The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-05-08

except that 1.-THE wanton destruction nj
the clothes and effects Of captured sail.
ors was simply disgraceful." The or.
lginai songs of the crew were '.mostly
squibs on the Captain and his oficers;i,
but the last effort of the nautical muse
expressed a general yearning, in its
statement that we're homeward
bound, and soon shall land on English
ground; but ere that English land we
see, we first must lick the Kearsargee.''
Ut the fight with the Hatteras Mr..
Haywood's opinion has already been
given. She was '.more like @ himsy
river steamer than a war vessel" and.
IN fact was an armed Delaware river
side-wheeler, which the Alabama
quickly sank.
But when the Alabama met the Kear.
sarge there was a different sort of bat
tie. The combat, the first ever fought
between 7screw-propelled war vessels
in the open seas, was a duel of ships
evenly matched in size, 1,O4O tons to
l,O3l tons, but, repeating the familiar
story of fifty years before, with the
American vessel throwing a heavier
weight of metal than the British from
a smaller number Of guns, with great.
er precision. The advantage in fertil.
ity of device was also with the Union
ship. For example, over a year be-
fore Captain Winslow, at the sugges-
ton of Lieutenant Commander Thorn
ton, had the ships sheet chain hung
outside over her boilers. This protec-
tive device was equally open to the AL
ALBANIA, but nobody thought Of it.
Again, Mr.. Haywood thinks that
Semmes was somewhat "furried, and
commenced firing too soon," when
far away, in the hope to disable his an
tagonist by a broadside. Winslow re-
served his fire, with the result thus de-
scribed:
'The enemy circled around US and
did not return our fire until within
seven or eight hundred yards, and then
she let US have it. The first shot that
struck US made the ship reel and shake
all over."
Like testimony to the gunnery and
the seamanship of the Kearsarge Is
given by Captain Kell, although he
ascribes to her ''chain armor" the
greater share in the result:
1.-THE eleven-inch shells of the Kear,
sarge did fearful work. and her guns
were served beautifully. being aimed
with precision and deliberate in fire.
She came into action magniticently.
Having the speed Of us, she took her
own position and fought calamity"
Captain Kell considers that the glory
of the victory was furnished by the
Kearsarge's firing several shots after
the Alabama's colors were struck; but
this was due, as Surgeon Browne ex-
to the renewal of firing from
the Alabama, either through disobe-
dience of Captain Semmes' orders or a
failure to understand them.
The conclusion from all three &C.
counts is that the Kearsarge outma-
nuevered and outfought the Alabama
throughout. The hanging chains of
the Kearsarge were struck but twice,
their thin covering of deal showed,
md neither shot could possibly have
oeen vital had the chains been want
ng. The victory was due to the SUI
oeriority of the American eleven-inch
guns, served by cool and accurate gum
lers, under the able Thornton, who
lad trained them and worked the bat
cry in the action. The Kearsarge
ired only l73 shots to the Alabama's
40, but the former were the more eff
ective. The Kearsarge used five guns
n the exchange of broadsides, and the
Alabama used seven. Out of the 1863
nen OF the Kearsarge, only eleven
we're foreigners, while nearly all the
Alabama's i49 men were British. It
one of the strange reflections on this
reat duel, fought in the presence of
thousands of spectators who lined the
Fights of Cherbourg, that Winslow is
erhaps less widely known to fame to-
ay than Semmes, though the Yankee
in an hours fight sank her re-
owned antagonist.-N. y. Sun