The latest device for killing people seems a very successful
one. On Wednesday Mr. Beardslee, maker of torpedoes for the Ameri- can Government, made some experiments before the first Lord of the Admiralty. After blowing a great deal of water into the air very successfully, Mr. Beardslee attacked the Terpsichore, an old 18-gun ship which has never been put in commission. Two 75- pound shells were placed at a depth of about 7 feet under her, and -fired from the shore by electricity. There was a loud explosion " as if every ounce of iron on board felt the death agony," and then the ship settled forward by the head. Her back seems to have been broken, and had she been in deep water with a crew on board, the destruction must have been complete. It would seem as if these submerged shells might render harbours impregnable, but for the difficulty of calculating the exact anpment at which to explode them. Mr. Beardslee has made some which explode on being struck, but a steamer could drive what the Americans call a "cow-catcher" before her just as easily .as a locomotive. The torpedo would then expend its force on a piece of wire netting.
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