New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-05-16
orr SEt-CO4ST DEFENCES,

OUR SEA-COAST DEFENCES.
Most intelligent people are doubtless aware,
in general way, of the weakness OF our sea-
board Notifications They know that the
forts built to protect our coast cities and har-
bors are constructed upon obsolete systems,
and have not been strengthened in their
structure or armament to keep pace with the
great improvements made in recent years in
the appliances of naval warfare. They VIII
hardly be prepared. however, for the state
ment that these works are practically no de-
fences at all against the powerful armored
ships and heavy long-range guns now pos
sessed by all European maritime powers, ana
! that they could be battered down or run by
| before they could infict serious damage upon
an assailing fleet.
| Yet such is the unpleasant conclusion which
must be drawn from n series of articles just
published by General O. A. Gilmore in The
army and Nary Journal. This distinguished
engineer officer shows that we have no guns
capable of making good defence against
| modern heavy ordnance, and that If we bad
| the guns we have no places prepared 10
mount them where they could be effectively
served against armOred vessels In order.
therefore, to protect ourselves against the at
| tacks of war vessels of recent type, we must
not only procure more powerful artillery
! to supplement our Old-fashiOned NOR
tars and smOoth-bores, but We must
! build new . forts or greatly modify
| the old ones. General Gilmore shows, fur
| ther, that it will not do to rely upon our
Navy alone to protect our coasts, because our
! Navy is VIGOROUSLY weak in comparison with
I
| the navies of the leading foreign powers; and
even if it were as strong as that of any pos
sible enemy, it must be supported by efficient
shore defences unless we would risk the safety
of our great maritime cities Oh the uncertain
result of an equal sea combat. The efficiency
of torpedoes, on which we have been chiefly
relying of late for harbOr protection, General
| Gilmore thinks has been greatly overestl-
| mated. BY very simple cOntrivances OF
! bOOms and tackle, vessels are able to pick
| I'D tOrpedoes concealed in channel, and the
experience of the last war in Europe, when
the Russians made great efforts to destroy the
Turkish ir0nclads with steam torpedo
launches, demonstrated that a vessel has at
! least ten chances to one to escape uninjured
| from such attacks. In fact the chief value of
torpedOes seems to be their moral effect
and it is doubtful whether they can be relied
upon to frighten off hostile fleets when the
present safeguards against them have been
further perfected and tested in actual war
| fare.
There has been q notion current Of late
years that foreign governments are building
their new ironcads Of such heavy draught
that most of our harbOrs are secure from them
| by reason of the shallOwness of the channels
| General Gilmore shows that there are more
| than half dozen fine harbOrs on our Allan
tic Coast, including Portland, Boston and
| Hampton Roads, accessible to the largest war
vessels that have yet been built, and that we
have not single important harbOr which has
not sufficient depth of water to pass half
the armOred cruisers Of Great Britain,
all the German armored ships except one, two
thirds of those belonging to the Italian Navy,
all belonging to the Russian Navy except two,
all belonging to the Austrian Navy except
three, all belonging to Holland and Turkey,
and large portion OF those owned by France
and Spain.
The War Department cannot justly be
blamed for the defenceess condition of our
sea-coast cities Year after year the Chief of
Engineers mas asked Tor money 10 improve
the forts, and the Chief Of Ordnance has shown
that we are destitute of lOng-range heavy ar
tllery. The Secretary of War has transmitted
the reports of these officers to Congress, with
urgent recommendations that appropriations be
made sufficient to begin the work OF rebuilding
and rcarming the principal Notifications, but
since the Democrats have been in power it has
been impossible to get money enough even to
keep the works in tolerable repair. The party
which holds the public purse is too busy with
schemes for capturing the Presidency in 1880
by force and fraud to pay attention to such a
subject as the condition of our harbor de-
fences. Even if the Democrats could be per-
suaded to consider a system for the gradual
strengthening OF the seabOard Notifications,
their hostility TO the Army and everything
that pertains to National power and authority
would no doubt lead them contemptuously to
reject il. We must wait for Republican
Congress to take hold with intelligence and
patriotism of the problem of making our
coast cities secure in the event of foreign
war.
DELAFARE ELININITCR.