“It has become a question in the minds of some eminent designers and observers, notably M. Normand, whether or not the extreme speeds sought and obtained in some recent boats are not excessive. Damage to the motive machinery is more to be apprehended than any injury to the hull or casualty among the crew. When it is considered that under ordinary conditions of weather and service the speed of the fastest will be little greater than that of an ordinary twenty-knot boat, the propriety at once suggests itself of devoting to steel plate the extra weight of boiler, water, and engine necessary to produce that practically superfluous horse-power.”[30] The trials of this year have not confirmed the great promises made for the type by its most able and influential advocates. Many of the English boats broke down, and in few cases were the high speeds realized in actual sea duty. The truth is, torpedo-boats have been brought down to such a condition of refinement to meet the special circumstances of their work that it appears probable they have become too delicate for rough handling. Out of twenty-seven boats that were required to steam a distance of one hundred miles, seven failed to run the course at all, having been, from one cause or another, practically disabled. Such a heavy percentage of failures—one resulted in a loss of life—under a trial test to which the boats might at any time be subjected, arouses a natural doubt as to a policy which is sacrificing for certain impracticable results considerations that are of vital importance. So far as the French naval manœuvres proved this year, the torpedo-boats were not equal to the task assigned them. During these experiments a squadron of eight armored battle-ships, three cruisers, and two sea torpedo-boats, under command of Vice-admiral Peyron, was supposed to represent a convoy of troop-ships and guard-vessels which was to be intercepted on a voyage from Toulon to Algiers by a torpedo division of four cruisers, one store-ship, and sixteen boats, with the _Gabriel Charmes_, gun-boat, all lying off Ajaccio, under command of Rear-admiral Brown de Coulston.