At Portsmouth are storehouses containing upwards of a thousand torpedoes. Every torpedo is at intervals taken to pieces, examined, tested, and put together again after full particulars have been taken down on paper. Each steel “baby” is kept bright and clean, coated with a thin layer of oil, lest a single spot of rust should mar its beauty. An interesting passage from Lieutenant G. E. Armstrong’s book on “Torpedoes and Torpedo Vessels” will illustrate the scrupulous exactness observed in all things relating to the torpedo depôts: “As an example of the care with which the stores are kept it may be mentioned that a particular tiny pattern of brass screw which forms part of the torpedo’s mechanism and which is valued at about twopence-halfpenny per gross, is never allowed to be a single number wrong. On one occasion, when the stocktaking took place, it was found that instead of 5000 little screws being accounted for by the man who was told off to count them, there were only 4997. Several foolscap letters were written and exchanged over these three small screws, though their value was not more than a small fraction of a farthing.” The classic instance of the effectiveness of this type of torpedo is the battle of the Yalu, fought between the Japanese and Chinese fleets in 1894. The Japanese had been pounding their adversaries for hours with their big guns without producing decisive results. So they determined upon a torpedo attack, which was delivered early in the morning under cover of darkness, and resulted in the destruction of a cruiser, the _Ting Yuen_. The next night a second incursion of the Japanese destroyers wrecked another cruiser, the _Lai Yuen_, which sunk within five minutes of being struck; sank the _Wei Yuen_, an old wooden vessel used as a training-school; and blew a large steam launch out of the water on to an adjacent wharf. These hits “below the belt” were too much for the Chinese, who soon afterwards surrendered to their more scientific and better equipped foes. If a general naval war broke out to-day most nations would undoubtedly pin their faith to the Whitehead torpedo for use in the open sea, now that its accuracy has been largely increased by the gyroscope, a heavy flywheel attachment revolving rapidly at right angles to the path of the torpedo, and rendering a change of direction almost impossible. For harbour defence the Brennan or its American rival, the Sims-Edison, might be employed. They are both torpedoes dirigible from a fixed base by means of connecting wires. The presence of these wires constitutes an obstacle to their being of service in a fleet action.