Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 125
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[Page 125]
about a mile from the ship and as she steams past the torpedo is let go. The torpedo is so The mechanism is so gaged that the torpedo should come up and blow like a whale between the boats or rather burn an acetylene light so that it may readily be picked up. Some of our torpedoes behaved decently but they the majority didnt.
One leapt out of the tube and came astern cavorting like a porpoise it finally it poked its nose into the wardroom scuttle then fell back into the sea and finally buried itself in the mud. Another dived straight to the bottom. A third came up about two miles beyond the boats and so with a little quiet fun like this we continued to put in time.
Torpedo running of course is carried out with torpedoes minus their warhead. The warhead is a chamber which is screwed to the nose and filled with high explosive. In practice the chamber is filled with some innocuous material to make up the weight and preserve the balance.
A torpedo is a valuable piece of machinery and when one is lost it means hours of boat work and with divers. When we lost ours outside Port Antonio half the ships Company seemed to be walking about the bottom in diving gear. When all the frightfulness was finished and the torpedoes retrieved we left again for Kingston and as the flag was away propped up a wharf and went ashore without helmets. There were still no orders so we arranged a yachting cruise to Havana in Cuba.
The ship these days was in peace routine, awnings were spread above the decks chairs were got up and mercy of mercy one wasn't battened down at night.
There was no "darken ship" or night defence and all hands slept peacefully in their fleabags.
Off Havana we met the Descartes our French consort who had been cheerfully engaged in patrolling the entrance to Havana harbour wherein the Huns were supposed to be fitting ships for sea. We passed her over some papers and food and then went close up to the town.
We got there just at dusk. and it was Havana from the sea