The buoyancy of the loaded torpedo could easily be calculated and by means of the air cylinders it could be kept awash or floated just below the surface, the latter being the preferred method when it was to be used during the day. The towing wire or rope was kept on the surface or just below it by small floats, distributed at such distances that they would attract no attention even in the improbable event of their being seen. The torpedo was intended to be towed across the course of the vessel that was to be destroyed. The moment the ship’s bow picked up the towing rope her fate was settled, for whether the rope was fifty yards or five miles long it was simply a question of time until the torpedo was dragged alongside and exploded by the pressure of one of the arms against the side of the vessel. The torpedo could be towed astern of a ship or a launch or even an innocent rowboat. In river work it could be stretched across the stream with a line at each end, the shorter one being only strong enough to withstand the current, so it would part easily when the unfriendly ship picked up the line attached to the nose of the torpedo. I was greatly pleased with my invention and it was not long until I had an opportunity to prove that it was a complete success. We reached Singapore more than a month ahead of the “Florence” and on our arrival there Norton unfolded his whole scheme to me. The gist of it was that we were to prey on the pirates who infested the China Sea, and particularly that part of it lying between Singapore, Sumatra, and Borneo, which was dotted with islands and beautifully suited by nature to their plundering profession. Every ship going to Europe from China, Indo-China, Siam, and from the Philippines and the network of islands to the south of them, as well as vessels coming up from the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Sunda, between Sumatra and Java, had to run the gantlet of this piratical nest, and many were the good ships that ended their cruises there, along with their passengers and crews. It was here the pirates held out last in their long and bloody fight against civilization, as the present state of mankind in general is called. The British Government had been trying for years to put an end to their operations but there were so many of the islands, and the opportunities for concealment and escape were so numerous, that the undertaking was a gigantic one. It was not until years after my tragic appearance on this stage that it was officially announced that piracy had been suppressed. Even that long delayed declaration was not altogether true, for in that accursed region, now well known but yet mysterious, piracy is still being carried on, even to this day, though in a small and desultory way. There were a few islands farther north, off the southern coast of Indo-China, among which the pirates sometimes rendezvoused to lay in wait for their prey, but in ordinary