The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-02-15
THE NAVY OF THE FUTURE.

II Is by no means clear that our Govern.
ment has not acted wisely in going leisurely
to the upbuilding of new navy, and that
the clamor of ship building and interested
contractors would not have hurried Us into
o system which the changes of the times
would compel US to abandon with all the
outlay that went to its establishment. Since
our civil war, the tendency has been con-
stantly toward the construction of invul-
nersble vessels. The ideal war ship was q
monster that could lie and take any fury of
cannonade as indifferentIy as an alligator
takes a bombardment of pop-guns. 1t
was to be so densely cased in steel that no
force could penetrate its motive power, en-
danger its magazine, or destroy any life that
was not needlessly exposed. AT the same
time 1t was to carry battery so powerful
that no strength less than its own could re-
sist it. In short, ii was TO be at sea what
the old iron cased knights were on land. in
accessible TO any sssailing force and irresisti-
BILE when Ii chose TO use It's own force. This
was all very well in the ideal. It proved
not so well in the actual. One
Of these iron-cased monsters went
dowH like q shot in gale in
the Bay of Biscsy that common frigate of
the last generation would have laughed at.
It's jmpenetrable casing that made it mac
cetsible did not make it imponderable. 1t
weighed the more the more it was made in
vulnerable, and then the weight made ii
the easier victim of that awful power that
rides the seas on the white horses" Of the
gale. The first revelation Of the radical de-
fects of the new naval system was its peril
in storms 1t could not meet the wave and
the gale with the confidence OF the weakest
of the old wooden walls" So it could
never be Used with the efficiency of the old
system for cruising for rapid trans
port to distant points that needed
protection, for attacks on ports of shallow
entry. The huge weight of the ships made
their draught too great for any but very
few of the deepest harbors and roadways.
This limited its utility largely to the service
Of floating forts" But even these great
defects were not the worst. They would have
compelled the supp ementing of armorsd
vessels by lighter ones that could run easily
been invaluable in their own range OF
service. The fatal defect appeared with the
improvement of artillery. Heavy guns have
gone on getting bigger, longer, heavier
and more formidable, till now they weigh
100 tons, FIRE a Mu of 1000 pounds, with
nearly half ton OF powder, which gives
them the momentum of a locomotive under
full steam. The shot, steel pointed, will cut
through two feet of solid steel and three feet
of solid timber backing. No armor can stand
such blows. If IL is not bored full of holes
as big as -four barrel 1t is Jared and shat.
tered till the sea pressure seeksout the leaks,
pours in irrepressible floods and carries the
battered mass of helpless iron down to make
dens for strange fishes. A ve.sel with no
srmer to diminish its carrying power can
take one of the huge Whitworth guns of the
Italian navy, and lying out of the reach oil
the smaller guns of heavy steel-plated
ship, or frisking about with its powerful
steam machinery so rapidly as to make a
fair shot impossible, it can plug the monster
at pleasure as q sword-fsh does a whale. Sd
it hiss come about that some of the longest
headed men OF the day are arguing that ar
mored vessels have run their course, proved
their unftness for the general service of q
navy, and demonstrated that the next change
must be to lighter vessels, cased as strongly
as possible not to interfere with their rapid
sailing and maneuvering, and made to carry
guns of the most formidable force. Now, BY
waiting, our Government is in a position to
adopt the latest improvements without sac
rificing a navy of the old pattern to give
place for it. So our delay may prove, after
all, sort of Fabian policy-what Benton
/ called mastery inactivity"