ThomasHorton, et al:

The Mark 7, 8 and 10 torpedoes were ruggedly built and fired as "exercise shots" many times before being sent to an overhaul facility. These exercise shots were retrieved by the submarines and destroyers that launched them made ready and then
launched them again, after preliminary and final adjustments had been made. There isn't much strain on a submarine-launched torpedo, however there is great strain on destroyer and cruiser-launched torpedoes.

Most WWI exploder mechanisms installed in warheads, had an arming delay of around 450 yards; rarely an attacking vessel got that close.

You wrote: "Perhaps one of the dangers that Ballard was concerned with was not the warhead exploding but the alcohol in the propulsion system catching fire." Is he speaking of a submerged torpedo? If so, how could one "catch fire" with no oxygen
available? Alcohol in a torpedo is not that hazardous, 'cause it's contained in a cadmium-lined steel fuel tank securely mounted in the midship section of the
torpedo, and is not vented to the atmosphere.

As for repairs on a torpedo on board a destroyer or submarine, that never happened, 'cause the torpedo tools issued to them are the bare minimum to performing the Preliminary and final adjustments on the torpedo. If any "repairs"
are to be accomplished, the torpedo is transferred to a shore-based overhaul shop or sent to the appropriate tender for overhaul.

You mentioned "Hellions of the Deep" by Robert Gannon; The first words in Chapter one are: "Laymon Miller was typical." He was a good friend of mine, and I lost
track of him after he moved from Port Charlotte, FL to Ft. Myers. FL.

I was a USN torpedoman for 24 years, and served aboard destroyers, an air craft carrier, submarines (both diesel and nuclear-powered) and two years in a WWII torpedo overhaul shop.

Later,


ROBERT M.