to approach a vessel very rapidly, launch their torpedo, and retreat before they are detected and sunk. Speed is their great requisite, and a torpedo-boat like the Porter can speed thirty-two miles an hour. Naval experts consider their bark worse than their bite, because, with the modern system of lookouts and search-lights, and the accuracy and rapidity of the secondary batteries, it is impossible for a torpedoboat to get within range without exposing itself to instant destruction, and after a torpedo-fleet has once met with a serious repulse, it is believed that it would be almost impossible to get the crews to go into action again.

The torpedo-boat destroyer, contrary to general belief, does not carry any heavy guns, but depends on its great speed and its ability to cripple a torpedo-boat with its 6-pounders while keeping out of range of the enemy's tubes. All torpedo-boat destroyers carry torpedo tubes themselves, so that they can be used against the enemy's battle-ships or cruisers if the occasion offers. The fastest boat in the United States navy is the destroyer Bailey, which can steam thirty-four miles an hour.

In a naval battle the success or failure of a fleet may depend on keeping open communication between the different vessels of the squadron engaged. Owing to the fact that the surface of the sea would often be obscured by the smoke of battle, the difficulty of this is apparent, and naval experts have been kept busy devising some method by which the flag-ship can communicate with the other vessels of the squadron at all times and under all conditions. So far nothing has been put in general service which meets this demand, but lately there have been experiments with the telephone, which, it is said, can be used without wires, by which signals can be projected by a vibrator on one vessel against a receiver on another. The Navy Department is

keeping the details of this new system carefully to itself, as it desires to have the invention for the exclusive use of our own ships of battle.

The present method of communication is by the use of flags representing numerals which are displayed in the rigging; by the use of the Ardois system of lights for night work; by the Myer code of wigwag signals, and by the use of the heliograph. As it is of the utmost importance that the enemy should not read the message, the signal books on board a vessel are protected with the greatest care, and are destroyed along with the cipher code whenever it is seen that capture is inevitable. The semaphore system in use in the British navy was tried for a time aboard some of our vessels, but it never became popular, and has been abandoned.

In signalling by the navy code, the sentence to be sent is looked up in the code-book and its corresponding number is obtained. This number is never more than four figures, on account of the necessity of setting. the signal with the least delay. The number having been obtained, the quartermaster in charge of the signal-chest proceeds to bend the flags representing the numerals to the signal halliards, so as to read from the top down. These flags represent the numerals from one to nine and cipher, and there is a triangular pennant termed a repeater, which is used in a combination where one or more numerals recur. The numbers refer to those found in the general signal-book, in which are printed all the words, phrases, and sentences necessary to frame an order, make an inquiry, indicate a geographical position, or signal a compass course. Answering, interrogatory, preparatory, and geographical pennants form part of this code; also telegraph, danger, despatch, and quarantine flags.

The signal, having been prepared, is hoisted and left flying until the vessel to which the message has been sent signifies that it is understood by hoisting what is called the

answering pennant. If the number hoisted by the flag-ship is a preparatory order for a fleet movement, it is left flying until all the vessels of the fleet have answered, and then is pulled down, the act of pulling the signal down being understood as the command for the execution of the movement just communicated.

It is often necessary for a man-of-war to communicate with a merchant vessel, or with some other war-ship belonging to a foreign country. For this purpose the international code is also carried in the signal-chest. These signals are those in general use by all the merchant navies of the world for communication by day at sea. There are eighteen flags and a code pennant, corresponding to the consonants of the alphabet, omitting x and z. The code pennant is also used with these signals.

If a message is to be sent at night, the Ardois system of night signals, with which all our vessels carrying an electric plant are fitted, is employed. These signals consist essentially of five groups of double lamps, the two lamps in each group containing incandescent electric lamps, and showing white and red respectively. By the combination of these lights letters can be formed, and so, letter by letter, a word, and hence an order, can be spelled out for the guidance of the ships of the squadron. These lamps are suspended on a stay in the rigging, and are worked by a keyboard from the upper bridge.

On the smaller ships of the service, those which are not fitted with electric lighting, Very's night signals are used. This set includes the implements for firing and recharging the signals.

The latter show green and red stars on being projected from pistols made for them. The combination in various ways is used to express the numbers from one to nine and cipher, so that the numbers, to four digits, contained in the

signal-book, may be displayed. The Myer wigwag system is employed either by day or by night. Flags and torches are employed. The official flag is a red field with a small white square in the centre; the unofficial flag is the same with the colours reversed. The operator, having attracted the attention of the ship which is to be signalled by waving the flag or torch from right to left, transmits his message by motions right, left, and front, each motion the element of a letter of the alphabet, the letter being made up of from one to four motions.

When circumstances permit, the heliograph is sometimes used. The rays of the sun are thrown by a system of mirrors to the point with which it is desired to communicate, and then interrupted by means of a shutter, making dots and dashes as used in the Morse telegraph code. This system is used only when operations ashore are going on, as the rolling of the ship would prevent the concentration of the sun's rays.

The present systems of flag signalling are products of experience in the past, and are the natural growth of the cruder flag system in use during the War of 1812, and in the Civil War. There have been some changes in the construction of flags, and the scope of communication has been enlarged, but otherwise our forefathers talked at sea in much the same way as we do now. Of course the Ardois light signal is something very modern. In old times they communicated at night either with coloured lights or by torches, and, as there was no alphabetical code in those days, the process was by means of flashes (representing numbers in the signal book), and it was long and tedious.

APPENDIX C.

SANTIAGO DE CUBA.

ANTIAGO is the most easterly city on the southern

SANT of Cuba, second only to Havana in its strategic

and political importance, and is the capital of the eastern
department, as well as its most flourishing seaport.

The harbour, now become famous as a theatre of action
where American heroism was displayed, is thus described by
Mr. Samuel Hazard, in his entertaining work on Cuba:

"Some one now remarks that we are near to Cuba; but, looking landward, nothing is seen but the same continuous mountains which we have had for the last twelve hours, except where, low down on the shore, there seems to be a slight opening in the rocky coast, above which stands, apparently, some dwelling-house. However, time tells, and in a half hour more we discover the small opening to be the entrance to a valley, and the dwelling-house to be the fort of the Cabanas. Still, no town and no harbour; and yet ahead we see, high upon a rocky cliff, a queer-looking old castle, with guns frowning from its embrasures, and its variegated walls looking as if they were ready to fall into the waves dashing at their base. That is the Morro Castle, which, with the battery of Aguadores, the battery of the Estrella, and the above named Cabanas, commands the approaches to the harbour and town of Cuba.

"The rocky shore above and below the castle has scattered along it the remains of several vessels, whose captains,

H