Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1862-11-28

: TIE 3reAI NAVAL triumph.
e. 81 (Fremthe Washington Daily Chronicle)
The last trial trip Of the Passaic has been
. great success in more ways than one. The
idea first ENTERTAINERS by Ericsson was to
construct a war vessel which should exhibit
to the enemy the fewcst vulnerablcpoints, and
al. the same time, enable us to attach them
to advantage. The Passaic was at first con
structed With port hole just large enough
to admit the muzzle Of a gun, but 1t was
found that this arrangement was defective,
in that the recoil o: the gun commenced be-
fore its entire contents had been discharged.
/. and the powder was partly exploded within
the turret the result being that the .concus
sion was so great as to disable the men work
ing the gun, and even burn them with the
firc,, In this last trial the muzzle Of the CUR
has been slightly protruded beyond the port
hole, and sort Of snoke-pipe CONSTRUCTED,
which carries off the smoke, and the Difficult.
ties heretofore met have, by this device, been
overcome. Besides all this, the machinery
for working the gun is such that four men
can work the 15-nch gun, which will carry
q solid shot weighing four hundred and fifty
rounds. and shell weighing (hollow) three
hundred and thirty pounds, while the largest
shipboard requires trenty.fre to work 1t.
and even that number have failed to DO 1t
satisfactorily. Twenty-Five men cannot be
manuvered in tnrret like that when our
Monitors are constructed The Armstrong
gun weighs only fourteen tons. whlle-- IN
15.inch gun Of the Passaic weighs twenty
five tons. AS .7rs.s. .r.,-5
It has been said, perhaps without suffi
Gent foundation, that the great fight OF tn
!. Monitor and the Merrimacin Hampton Roads
caused revolution in the naval architecture
of England, and broke up the alliance be,
tween France and England, which was about
to be formed for the purpose oil intervention
between the United States and the rebels
In that fight we fred an 11.inch gun, work
ed by eight men, and knocked the last ship
that could be brought against us ''into a
cooked hat" Here we have worked Is
inch gun, carrying shot of twice the weight,
with half the number of men, and by analogy
we ought now to stir up in British navy
wards an excitement Of the very largest pro-
portions. There is nothing yet built or
Imagined in Europe that could for momen
cope with this terrible liking of the seas"
The best of their ships connot sail so fast
nor fire SO oftep.rgg
i. While La -Gloire and the Warrior must
slowly and slowly turn about their enormous
sides and discharge their pop-guns with
infinite labor, the Monitors can run arounG
these unweldy monsters and fire twice
their weight Of metal twice as fast, with one
twentieth the number Of men,. We await
with considerable curiosity the news FROM
our British cousins on hearing Of the second
trial trip of the Passaic.
q TorcHING INcIDENT.-Whcn l was IN
Jefferson City last fall, found the hospitals
Il, the most fearful condition you can imagine
i cannot stop to tell you of the scenes saw;
it is enough to say that one poor fellow had
lain there sick on the hard boards, and seen
five men carried away dead, one after another
from his side. He was worn TO skeleton
worn through so that great sores were all
over his back, and filthy beyond telling. One
day, little before my visit, old Hannah,
Black woman, who had some washing to do
foI doctor, went down the ward to hunt
him up. She saw this dying man, and had
compassion on him, and said 20, doctor,
let me bring this man to my bed, to keep
him off the floor" The doctor said, "The
man is dying; he will be dead tomorrow. !"
Tomorrow came, and old Hannah could not
rest. She went to see the man, and he was
still alive. Then she got some help, took
her bed, put the man on it, and carried him
bodily to her shanty then she washed him
all over as a woman washes baby, and fed
him with spoon, and fought death hand to
hand day and night, and beat him back and
saved the soldiers life. The day befor> !
went to Jefferson the man had gone on a
furlough TO his home in Indiana. He be-
sought Hannah to go with him, but she
could not spare time; there was all that
washing to do. She went with him to the
steamboat. got him fixed just to her mind,
and then kissed him, and the man lifted up
his voice as she left him, and wept like a
child. say we have grown noble in our
suffering. #.. -n"Hez1 81