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l MARINE REVIEW. TORPEDO BOAT PRACTICE LIEUTENANT COMMANDER W. W. KIMBALL, U.S.N., COMMAND-. ING THE ATLANTIC TORPEDO BOAT FLOTILLA, PREPARES SOME VERY VALUABLE MEMORANDA RELATIVE TO THE CONSTRUCTION AND EQUIPMENT OF THE TORPEDO BOATS AND DESTROYERS NOW BUILDING-- COPIES SUBMITTED TO SUPERVISING CONSTRUCTORS. The United States Navy department has just submitted to naval officers who are supervising the construction of the torpedo boats or destroyers now building in different ship yards of the country a very val- uable compilation of memoranda, chiefly original, prepared by Lieut. Commander William W. Kimball, commanaing the Atlantic torpedo boat flotilla. Lieut. Com. Kimball has on numerous occasions demonstrated his entire familiarity with matters pertaining to the construction, repair or equipment of torpedo boats. In view of the large number of vessels of this class now under construction, his suggestions may be accepted as an authorative statement of the practice of the United States navy in this regard. Taking up first matters that will be dealt with by the bureau of steam engineering, Mr. Kimball says: ENGINES AND BOILERS. "Exact balance of the main engines cannot be too carefully attended to. Connections should allow either engine to take steam from any boiler, both from main and cuxiliary steam piping system. Independent air, feed and circulating pumps are necessary. All the feed pumps, auxil- iary and main, should be so connected as to be available for use on any boiler. Bottom blows should be so connected that any boiler may be used for filling any other boiler, for when a tube splits badly or a couple of tubes go at once, the entire feed resources of the boat should be avail- able to save burning tubes or wasting water. Surface blows are desirable, for boiler water will get dirty in spite of all precautions. Fresh water stowage should be as large as the capacity of the boat will allow, for the less make up there has to be when running, the better. It is to be borne in mind that when trimming for fast work it is an easy matter to reduce the weight by emptying tanks. The evaporating plant should be ample, and there should be two evaporators, so that one may be in use while the other is overhauled. The plant in the Du Pont class is ample. The distilling plant should give 100 gallons hot boiler water an hour from two distillers, so as to make up some when running and when the evaporators cannot work on the condensers because of the vacuum in these last. Condenser heads should have large hand or man holes, so that they can be quickly inspected for and cleaned of grass coming through the strainers without taking off the heads. Condensing surface should be figured for at least water at 85 degrees F. Both steam and water drums o! boilers should be fitted with reinforced man hole plates so that plugging tubes can be quickly done, and the welay of coming up a lot of head bolts avoided. The thin steel tubes of the Porter have worn out in the section near the feed. It is my strong impression that thicker charcoal iron tubes would be more serviceable, and that the increase in weight of these would be more than compensated for by increase in life and reliability. Too much care cannot be taken to anchor fire brick. Through bolts are best. _ The coal bunkers abreast engine rooms give no real protection be- cause when trimmed for an attack they should be empty, to give the boat her speed. -On account of the inaccessibility of the coal in them they would never be used except in long slow runs--so long and so slow that it would be much better to tow the boats than steam them. If the weight of a good screw transporter could be tolerated, these bunkers could be made more available. Practically one or two will always be used for the storing of quick-repairing stores and tools absolutely neces- sary for the boat to carry herself, and therefore it would seem better policy to use some of the bunker space for shallow store rooms for tools, gasket- ing, fire brick, etc., accessible from the engine room. There can be no properly constructed coal bunkers aboard torpedo boats, and the real solution of the difficulty is to resort to liquid fuel. Coal bunker plates in crowned deck boats should be larger than those in the Porter class and fitted flush with the deck, with key screw, not butterfly or hex nut fastenings. "Hatches over the engines as in the Foote class are most necessary for light, ventilation, accessibility to the cylinders, and for saving life when a steam pipe is cut. If these hatches be in line with others they may have coamings and covers as in the Foote class; otherwise they should have sunken coamings flush with the deck, steel foothold gratings and tarpaulin covering for bad. weather and for lignt hiding. The 'some protection to the engines and boilers' required of bunker coal by the department's circu- lar of May 16, 1895, may be practically gotten for the engines of the de- stroyers. As to torpedo boats, am strongly of the opinion that the idea of engine protection by bunker coal is delusive; for not only should the engine room bunkers be empty to put the boat in fighting trim, but even if some coal be in them it will provide no nrotection, for the things most needing protection, the steam pipes that must be placed high. Therefore for torpedo boats I would run the engine rooms out to the side and, if necessary for coal supply, fit thwartship bunkers." : Oa : HULL CONSTRUCTION AND EQUIPMENT. With reference to hull construction and repairs it is said that crowned decks give room and make coaling quicker and 1 i c Z less wasteful than i - sible with whale-backs decks. The memoranda for the bureau of Nee taae tion and repair is quite extensive. It is as follows: "The arrangement of hatches should be such that a fo ' : ¢ . re and aft - way on one or both sides be given. This is absolutely necessary ie _ efficient service of the torpedo tubes and guns, for men must move quickly in total darkness to serve the armament properly and this they cannot do [March ra in any of the boats in the flotilla, since no amount of familiarity with the location of hatches, blowers, etc., will insure not striking them in quick movements about decks. By using care in design, it would seem possible to place some of the fire and engine room hatches amidships in line with the stacks; others and the blower cowls ,in line with tne engine roon, hatches, if these be fitted with coamings, and so leave narrow gangways fore and aft. Hatches