Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-03-22
IroSCfad War vessels.

The military master-spirits of Europe, says
the Boston Journal, appear to nave become
fully convinced that iron or steel. clad vessels
of war are hereafter to decide the momen-
tous question of naval supremacy. Wooden
ships are no match for the rifle cannsns of
modern warfare, and nations that desire to
maintain a military position on the ocean
must build their floating castles of sterner
stuff than timber and plank. AS well de
pend on wooden forts as on wooden vessels.
Either must prove u charnel- house for their
brave defenders. The easy destruction of a
formidable English man. of war which
grounded near Odessa during the Crimean
War, by a few light shells and hot shot from
a sheltered Russian battery, opened the eyes
of British naval officers and the British ma
ton to the startling truth that their boasted
wooden walls we're no longer safe. But
John Bull, exhibiting his usual inertia, was
slow to seek a remedy for the serious weak
ness thus developed in the right arm of his
power.
Louis Napoleon, however, fully compre-
bending the great consequences that hinged
on this demonstration, with his wonted sa-
gacity and energy, Immediately set TO work
TO restore war vessels to their former rank
as offensive agents. One year later he con-
fronted the fortress of Kinburn with three
iron-clad ships, which captured the strong
hold after a short action, and without suffer-
ing any other damage than the starting of
three rivets The shot of the enemy made
no more impression than hail upon their
| metallic assaiants.
AS a consequence, France has ceased build
ing wooden ships, and is directing all her
energies to the construction of steel plated
trigates, of which it is said she will have
nineteen afloat the coming Summer. En-
gland Tags, and has one launched and only
six on the stocks. Austria has two building
at Trieste, and Russia one on the Thames.
According to the expectations OF naval au.
thorities, these vessels will be terrible en-
gines of destruction. Impervious to shot or
shell, one of them could encounter a feet Of
wooden frigates with as much impunity as a
seventy. four would a feet Of South Sea
canoes, while the frigates would be quite as
certain Of destruction as the latter. Not
only this, no land fertilization, it is supposed,
could deter them from entering any seaport
/ or fortified place their commanders might
choose to visit. Indeed, they seem TO be in
vulnerable, and at the sam time capable of
infictiDg terrible punishment upon an
enemy.
Their cost, however, is enormous; and it
is sad to think of the immense sums that will
be wrung from the toiliug millions of Eu-
rope during the next decade to enable its
war-like Powers TO reconstruct their navies.
The military expenditure in England alone
last ear was $I33, 500, 600. Should England
become involved in a European war, of
course this enormous expenditure would be
greatly increased, and the money that should
be expended in improving the homes, in
creasing the comforts and advancing the
education of the masses, will be squandered
in the brutal necessities of war, while the
people must wait and suffer.