, 1866-09-14
5 q. gRQLz A V s.

the responsibilities and engagements OF
the old. The officer who has been sent
10 Europe in charge of the Miantonomoh
has been Assistant Secretary of the Anne
rican navy throughout the war, ana the
chief bureaus remain as they were IN
1861. Most Of the heads of these bureaus
received their appointments In reward
for some improvements which they had
discovered. The Department is not en-
barrassed by party ties, nor have Its
chiefs to study family interests, and thus
it is left free 10 do its work in It's W
way, and, as there is no representative OF
the Government in Congress, there Is
not even the check of ''questions" or
notices of motion upon the action of Mr..
Welles and his colleagues. All that the
people ask for is that their fleet shall be
made the most powerful in the world.
The Navy Department promises to give
them that, and if there is any question
about it's having accomplished its purpose
to-day, there will be none a few years
hence, if they advance as swiftly, and we
and other European nations move as slow
ly, as at the present moment.
The whole principle of ril1ed ordnance,
as is we'll known, is being abandoned by
the Americans. Their argument is that
they care nothing for high velocity so
long as they can throw the heaviest
weight of metal possible from a vessel
which can go close to the object of attack,
and be itself almost impregnable to al
tack. Such a vessel they believe they
possess in the Monitor. They do not
want high velocity. Their plan is to
get to close quarters with the enemy and
destroy him by superior weight of metal.
The smoothbore invented by Rear-Admi-
raj Dahlgren and improved by Rodman
is ~indisputabIy the most efficient appIIca-
ton of this particular principle. The
Americans maintain that their cast iron is
very superior to ours, and it is certain
that, although every Dahlgren gun has
been severely tested before being sent
from the yard, very few indeed have
burst. 1t is the 15-inch gun OF his kind
with which the latest Monitors are armed,
but it is soon to be superseded bJ a 90
inch, which the naval officers at Wash
ington believe will be the most service
able and destructive gun known TO the
world.
A better gun than the Dahlgren may
still be found, but an engine of war more
perfect than the vessels intended to car
nv them II Is hard to conceive. The Mo-
nitors were at first built with "a single
turret, but almost all that are laid down
now have two %turrets, and carry four
guns instead of two. The Tonawandah,
which is now lying off the Navy Yard at
Washington. is one of the latest turned
out, and it is in all respects like the Mi:
antonomoh, at present on q visit TO Eu-
rome. The turrets are of iron, IL inches
thick, and the guns inside, by a clever
piece of mechanism, can be raised or de-
pressed easily by a slight movement of
The hand. The turret itselfcan be lower
ed in a few minutes, and a plate of iron
slid over the portfolio, SO that there is
no weak point left for the enemy TO make
q mark of. Down below the vessel seems
to be all machinery; but she has room
for her crew Of 100 men, all told and
although the landsmen may not covet
the quarters where this crew are slowed,
as a matter of fact, American sailors pre-
fer a Monitor to any other description of
vessel. This may, perhaps, be owing to
the fact that they have less work to do
49, r.. H. ~~sn IN lab