The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-12-30

Last summer the Secretary OF War appointed
Generals John G. Barnard and H. q. Wright. and
Colonel p. s. Michie of the engineer department. OF
the army, commission TO visit Europe ana make
Investigations and report upon
HARBoR AND COAST DEFEscEs.
The commission was more particularly instructed
to investigate The advantages or iron for sea coast
and harbor defence purposes. These gentlemen left
in June last, and after visiting all the principal
points in England, Russia, Prussia, Austria and
Belgium have returned to this country, and are now
engaged on the compilation Of
THEIR REPORT
which, II it does not recommend the employment OF
certain material gives some valuable suggestions
and Information. Their first visit was to the Eng.
lish forts and workshops, where it was found the
government are actively employed in experimenting
with iron as means Of coast defence They speak
In terms OF praise or the advanced ideas Of the
English authorities, who have led In efforts to arrive
at the most perfect system; but after full investga.
ton
TIE COMMISSION rs NOT SATISFIED
| that II would be advisable to employ iron, owing
| to the fact that 1t Is exceedingly expensive ana
| If adopted by the War Department. might
| have TO be superseded In a year or two
| by some other system. They discovered that the
| English are applying iron scarps to their Spit
head works, which are entirely surrounded by
water. To guard the passages OF the channel they
| have constructed granite classmates with iron
| shields At the time Of the visit OF the commission
very little had been done towards apply ing the iron
to the works, but the danger OF becoming suddenly
involved In war has compelled them to go on with
tho improvements and apply the iron Shields and
all the shops are now actively at work. The details
OF the English works very complete, ana Will be
set fourth in detail In their report. They employ
OPEN BATTERIES
| when not too near TO be swept from ships decks
| sometimes with iron shields and sometimes merely
barbette batteries. They propose use the open
batteries the Moncrief gun carriage which will 10
Is believed, greatly tend to protect the guns from
being dismounted. IL Is The intention OF the English
! War ONCE to employ 0Dstructl0ns and water bat
teres largely In harbor defence In the actual fabri-
cation OF iron for defensive purposes the commits.
sion found that England Is far ahead OF the United
States, having been longer experimenting. In some
ef their ships they roll or plates fifteen inches thick,
THE SHIELDS or THEIR Classmates
| they propose 20 employ several thinner plates, In.
stead Of those Of fifteen inches They roll plates
| In this country there Is but one mill. Meorehead
Co.'s, OF Plttsburg-where plates are ro ed out and
| they have only reached thickness OF twelve inches
| The commission proceeded TO Russia and pursued
their Investigations there. Tney lind that 1t is the
| ploy iron. The government has made many expert
ments. They have constructed new line OF de-
| OUTSIDE or cRoNsTADT,
leaving the old granite line in the These new
delences consist OF two distinct wofks-ouc series
BATTERIES BEHIND IRON SHIELDS,
| when shows the progress OF application, although
many OF me Shields are not OF any particular merit
/ The Other is magnificent work for mounting SIX
turrets with guns between them protected by these
shields. Both these WORKS are on artificial sites in
| water from ten to twenty feet deep. The commits
sion believe that this turreted work IS
| THE MOST POWERFUL sEACoAsT BATTERY
III the world. The authorities nave closet the north
erns channel by long series Of works on artificial
| Sites They also depend largely upon tor
pedoes, distractions and harb0r defence yes
sells after the pattern Of our monitors, which
! r.alf ro,
Krupps works at Essen, Prussia The government,
and proposes to manufacture Its own war material
and means VI defence. The visit OF the commission
/ PRUSSIA
| did not result in eilctng any important hints likely
| TO be OF advantage TO our government Prussia has
| done very little practically towards demonstrating
the merits Of iron. Her defences along the Baltic
! consist Of guns mounted In Darbette.
| AUSTRIA.
! The commission visited points in Austria and was
cordially received. Her system or torpedo defence
| was admired and studied. The hafbor defenceS
near Trieste, on the Adratc, were carefully exam-
ined, and showed their ideas OF the arrangement Of
/ modern guns Tor defensive purposes. They have
dispensed with iron entirely as toe expensive and
are modifying their works to enable them to resist
heavy guns, but by what means the commission
does not state. Their Investigations
IN BELGIUM
were not attended with any great results; out the
officers speak IN eogisc terms Of :he fortlncatons
OF Antwerp, which are magnificent and well calcu-
lated TO resist SIEGE
The commission, after careful investigation, Qre
not prepared 10 recommend the adoption OF iron on
account OF Its great COST but they have obtained 1t
is believed, may valuable hints that will be fully de.
the probable cost Of adopting iron shields for harbor
defence 1t may be mentioned that, taking Fort
Wadsworth as an a. example, the present cost per
classmates the cost would PROBABLY be not less than
$4,000 per gun.