contact with the enemy. Unfortunately this advantage is offset by grave
drawbacks; for, in the first place, each of the Whitehead torpedoes
costs about ten thousand francs, without counting the expense of
obtaining the right to use the patent, and, in the second place, its
action is very uncertain, since currents very readily change its
direction. However this may be, the inventor has realized a considerable
sum by the sale of his secret to the different maritime powers, most of
whom have adopted his system.

All our ports are provided with flotillas and torpedo boats, and with
schools in which the officers and men charged with this service are
trained by frequent exercises. It was near L'Orient, at Port Louis, that
we were permitted to be witnesses of these maneuvers, and where we saw
the torpedo boats that were lying in ambush behind Rohellan Isle glide
between the rocks, all of which appeared familiar to them, and start out
seaward at the first signal. It was here, too, that we were witnesses
of the sham attack against a pleasure yacht, shown in one of our
engravings. A torpedo boat, driven at full speed, stopped at one meter
from the said yacht with a precision that denoted an oft-repeated study.

[Illustration: MODE OF FIRING TORPEDOES.]

Before we close, we must mention some very recent experiments that have
been made with a torpedo analogous to Whitehead's, that is to say, one
that runs alone by means of helices actuated by compressed air, but
having the great advantage that it can be steered at a distance from the
very place whence it has been launched. This extraordinary result is
obtained by the use of a rudder actuated by an electric current which is
transmitted by a small metallic cable wound up in the interior of the
torpedo, and paying out behind as the torpedo moves forward on its