THE NEW GERMAN GUNBOAT EBER.
The Eber is provided with a two-cylinder, compound engine, which can generate 650 horse power, giving the vessel a speed of 11½ knots. The coal bunkers are so large that the ship can travel 3,000 miles at a speed slightly less than that just mentioned without requiring a fresh supply of coal. The rigging is the same as in iron vessels of the Wolf class, and the sails are sufficiently large to allow the vessel to proceed without steam. The ship will carry about 90 men, including officers, crew, engineers, and firemen.
A sum of $145,000 was appropriated for the construction and equipment of the Eber, which was begun at Kiel in the latter part of 1885, and was launched February 15, 1887.--Illustrirte Zeitung.
NEW BRITISH TORPEDO EXPERIMENTS.
The torpedo experiments against the Resistance, which have been suspended since November last, were resumed on June 9 at Portsmouth by the officers of the Vernon. The injuries received by the ironclad in the previous experiments having been repaired, so as to make the vessel watertight, the old ship was towed up the harbor, and moored in Fareham Creek. Our readers are aware that the Resistance is an obsolete ironclad which has finished her career as a battle ship, and that nothing could have converted her into a modern armorclad.
Although it was intended to render the experiments final and conclusive as a practical demonstration under service conditions of the destructive effects of the Whitehead torpedo when directed against a modern vessel of war, the results still leave behind them much uncertainty. The Resistance was built of iron, whereas battle ships are now exclusively constructed of steel, and it would be perhaps hazardous to state that the behavior of the two metals under a sudden and violent shock would be exactly the same. The construction of the double bottom of the old ship is also different. Since the last experiments were carried out against her, however, measures have been taken to make her as far as possible the counterpart, so far as under water arrangements and coal protection are concerned, of a modern ship of war.
At the last attack, the Whitehead was directed against the after part of the hull on the port side in wake of the boilers. During the present series of experiments the old ship was assailed on the same side, but directly amidships, in the neighborhood of the engine room. As no steam was got up in the boilers, the effect of the jar upon the steam pipes, glands, and feed connections remains a matter of speculation. So far as the consequences of the burst upon the structure of the hull itself is concerned, every care was taken to make the ordeal as complete and instructive as possible. The wing passage, which has a maximum diameter of 3 ft. diminishing to a point, was left empty, although at the former experiments the lower portions were filled with coal. But behind this, and at a distance of 8 ft. from the bulkhead, a longitudinal or fore and aft steel bulkhead 3/8 in. thick had been worked to a length of 61 ft., and, with the coal with which the intervening compartment was packed, formed (as in recent armorclads) a solid rampart, 20 ft. high, for the defense of the engine room.