minds of her designers till she is ready to meet the foe.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE TORPEDO
In parts of South America there lives a little fish, which, if you touch its nose, gives you a severe electric shock. The natives call it the "torpedo." When an artificial fish came to be invented, capable of giving a very nasty shock to anyone touching its snout, that name was bestowed upon it too.
Even more than the submarine, the torpedo resembles a fish with its graceful outlines and its fins and tail, the chief difference being that the tail of the torpedo carries a couple of little rotating propellers. Looked at another way we may say that the torpedo is an automatic submarine. As a matter of fact, we all know it best as the weapon of the submarine.