3-017-284 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Experiments with torpedo-shells at Chatham: blowing-up of the Terpsichore by a 75-pounder, 1865. 'Preparations were now made for destroying the Terpsichore, 18-gun sailing-frigate, which had been placed at the disposal of Mr. Beardslee by the Admiralty in order to put the destructive powers of the torpedo to the most practical test...a couple of 75-lb. torpedos were taken...close alongside the Terpsichore and there sunk...after a momentary pause, came the stifled report of both the torpedos at once, and the Terpsichore suddenly rose at her bows 10 ft. or 12 ft. into the air and heeled over on her starboard side, while great masses of water burst up through her decks, her whole frame being convulsed and heaving as with agony, till she began to settle down forwards. In another moment her stem stood up at an acute angle, and her bow sank deeper and deeper...The mischief she had received would seem to be a broken back; for she still continued to go down by the head, until, in about five minutes from her first movement, she lay fast aground in the Medway mud on an even keel, with the tide, now at three-quarters ebb, up to within a few inches of her portholes'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.