The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-03-01 00:00:00

THE USE OF THE RAM IN NAVAL

WARFARE.
At a recent meeting of the Royal United Service
Institution, Admiral Sir George Elliot read a paper,
entitled "The Ram—the Prominent Feature of
Future Naval Victories." Admiral St9pford presided.
Sir George Elliot, having remarked that his subject
had not hitherto received the attention which its
merits deserved, went on to show that it was an error
to think that future warfare at sea would be entirely
governed by guns and torpedoes. The French naval
authorities were not of that opinion, and had
devoted considerable attention to the strengthen-
ing of the bows of their armour-clad vessels.
Having criticised the ideal encounter portrayed in
the pamphlet entitled the "Battle of Port Said," the
admiral proceeded to give his reasons for differing
entirely from the prevailing opinion on what might
be expected to occur in future naval actions. He
especially protested against large unwieldly ships
with weak bows, believing that the greatest fighting
advantage in the future would remain with ships of
moderate size and speed, strongly protected on the
ram bow, and carrying but one armour-piercing gun,
by which much stouter protection could be afforded
to the turret. The English fleet ought, he said, to
consist of two classes of vessels, one for foreign ser-
vice, the other for European waters, the different re-
quirements of which the lecturer explained and illus-
trated by diagrams. With regard to the protection of
the "vitals" of a ship, the magazines and boilers, Sir
George Elliot maintained that it could not be effected
by any outside armour, however strong, but might
be accomplished by a submerged armour-plated
deck of sufficient thickness to deflect any possible
missile from going below, and by a cellular or raft
body built upon that deck. In conclusion the lecturer
said he had not referred at length to torpedoes, or to
frigates, corvettes, or gunboats, all of which would, of
course, find their proper use in fleet actions, but
would be valued principally according to their rate of
speed. He had also, he remarked, avoided trespassing
on the domain of modern science, for he did not think
the day would ever arrive when the engineer would
take the helm in matters relating to ships of war.
When the hour of trial arrived he hoped that the
glory and safety of England would not be imperilled
by her rulers having given the greatest prominence to
gun attack and defence to the neglect of rammin and
bow-to-bow attack.

ALLEGED MURDER OF A CONSTABLE. - Sergeant
William Smith, of the Durham County Constabulary,
stationed at Woodlands, near Staindrop, on Saturday
night visited a public-house to see that all was right.
On passing a pit heap he was assailed by a shower of
stones and felled to the ground. News of the affray
reached Woodlands, when Dr. Middleton proceeded
to the scene. He was also attacked and struck in the
chest by a brick, which knocked him down. The
sergeant was afterwards found in the gutter dead.
Sergeant Daly, of Staindrop, apprehended three
miners named Joseph Lawson, William Liddle, and
Joseph Hodgson, and lodged them in the police-
station at Staindrop. The deceased had been sixteen
years in the force, and leaves a wife and family. One
side of the sergeant's head was found to have been
beaten in.

On the walls hung two enormous pictures, the paro-
dies of the tapestries lent by the Emperor to the real
Historical Exhibition. On one of the originals three
mounted warriors extended their hands and pointed
to the city below them, which was beginning to burn
on several sides, the Turks having bombarded it
during a whole day. On the parody seven mounted
warriors, each a little higher than his neighbour,
extended a long finger towards the burning
city, and an eighth directs his opera glass towards
the moon, which just peeps out of black
clouds. The other picture represents the flight
of Kara Mustapha and his harem on camels. Kara
Ifustapha's head, made out of a bladder with real
teeth, a rolling glass eye and real hair, is something
horrible to contemplate. As the historians speak of
Kara Mustapha's execution, first at Belgrade, and
then at Constantinople, the present Historical Ex-
hibition furnished two heads. The second one,
which was cut off in the Turkish capital, is made
of an enormous cocoanut, and is still more horrible
than the first. A beautiful group of a dying
savage and a stabbed horse is surrounded by cannons
(gas and water pipes), ancient weapons of every
description (kitchen utensils, rusty and broken),
laurel trees, horse-tails surmounted by crescents, and
all the paraphernalia of medimval warfare. The
plans of Vienna and its surroundings, in frames on
the walls, were in reality pattern-sheets from ladies'
fashion journals. A page from the Koran, soiled and
burned, but beautifully executed by a clever hand,
will no doubt survive the exhibition. The detailed
description of all the articles crammed into one room
would fill a volume.