The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1880-03-13
BIG GUNS AFLOAT.
The Most Preposterous Folly NJ "
Times. u'
From the New York SUM-

Since the great naval powers Of "A.
world went into the compet;,;ss
to see which should build 10y
biggest, most powerful and u~'
heavily plated ironclads, and ss
them with the most tremenSa.
guns, the cost of navies, ALWAYS ero-
nous, has rapidly increased. The linz
it of thickness of armor vessel a.
carry, and of the size of the r;Ns.
which may be forged, not vet hav;rs
been reached, the longer the contssss
lasts the greater will be the expense -
each successive ironclad.
When England essayed to beat n.
world with the Indexible-a name =
strike terror-ltaly accepted the cbsl
lenge and laid down the Duilio and ~
Dandolo, which left her behind both =
respects armor and armament. tn
InfeAible's two turrcts have in each
two eighty-one ton rides. In those a
the Italian vessels are rifles of ion
tons, throwing shots weighing ton
and a quarter. But even with these
huge floating batteries, at which EnclisS
journals look in alarm, the Italians Ara
not satisfied. They have gone to work
to build two others which viii far ont
strip them.
The Duilio and the Dandolo are each
339 feet long and sixty-four feet broad.
They draw twenty-six feet, have dis
placement of 10, $50 tons, and are driy.
en- by engines of $500 indicated horse-
power at speed of fourteen knots. Buf
the Italia, no building at Castellamara
and the Lepanto at Leghorn, are 400
feet long, seventy-four broad, and Of 4
draught of thirty feet, while their ds-
placement is Is, 4S0 tons, and their en-
gines of $4,000 horsepower are 10 drive
them at speed of sixteen knots! II they
take as many years to complete as tie
DuiliO took, somewhere about 1890 Va
shall read of their trial trips, and b
told that guns of 200 tons or there
abouts, which may be ready by thai
time, are mounted in their turrets and
ready to throw tons of iron far beyond
the nine miles which are the range q
the present 100-ton guns.
We see, therefore, that the English In
flexible, which is just completing, is only
puny thing in comparison with the
ships Italy now has and is constructing,
and that if England wishes to keep 1p
in the ironclad race it must not only
beat the Inilexible as she beats the War
rior, but also outstrip the Italia and
Lepanto in armor, armament, engine
power and speed. Even the Duilio hao
cost 81, 00O, 900, and every time one d
her guns is fired $500 worth of powder
and iron is shot away. Her coal-bunk-
ers carry 1880 tons of coal, and to keep
her at sea a Princes revenue would b
required. When it comes to the new
Italian ships we must greatly swell these
enormous figures.
An idea what it costs to build and
maintain in repair modern navy which
tries at all to keep up with the times, y
furnished in the report OF the Account
ant General of the British Navy for
1873. In 1873 comparatively good
sense reigned in the British Admiralty
and only 100000 was spent in The
construction of ironclads AID unarmored
vessels. But such an cutlery was raised
over the decline of the navy that in 1874
this expenditure was increased by 30
per cent, and in 1873 it had risen 70
over $14,5O0, 900. On ironclads alone
over SO, 800, 900 was spent in 1873. And
yet to-day there is not in the British
navy an armored ship which the new
Italian constructions do not put in az
inferior place; and if the Italia ana
Lepanto are to be accepted as the --latest
necessities and the highest types Of
ironclad, the English navy is even nov
more or less antiquated.
What it has cost to build the hugo
ironclads, which are still scarcely avail
able for use, and which would hesitate
about keeping very near the Duilio in .
naval contest, is shown by few figures
The Dreadnaught and the lnflexible'
which at the close of 1873 were com
pleting for sea, had already COT.
respectively 80, 1915, 600 and 8, S25, W0!
and the Temeraire, still incomplete, hxa
eaten up about S2,500,000. In 1871
also, the item of repairs alone OF ship
armored and unarmored amounted
over $5, 250,000. Secor Robson mign
not have thought much OF getting
away with all that money on the prete.'
of tinkering up his rattletraps, but Is J
a startling sum to spend in asingie yen
for repairs of ships.
The figures show us how enormously
costly a modern navy is even when = =
honestly managed, as it is in Engisac,
I And the expense, as we have shown, Z
steadily increasing, as the prepostero9,
contest between guns and armor, ~
armor and armor, goes on. Not oey
is the cost of the materials used in snip
building much larger than it was 'o,'
merly, but all the requirements OF moor
err naval warfare are of the most e
pensive character. A whole fleet mign
once have been put to sea for what =
now cost to build and equip a sing.
Italia or Lepanto. And yet what 49,
the nations which are pouring on.
this money to show for it in the way y
actual results accomplished in war, -
when and where in the gigantic ~.
of the last fifteen years have great Ia q.
clads contributed in any Important "
oraa tn tho issue of the cOnteStY