This was to be done by the so-called almighty torpedo.

I received notice from our secret agent at Sebastopol that a serious expedition was being organised, that the Turkish ships at Batoum were to be destroyed or _frightened away_ at any cost.
_Frightened away, indeed!_ To the uninitiated a torpedo is a thing to frighten any one away.

We had heard of magnificent results of torpedo trials in peace, how ships (I fancy only hulks) had been blown up, columns of water half a mile high being sent into the air, &c.

Nothing, it was said, could save you.

Whatever my ideas, however nervous I may have felt, I knew that those I was commanding had no fear--they don't know what it means, the more especially of a not understood possible casualty, and though more enlightened as to torpedoes and their accepted effects, I wasn't to show my people a bad example.