The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1879-04-19

have both, to all lntents and purposes, boz
come obsolete.
This contest between guns and armor is
absurd enough in one light, but IL becomes
very serious matter when we reflect on its
cost and observe no indications that it is not
likely to 20 on for perhaps quarter of
century more. 1t gives navy officers some
thing to do, brings money to the shipbuid-
ers, iron founders, and gun manufacturers,
and furnishes Governments with u pretext
for getting vast naval appropriations.
In our own case the monitors, which had
done us good service during the rebellion,
where we met an enemy practically without
a navy, soon after the war were rendered
obsolete by the moro heavily plated and
more powerfully armed ironclads of Europe.
They were laid up in navy yards, whore
they all might well have rested until they
could be prolitably sold for old iron, as ships
which had seen their day. and whose useful
ness, taking them rs whole, was over. Yet
SEcoR RoBEsoN made their repairs and con-
version the prctcxt for getting millions of
money from n subservicnt Congress, and
left them no better than they were before he
touched them During this time, too. there
was n steady effort on his part and on the
part of the Naval Ring which was about
him to obtain the handling OF heavy appro-
priatlons for new ironclads. by far tho most
expensive vessels in tho whole range Of
naval constructionsrEvcn now there are
men wild enough to cry out for an imprcg-
nablc navy, as If such a navy could be built,
and as IT, having been built, it would be of
any service to us.
Meantime England has been vigorously
carrying on the fight between guns
and armor and her iron clad navy OK
hibits in It's vessels OF various types
OF construction and tcadily increasing
thickness Of armor the different stages
OF the contest. She would build an iron
clad and then at once proceed to render
her obsolete by manufacturing n gun which
on the trial field at Shoeburyncss would de-
monstrate its ability to penetrate her armor,
other nations at the same time making tar
gets representative Of the vessels sides and
turrcts, and forging guns which would send
shells through them. This thing has gone
on SO that not only can each successive ship
blow hole through those built before it,
but the new and bigger guns and the new
and thicker armor also make the latest ship
strong enough to eTectually resist those
that came before. And she in turn must be
showed aside for the ironclad on the stocks
and the guns yet In the foundry
This certainly seems childish, but IL Is not
an exaggerated statement OF the extraor-
binary condition in which naval construc-
ton has been for the last quarter of CEN
fury. That it is true is proved by this years
estimates for the British navy, and by the
gf,aaal u.ffb Nvhf..b how int It.
the First Lord Of the Admiralty. There
are now still building English ironclads of
enormous size and expense and enormous
thickness Of armor which since they were
laid down have been rendered obsolete a.
regards their imponctrability. 1t is nearly
ten years since the Devastation the Thur
dercr and the Drcadnaught were put in
hand. and the last named Of the three
has yet to make her first cruise. Short as
the period is, too. during those ten years the
three vessels have been outs tripped, SO far
as concerns their armor and though just
DONE they are rather ironclads of the past
than Of the present. Only one othcrarmorcd
vessel of the first class, the InilcN ible. has
been brought 10 anything like a forward
condition in that time. Two more, he Ajax
and the Agamemnon, though they have
| figured Tor years In the estimates, are only
about a third completed. 1t will be at least
four years yet before England will have her
newest ironclad fleet ready, and then the
chances are that it also will be obsolete, il
it is not already so.
Even the Innexible, the most heavily
plated English ironclad under construction,
must stand aside for the Italia, now on the
stocks in Italy, and which will have three
feet OF armorl q" He would be n bold man."
says the london Engineer, "who would
attempt to assess the value OF ship carry
ing three feet OF armor, and guns to CORE
spond, against ships like the lnllexiblc, or,
still more like the Devastation, whose
| guns could make no impression on the
Italian Grmor, and whose own plates would
| yield like egg shells before her guns"
So the contest between ironclads and iron
clads, and guns and ironclads stands to-day
Meantime, during its whole continuance.
since the close of our war. vessels Of this
sort have played an Insignificant part in
the great wars Of Europe, and nayics as
whole have been of little service Yet there
are men who urge the United States to take
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