over engines are desirable. In spite of the disad- vantages of splinters in action, there seems to be nothing superior to gratings. Linoleum strips off, sand paint wears off and cannot be renewed without laying up the boat for a fortnight. Rubber tiling cuts up easily and the grease and salt water kills its life. : "Conning towers should have water-tight bottoms with doors through the vertical sides of the towers for access to quarters and for ventilation; each doorway to be fitted with a gasketed, water-tight threshhold, 6 or 8 inches high. The conning tower should have one good scupper pipe for letting the water out. It is impracticable to keep the conning tower water- tight in a seaway; the hood must be lifted for steering purposes and for ventilation. If the water coming in is kept from going below by the washboard threshholds there would be no difficulty as regards taking water forward: Curved pipe ventilators are impracticable, because they fill up with water as the boat dives into it, and can only be cleared by opening them from below and letting the water down. Those in Foote class drip a bit even when newly gasketed. "Officers' quarters should be forward with access through conning tower. They should be lighted by large side air ports and fixed dead lights in the deck. Skylights are a nuisance, and do not ventilate as well as do air ports and conning tower. For men the quarters should be aft. The men's quarters in the Foote are good. Galley hatches should be as large as possible, and all possible arrangements made for taking away the heat. "The steering engine, if steam, should be placed in the engine room, and the long lead of steam piping with the consequent heating and con- densation avoided. The cutting of leads to the steam steerer valves when cut in action can be repaired easily: a shot cutting the steam pipe and wheel ropes is more serious. In my opinion an air steerer aft with low led piping from an air compressor in the engine room to an accumulator aft or in any convenient place would be better than steam. The compres- sor for the torpedoes, fitted to work on low compression and storing in an accumulator sufficient in volume to put the wheel hard over 20 or 30 turns at full speed, could be readily arrange¢ and would be a great im- provement on steam. The wheels in both conning towers should then be both power wheels and hand wheel placed on deck like the Ericsson's, for steering a course in heavy weather and for handling the boat to avoid the sea. The hand is far better than power for this purpose, as the feel of the helm, which one does not have with power gear, aids the helmsman. "Box hatch covers with spring latches, such as are in use in the Du Pont, are far superior to those in the Foote and Ericsson, in that they are lighter, stiffer, and more nearly air-tight. The gasket in the Foote class hatches are never taken properly by the hatch covers. Awnings fitted with spreaders are more practicable in use both for cover from sun and rain and for water catching to fill tanks and boilers, than when fitted with mid- ships stanchions. The castings for the spreader ends, as fitted in the Foote, are superior to the sheet metal reinforce of the Du Pont's. Masts should be light and fitted to readily douse. The hinged step of the Du Pont's mast is a good arrangement, but a 2-inch zinced steel tube mast tall enough to show a four flag boat code hoist and fitted with a tube yard for four sets of halyards answers every purpose. The mast should be near the forward conning tower, forward of forward stack. 'The question of water tank material is a serious one. Copper should be used where it can be insulated from the zinced hull material. The shallow steel tanks of the Foote class rust inside and render the water almost useless for drinking, cooking and washing. When copper cannot be used, some efficient non-corrosive lining for the steel tanks should be sought. Cement cracks off and is practically useless. The tanks should be made as accessible as possible for interior cleaning. Wash room floors for both officers and men should be fitted with water tiles and with coaming 6 inches high and preferably tiled either with rubber or earthen tiles, so that sponge baths can be taken conveniently. If possible, these floors should be above the water line, so as to have natural drainage; if not, then the drain should connect with the water closet pump so that the drainage can be pumped out. Bath tubs, where there is room for them, as in the Du Pont class, are not very practicable. Standard basins should be earthen. The aluminum ones of the Foote class are hard to keep clean and are therefore unsatisfactory. Wash rooms should have cocks for each basin from fresh water tanks and from salt water pump delivery. A hand salt water pump in wash room is preferable to connection with power pumping system. Hand pumps should be strong, solid and capable of good volume. All hand pumps in the Foote class are ineficient. All drain pumps should be as large as space will allow, and with leads such as will allow easy cleaning. Auxiliary bilge suctions to each compartment connecting with auxiliary bilge pumps save much loss of fresh water in using syphons. Ashes and coal should be prevented from washing into the well by immovable fine mesh wire gratings. S "Towing arrangements should be carefully considered for United States boats, because no matter what the type, whether intended as true pase postszon mot ali aa be capable of being moved long distances i ee ee oO eae net be towed from the extreme stem, Teed cere eee oe ouate: It is suggested that to the stem close for use with the ee eee nee ae Oe ee ae (Sci CAMaee HA a es, he mi e one solid for holding a ST IRSEUE AMS EaIL when fast to a deck. The forging should be pped and down held, and the middle fair lead large enough to take the two parts of a chain towing bridle equal in streneth to a 5-inch eile line. If stock anchors and a fish davit be used, a single large fair oe eae oH woth anchor lines and towing bridle. All cleats should hich resholt pattern, rather than like those on the Foote class, which cut the lines, are too heavy for their size and are not big enough for the purpose. There should be eight mooring cleats, f ide and those on the b d Oe ee ; c ow and quarter should be well back-strapped under the deck, to give strength for towing, and idshi i : Sr nGe ee aie cae one a midships fair lead aft should be See ee eee en gangway ladders should be fitted with yes to hang ugs inside the line of the chafing batten and with no