This vessel is a gun-boat of about the dimensions of the Alarm, having a short, heavy ram bow and an armored belt at the water-line of five inches thickness all around. Her load draft brings her upper deck to within three feet of the water-line. This vessel carries no armament except a few Gatling guns on the rail, and her torpedo system consists of four ordinary swinging-spar torpedoes, two on each beam. Ordinarily these spars lie in crutches alongside, and they are manipulated by topping-lifts and guys in the ordinary way. The torpedoes are exploded by electricity. _The Destroyer_ (American). [Illustration: Ericsson’s Torpedo Vessel (Destroyer).] This vessel is 130 feet long by 12 feet beam and 10 feet draft, built with a straight bow, bow and stern lines being the same and very sharp. She has no upper-deck rail, this deck being very low, with a long superstructure rising amidships. There are no openings in the sides of this superstructure, so that if desirable the vessel may be run with her upper deck completely under water. Thirty-two feet from the bow a heavy armored bulkhead crosses the vessel, inclined at a vertical angle of 45°, and intended as a thorough protection to the engines and boilers, enabling the vessel to approach bows on with impunity. Her armament consists of a bow-torpedo, which is projected from a tube in a manner not unlike the firing of a projectile from a gun. This torpedo consists of a solid block of light wood having inserted in its forward end a heavy bursting-charge in a steel case. The transverse section of this torpedo is square; longitudinally it is a rectangle with sharpened ends. Ignition of the charge is obtained by means of a percussion fuse. To project this torpedo, it is inserted in a tube provided with water-gates, fixed in the bow of the boat just above the keel. A steam piston-rod fits against the after-end and pushes the torpedo out with a velocity sufficient to send it at least 100 feet. The weight of the torpedo is about 1400 lbs. This vessel has been tried, but the system is not yet perfected. _The Uhlan_ (German). This vessel is of a novel type, consisting of two separate hulls, one within and abaft the other, the intervening space being filled with cork. She carries affixed to a ram which projects ten feet forward from the stem a dynamite contact torpedo. Arranged to travel at a high speed, the idea is to carry her at full speed against the enemy, the crew finding refuge on a small raft which she carries and which is detached just before her striking. It is not expected that the main hull, in which are the engines and steering-gear, will be injured by the explosion. The raft, it is understood, is not completely detached from the vessel, but a long tow-line is paid out rapidly, and after the explosion of the torpedo the crew haul alongside and take the boat clear ready for another attack. TORPEDO-BOATS. _The Thornycroft Torpedo-Launch._