The Submarine Boys Lightning Cruise | Page 8

a plain United States 'hunch.'
What's the tip the spooks are giving anyway, Hal?"
Hastings smiled again, though he went on:
"Oh, it's just a queer sort of notion I have that something is going to
happen to us this afternoon."
"Right-o," drawled Jack. "You don't have to shove off from that, Hal.
Something is going to happen to us. This afternoon we're going to have
the first drill in the actual firing of submarine torpedoes."
"Oh, I know that," Hastings admitted, quickly. "But what I see ahead,
or feel as though I see, is some kind of disaster. Now, you'll think I'm a
sailor-croaker, won't you, Jack?"
"Disaster?" repeated Jack, slowly. "Well, to be sure, we've the outfit on
board for a disaster, if we wanted one. Two real torpedoes that hold,
between them, four hundred pounds of gun-cotton--or danger-calico, as

Williamson would call it. But cheer up, old fellow. There's no danger,
after all. Williamson and his pipe are on the other boat."
"Oh, of course nothing is really going to happen," laughed Hal. "It is
just the feeling that is over me. That's all."
It was fully three o'clock by the time Lieutenant Danvers decided they
were far enough out to sea, and far enough from any craft in those
waters. Not a stick or a stack of another vessel showed within ten miles
of them. The scow was accordingly cast loose and allowed to drift.
Captain Jack was at the tower wheel again, as Eph and the two sailors
returned from setting the scow loose.
"We've got to be sure to record one good hit against that old barge of
stone," muttered Lieutenant Danvers, who stood beside the youthful
submarine commander. "The sea is roughening, and I doubt if we could
pick up that scow in tow again. We've got to destroy her, or she'd be a
fearful menace to navigation, drifting about in the night in the path of
incoming vessels."
"Oh, I guess you'll get rid of her easily enough," spoke Jack,
confidently. "You're a professional at this business, sir."
"So are the two men with me," nodded the officer. "By the way, Ewald
can just as well come on deck and take the wheel, if you want him to
do so. Then you can go below and see all that we do with a torpedo."
"Now, that's what I call a great idea," cried Benson, enthusiastically. "I
want to know just how a torpedo is handled at the time of firing."
"It's the only thing you have left to learn about this business," smiled
the naval officer. Then he passed the word for Ewald. When that it
sailor had taken the wheel, the naval officer and the young submarine
skipper went below.
"We'll swing in one of the dummy torpedoes, first, of course,"
announced Mr. Danvers.

One of the dummies was, therefore, hauled forward on a truck, then
forced on into the torpedo tube. Jack watched, intently, this part of the
business.
The torpedo itself was a cigar-shaped affair, with a propeller at the after
end. This propeller was set in motion by means of an engine in the after
part of the torpedo, the engine being so constructed that it was set in
operation at the moment the torpedo left the tube and entered the ocean
outside. The propeller was fitted with apparatus that would drive the
torpedo in a straight line.
"The torpedo looks like a miniature submarine, doesn't it?" muttered
young Benson.
"It surely does," nodded the naval officer. "And, since the torpedo has
to travel under water, what better model could have been chosen? Now,
the engines in these dummy torpedoes can be set for two, four, six or
eight hundred yards, and the torpedo, once it enters the water, travels
forward, in a straight line until the engine gives out. That is, the torpedo
travels ahead if it doesn't hit something. So, in actual war conditions,
we would always get nearer to the object than the distance for which
the engine is set to run. The speed of a torpedo like this, under water, is
a good deal better than thirty miles an hour, but the distance the torpedo
can go is naturally short. That is a direct consequence of its speed. Now,
Mr. Benson, would you like to know how to fire the torpedo, since it is
already in the tube?"
"Certainly, sir," nodded Jack. And then he continued as if reciting a
lesson: "Just give that firing lever at the back of the after port a quick
shove to the right and downward. That releases the charge of
compressed air and forces the torpedo out. At the same instant the
forward port opens, so that the torpedo can be shot out into the water.
The compressed air also