Morning journal and courier., 1880-12-06

are in every sense of the highest value. On the one hand we see accumulations of mili-s tary and naval material and structure for naval accommodations that could not be re- placed during war, which are of indispen- sable necessity and great cost and on the other hand the untold wealth of great cities. As these objects must be great in the eyes of the enemy-great for him to gain and for us to Iose-corresponding efforts on his part must be looked for and guarded against.
 There should now be stated in a few words our system of sea coast defense, system steadi- ly pursued from the first by this department, but modified from time to time as new i'm provements in attack and defense of co asts have been introduced.
 Notifications must command from the shores exterior to our harbors all the waters from which the enemy can reach cities and navy yards with his shot and shell the harbor mouths, and all the narrow passes within them, must also be occupied, and if nature has not afforded all the positions deemed requisite, others must, if prac- tifcations should succeed each other along the channels of approach and in our harbors, so that the enemy may nowhere find shelter from our fire while ly- l ing within our harbors, should he succeed in passing the outer lines of works The har- bor mouths and channels must be protected l by lines of electrical torpedoes for holding | the enemy's vessels under fire of the fortif- cations, previously constructed and stored in ! the latter, and laid, on the advent of war, in | systems, the plans of which have been care | fully elaborated in time of peace by studies of the local charts and tidal currents, each I harbor having it's own system recorded in I this department. The wires for conducting ! the current from the electric apparatus on shore must at the same time be laid securely ' in subterranean galleries carried out to deep water, and the electric machines themselves | I-the heart of the torpedo system-must be | placed in chambers within the Notifications, | hidden from the enemy and secured beyond l all peradventure from his direct and curved ! fire. These galleries and chambers must be 1 covered with heavy masonry arches and great | masses of earth. and the former, to be eff ! cient, must be indurated and the latter com pacted by time. The torpedo lines must be l served by officers selected from the engi- neers of the artillery, assisted by detach- ments from torpedo corps of intelligent | and skilled engineer soldiers, and both off ! cers and men must be thoroughly instructed \ in the theory and practice of electricity and torpedo obs! ructlons, for they must know | how to render the torpedoes instantly harm | less for our own vessels or active against an l enemy's.
 Heavy mortars must be placed in large | numbers to command all those positions
 where enemy is likely to anchor within | their range, either for the purpose of tam | pering with or destroying our torpedo lines, | or shelling our cities and public depots of | military and naval supplies. The efficiency l of mortar batteries against shipping is &C.,
 knowledged by all military engineers it is fully appreciated by the navies of all nations, and they are comparatively inexpensive. l Our guns and mortars must be capable of ! piercing the sides of his ironclads and of l breaking in his decks, and they must be mounted in numbers sufficient to make 1t i'm | possible for any of his fast-running steamers to get past our works.
 The methods of defense by Notifications
 and torpedoes-torpedoes for holding the
 enemys vessels exposed in front of the forti- fications and Notifications for (among their
 other duties) protecting their torpedo lines, -is the most efficient and the least expensive
 one that can be devised The cost of such l vessels as the British ship Infiexible-4 guns as we learn from recent government pub
 ication, is not less than $6OO,OOO per gun,
 while the cost of permanent Notifications
 need not exceed one-tenth of that amount.
 The cost of repair of the British iron
 clads in 1673-74 ranged from $20,0O to
 $50, 900 per annum each, while the cost ot repair of permanent Notifications is compar-
 atively trifing.
 ! Only a small number of our existing forti-
 fications are what may be called new, that is,
 planned in accordance with the requirements
 for existing modern heavy ordnance, and | these works in all cases earthern barbette
 
 handed down to us from former periods, | when small guns and wooden ships were to
 be contended with, some of them dating
 back into the last century. But the great 1 powers of Europe do not place their reliance
 for maritime defense barbette batteries. 1 They believe in, and constructing, case
 mated forts, some of which are provided
 with wrought iron scarps and others with
 casemate shields, to protect the
 guns and the gunners, shielding them
 from direct and curved. fire. This
 department, while recommending and urging
 the construction of barbette batteries for the
 partial defense of some of our most impor-
 tant harbors and the entire defense of others
 of less importance which are in some degree
 protected by the shallow waters of the chan
 nels leading to them, has always insisted that the efficient service of heavy guns mounted
 in these batteries requires very high para pets and depressing or counterpoise car l riages-carriages which can be low cred under cover of the parapets | while being loaded. It has also foreseen | from the time of the introduction of modern | armor and ordnance, which commenced dur | ing our late civil war, that the iron plating
 of ships must lead to the iron plating of forts; and that as there is a limit to the | weight of armor ship can carry while there | is practically no limit to the weight a fort may bear forts must retain the supremacy
 they have always had. The department has l therefore looked forward to the conversion 1 of those of our casemated works which would | admit the change for the reception of guns of | the heaviest caliber and for armor plating, and in some instances to the construction of | new works.
 | skinny Men.