The guns were fired during the trip and worked excellently.
Her arrangements for firing the torpedoes all go to the pilot-house, and a system of signals is used to order the different spars to be run out, and when they are out, they are in the same way reported to the pilot-house as ready. Thus the whole operation of working the ship, engines, torpedoes and battery is done by the captain in the pilot-house. The spars are twelve inches in diameter, and made of the best gunmetal. They are run in and out by steam. The side spars extend seventeen and a half feet from the side, the bow spar twenty-four feet ahead of the ram. The ram extends fifteen feet forward under water, and for eight feet is solid iron. The gun and bows are protected by four inches of plating. It is intended to put on three inches more, and the displacement is so calculated. The spars will stand a fire of fifty and one hundred pounds of dynamite, being equal to several times that weight of gunpowder. Her crew will consist of five officers and sixty men.
The 'Vesuvius' was built at an estimated cost of 14,000l. Vessels of this class may therefore be multiplied without extravagant outlay. Mr. Goschen originally proposed to build a torpedo vessel of 540 tons and 11 knots speed, and this, he said, would not be a costly ship. Such a vessel could certainly be built for 30,000l. Even supposing that we went so far as to expend 40,000l. on her construction, this would be about the cost of the despatch boats of the 'Lively' and 'Vigi-
