On 14 December 1891 was the
Dutch navy budget for 1892 discussed.(1) The Dutch parliament member Guyot
remarked that considering the torpedo department a strange policy was
conducted. Some years ago possessed the navy a quite large number of torpedo boats
but was she lacking enough personnel. All efforts were done to increase the
personnel and with success while although there were more torpedo boats built,
there was nowadays enough personnel available. But another problem raised in
the meantime namely lacking enough controllable (fish)torpedoes. Instead in
solving this problem happened something strange. The navy choose for the
Whitehead after testing several kinds of torpedoes and after some improvements
were the results acceptable and the crew more or less experienced in using
them. Suddenly was decided to order torpedoes from another company namely
Schwartzkopff. And again were tests and improvements necessary against a high
price needed to make the Schwartzkopff torpedo as good as the Whitehead.
Apparently was for neither of these two torpedoes a preference. And although
the cabinet claimed that it was an advantage to order from two different
companies choosing the best torpedo, Guyot did not agree with this reason.(1)
Note
1. Henri Daniel Guyot (7 May
1836 Nijmegen, Netherlands-6 May 1912 The Hague, Netherlands), former navy officer
ending his career in the rank of rear-admiral and between 19 November 20 March
1894 and 16 May 1894-21 September 1897 member of the House of Representatives
especially for military and naval affaires.
Source
General discussions Government
budget 1892 chapter VI navy.
