Notes

Abstract

THE announcement made by the Admiralty on Saturday that “an attack was made on our vessels patrolling the Belgian coast by an electrically controlled high-speed boat” (which was destroyed in the attempt) recalls the various suggestions and experiments made, ever since Hobson's “bottling” exploit at Santiago, to devise an unmanned craft capable of being steered for attack from a safe distance. Brennan's wire-controlled torpedo was a clumsy device compared with the radiotelegraphic control worked out by J. H. Hammond in America, and tested before the present war commenced. There is no doubt that it is possible to construct a craft steered by wireless which will attack and hit a target two or three miles off. The difficulty of seeing the craft at such distances from the steering station can be overcome at night by attaching to it a light directed backwards and invisible from the target. But the main objection to wireless control is that it can be “jammed” by the enemy. To rrfeet this difficulty it has been proposed to use a selenium control actuated by a searchlight. There is little doubt that this can be successfully worked over a range of several miles, but here again the objection is that something must emerge and be illuminated, and that this something is liable to destruction by the enemy. The question resolves itself into one of adaptability to exceptional circumstances. It will be interesting to learn which of the various possible constructions has been adopted by Germany. The Press Association is authorised to state that four electrically controlled boats have already been destroyed. The boat destroyed last week had a petrol engine, was electrically controlled from the land, and was convoyed by an aeroplane.