News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-02-16
SWIFT WAR SHIPS.
Sir William Armstrong; Lecture on
the Advantages of Light Unarm-
ored Vessels.

ored Vessels.
Sir William Armstrong delivered an
address at meeting of the Institute of
Civil Engineers, in London, of which
he is the President, and spoke chiefly
of the armor plating of war ships, and
the penetrating power of guns. Armor,
he said, seemed to be gradually con-
tracing to the vanishing point, as, to
resist the most powerful guns now made
armor of at least two feet in thickness
was required. He advocated the con-
struction of light unarmored vessles of
great speed. He said: "For the cost of
one iron-clad we could have three unar-
mored ships of far higher speed, and
carrying collectively three ornaments
each, equal to that of the armored ves-
sci. Being smaller, they would be more
difficult to hit. Being swifter, they
could choose their positions, and be free
to attack or retreat at pleasure. Being
more nimble at turning they would be
better adapted both for ramming and
for evading the ram of their adversary.
Finally, the conditions of superior speed
and agility would favor their use OF tor
pedoes and submarine projectiles; al
though it was question whether, for
the sake of much needed simplifcation
it would not be better to confine that
species of attack to separate vessels
specially constructed for that one par
ticular purpose. Even if the utmost
advantage she could possess were con-
coded to the from lad-namely, that of
being impenetrable by the guns of her
opponents-she could not prevail in
contest of three against one, unless by
the use of securely protected artillery
she could keep her ASSISTANTS at bay and
gradually destroy them by her fire if
they persisted in their attack. If iron
clads were not needed for the purpose
of opposing iron clads it was difficult to
see for what purpose they were wanted
at all. For every other kind of service a
numerous feet OF smaller and swifter
vessels, unencumbered with armor,
would clearly be preferable. To pro-
tect our commerce, to guard our extern
sive seaboard against invading fotillas,
to lend naval assistance to our colonies
in case of need and generally to main
tain our supremacy at sea we required q
far more numerous navy than we pos
sess or could afford to possess unless we
vastly reduced our expenditure on indi-
vidual ships, and to do this we must
dispense with armor.
st was alarming to think now UMPIRE
pared we were to repress the ravages
which even a small number of swift
marauding vessels, properly constructed
and armed for their purpose. could in
fiict upon the enormous property we
had at all times afoat. and how little we
could hope to clear the sea of such de-
structive enemies by cruisers improvised
out of ready made steamers destitute of
the conditions necessary to render them
efficient for such service. Sir William
Armstrong then adverted to harbor
defense. He pointed out that many of
our iron-clad forts had already outliyed
the stage of artillery progress for which
they were adopted. He observed that
our navy was at present armed with
guns which could not be expected to
contend successfully with the best
modern guns that could be used against
them. Happily, most of the older ships
of foreign Powers were in the same pre-
dicamept but all their new vessels and
some of their older ones were being
armed with artillery which, weight for
weight, was far superior to that of our
navy. There seemed to be more hope of
permanency now than at any former
period but whether this was SO or not
we could not without danger remain
passive. So long as experience of nov
elites was deficient 1t was O case of eau
tious procedure. In the meantime no
expense should be spared in iudicious
experiments, seeing that the expense of
experiments was trifing in comparison.
Above all, the government should pursue
such course as would bring into full
play the abundant engineering re-
sources of this highly mechanical coun-
try for increasing the efficiency of our
national defenses."
THIS mild winter: go, Patp' "What,
sor?" "Did yez liver see winter like
this ?" "Yis, sor." "Whin P" 'Last