submit the problem to the test of experiment. For this purpose steel
armor 1½ in. thick had been worked along the outside of the upper skin
of the double bottom throughout one of the compartments, in addition to
the other protection mentioned. The Resistance had been brought down by
iron ballast to a trim of 25 feet 9 in. aft and 19 ft. 7 in. forward,
giving a mean draught of 22 feet 8 inches. She was consequently rather
further down by the stern than before, but was in other respects the
same.

When in commission, the Resistance had a mean draught of 26 feet 10
inches. The present series of experiments was of even greater importance
than the first series. The attack was gradually developed by means of
fixed and outrigger charges of increasing power, and the _coup de grace_
was not given by means of a service Whitehead in actual contact until
various lessons had been derived.

The opening experiment on June 9 consisted of an attack directed against
a new system of torpedo defenses which are to be carried by ships in
action, or when in expectation of an attack, rather than an assault upon
the ship herself. The previous experiments had clearly demonstrated that
a Whitehead, when projected against a vessel at close range, and
consequently with a maximum of motive force, could not get through the
ordinary wire netting before expending its explosive energy in the air,
and that the spars by which the nets are boomed out from the ship's side
could be reduced to 25 ft. in length without danger to the hull. The
ordinary wooden booms employed on board ship, however, are heavy and
unwieldy, weighing, as they do, more than half a ton each. In ordinary
circumstances, the spars cannot be lowered into place and the nets made
taut in less than a couple of hours, and the work of stowing them is
equally slow and laborious.