CHAPTER IV

TECHNICAL MATTERS

The torpedo-boat arm. In Fiume. The elaboration of my method. State and private war-industry. The navy's system of supply.—2. Work honoris^ causa. The development of the torpedo-boat. Every warship a compromise.—-3. Personalities.

SINCE I was twenty-nine I have had the good fortune to be employed uninterruptedly in positions of independence, among which in fact there was not one of those " soft jobs " that now and again fall to the lot of members of the General Staff. My rise is bound up with the development of the torpedo arm. Whitehead in Fiume had invented the automatic torpedo which brought within firing range those vital parts of a ship below the water line, which could,only be attacked hitherto with the ram of a vessel; it thus promised a revolution in naval tactics and shipbuilding. Stosch had introduced the fish torpedo over-hastily, and had bought large numbers of them before they were really serviceable for war. The use of it still constituted " a greater danger to the man who launched it than to his enemy." People were too optimistic about it, and, as is often the case with new- weapons, had anticipated the change before the new idea was really practicable.

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