News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-02-04
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A MODERN SEA FIGHT.
What Would Likely be the Result of a Bat
tIe Between Ironclads.

People often wonder what would be
the results of great naval battle at the
present time Would many ships be
destroyed2 Would the loss of life be
greatS Let us try to describe shortly a
few of the probable features of fight
between tive fleets of modern ironclads.
Although two hostile ironclad5 might
approach one another in some tactical
formation, this could not be adhered to
for any length of time, and the battle
would soon become series Of independ-
ent duels between individual ships.
This is at once apparent when we con
slider that most if not all of the ships
would have arms, and it would, there
fore, be highly necessary for a captain
to have perfect control over the move
ments of his ship to prevent her being
rammed by an enemy. At the outset OF
the action the torpedo boats would pro-
baby take. very active, part, and TN
til exterminated, which they certainly
would be in time, would engage great
attention and be effective in sinking
few ships. 1t may be safely con
Guided that every ship would
be steaming fast during the &C
ton; this being necessary to avoid
being rammed, to get into favorable
positions for discharglng to1pedoes and
to elude the fire of an enemy. Heavy
gun fire would of course be maintained
from the commencement of the action,
and those ships whose engines got dis
abled from this cause would speedily be
rammed; and at this point we consider
the great loss of life would take place,
for the reason that the boats Of ship,
being always exposed to the machine
gun fire, would at an early stage of the
action be riddled and shattered with
shot, and in the Incredibly short time
in which ship sinks after being
rammed it would sye impossible for the
crew to improvisel other means to save
themselves from drowning. No steps
seem yet to have been. taken by our
admiralty with a view of providing for
this contingency. 1t has been sug-
gested that hospital ship bearing the
Geneva cross should accompany fleet
into action to receive the wounded. We
would make a further suggestion
namely, that this ship should be pro-
vided with fast steaming boats, pecu-
liarly marked to show their pacific
nature; which should proceed to the
assistance of sinking ship. By
this means numbers of the men
might be saved who would other
wise certainly be drowned. 1t is
not probable that the loss of life from
gun fire would be large, as a great part
of the crew of an ironclad would be
under water, the rest being inside the
armored portions of the ship. Few
ships would be able to get into favorable
positions for discharging Whitehead
torpedoes from their tubes, even if they
did so, the course of one of these ma
chimes is so cratic when discharged
from a ship in motion, that it would in
nearly every case miss its mark. The
time for the use of Whiteheads would be
from the torpedo boats at the commence
ment of the fight
To sum up, it is the opinion of many
naval men of authority that modern
naval battle would only occupy about
one-half the time of the fight in the old
Trafalgar days; that half the ships en-
ployed would be sunk and that most of
the remainder would be so battered as
to be unfit for further service for months
to come Chambers Journal.