A return had just been published giving the list of accidents and delays that had occurred during the torpedo boat manoeuvres of May 1887. Twenty-four boats were engaged in the evolution and out of that number no less than sixteen suffered some kind of breakdown, the total list of casualties to machinery amounted to twenty-four. The squadron consisted of seventeen Thornycroft boats, three Yarrow boats, and four White boats, the failures credited to the various makers were sixteen to Thornycroft, two to Yarrow, and six to White.