According to the Editor of The Engineer the letter by Messrs. Normand printed on page 12 of The Engineer on the 5th of January 1900, appeared to be based on a misconception. The mean speed of torpedo boat No. 212 on a particular cruise was given, and quoted as a creditable performance. The craft was alluded to as a 24-knotter because it was so spoken of in the French newspapers. The Editor's point about the Durandal type of destroyers had little or nothing to do with their trial speeds, but referred to the amusing theory raised by a correspondent of Le Yacht, to the effect that British destroyers must necessarily lose speed in a sea way - whatever their trial speeds - till they could steam no faster than the Durandal type. As a matter of fact many British destroyers lost very little speed in a moderate sea, the Lightning class, built by Palmers, owing to their peculiar shape lost none in even a rather bad sea. The Royal Navy had had no first hand experience of the boats constructed by Messrs. Normand, but had installed Normand boilers in all the torpedo boat destroyers built by Lairds, and these had proved to be exceedingly satisfactory.