Various methods have been devised to secure ships from torpedoes. Nets are sometimes extended in front of the ship, which catch the torpedoes before they can come in contact with the vessel's bottom. This safeguard was adopted, in many instances with success, by the Federal war-ships when entering Confederate harbours. But a great deal may be done to secure a ship against these terrible engines of destruction by precaution simply, as was proved in the Crimean War, when the Russian torpedoes did little or no damage to our ships, by reason of the unceasing watchfulness maintained on board. During the late war between Russia and Turkey one of the most daring exploits of the campaign was an attack by a Russian squadron of torpedo-boats on the Turkish monitor _Hifse Rahman_. The flotilla comprised four ships, the _Czarevich_, the _Xenia_, the _Czarevna_, and the _Djirid_. The two first named began the attack, the _Czarevna_ and the _Djirid_ holding themselves in reserve until their assistance should be wanted. The launches were equipped with strong iron awnings which shielded their crews from the enemy's fire. Each boat was armed with two torpedoes, fastened to the end of long spars projected over the bulwarks and working on pivots. The torpedoes could be detached from the spars when occasion demanded; while long chains were secured to the missiles, by which they were attached to the enemy's vessel, as well as to the wire of a galvanic battery fastened round the waist of the commander of the launch. This battery was the means by which the torpedo was exploded. The flotilla left the Roumanian side of the Danube on the 25th of June 1877 at about midnight, and in something less than an hour the _Hifse Rahman_ loomed in sight, a shadowy mass on the dark waters. The approach of the torpedo-boats was almost noiseless, and the croaking of the frogs was said to have further favoured the Russians by drowning the sound of the engines, so that those on board the monitor were not aware of their enemy's propinquity until the launches were almost alongside. The sentry at once challenged, when Lieutenant Doubarsoff, the commander of the _Czarevich_, answered "Friends." But his speech betrayed him; the alarm was spread; and the _Hifse Rahman_ opened a sharp fire upon the launches. But Lieutenant Doubarsoff succeeded in attaching his torpedo-chain to a rope hanging at the monitor's bows, and then rapidly backed his little vessel and fired the torpedo. A tremendous explosion; a column of water shot up into the air, and the launch was nearly swamped! A breach had, however, been made in the _Hifse Rahman's_ bulwarks.