20 MAY 1893, Page 3

On Thursday, a torpedo-gunboat was launched from Messrs. Thornycroft's yard,

which may affect the whole policy of England in regard to naval construction. What is peculiar about the new vessel= The Speedy '—is that she can steam twenty-two knots (i.e., twenty-five miles an hour) ; and that she is fitted with Messrs. Thornycroft's patent water-tube boilers, which develop steam-power "almost at a moment's notice." Besides this great advantage, the boilers are light, and possess "absolute freedom from leakage." Unless expe- rience shows some latent defeat in the system, which seems unlikely, a veritable revolution will have been caused in naval construction.