The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-03-02
l. MODERN SEA. FIGHT.
What Would Likely be the Result Of a Bnt.
tie IroncInds.

People often wonder what would be
the results of a great naval battle at the
present time. Would many ships be
dcstroyed2 Would the loss of life be
CREATE Let us try to describe shortly a
few OF tho probable features of a fight
betwecn two fleets of modern ironclads.
Although two hostile ironclads 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 indcpend-
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
rammcd by IN enemy. At the outset Of
the action the torpedo boats would pro-
badly take a very active part, and I'M
til cNterminated, which they certainly
would be in time, would engage great
attention and be effective in sinking
a few ships. 1t may be safely con
cludcd that every ship would
be stcaming fast during the &C
tion, this being necessary to avoid
being rammed, to get into favorable
positions for discharglng t%o1pcdocs 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
ahlcd from this cause would speedily be
rammcd; and at this point we consider
the great loss of life would take place,
for the reason that the boats of a ship,
being always exposed to the machine
gun fire, would at an carly stage of the
action be riddlcd and shattered with
shot, and in the incredibly short time
III which a ship sinks after being
rammcd it would be impossible for the
crew to improvisc other means to save
themselves from drowning. No steps
seem yet to have been taken by our
admiralty with q view of providing for
this contingency. 1t has been sug-
gested that a hospital ship bearing the
Geneva cross should accompany a fleet
into action to receive the wounded. We
would make q further suggestion
namely, that this ship should be pro-
vided with fast stcaming boats, pecu-
liarly marked to show their pacific
nature, which should proceed to the
assistance of a sinking ship. BY
this means numbers of the men
"iShC bC SdfCo VIII "Oulu OCnCr-
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
armorcd portions of the ship. Few
ships would be able to get into favorable
positions for discharging Whitehead
torpedocs from their tubes, even if they
did so, h course of one of these ma
chimes is so cratic when discharged
from q 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 ut the commence
mcnt of the fight.
To sum up, it is the opinion of many
naval men of authority that a modern
naval battle would only occupy about
onc-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.