Arizona weekly citizen., 1886-12-25
TIE MODERN NAVY.
SWIFT CRUISERS BEING SUBSTITUTE
 ED FOR UNwIELDY iRON-cLA0S.

ocean NIastodons Driven on the Seas by
 Torpedo Boats and swift VesselS-SPeed
 the Great DesIderatum-Useiessn of
 Armor.
 Ibad an interview the other day with Ad- fniraI Aube the French minister Of marine, at his cabinet in tbe ministry in the Rue Royale. in reference tO the utility of the new stecl cruiscrs now being built by the United States government. l showed the admiral inc diagrams and sketches of the Boston. The admiral praised the inScnious eontnyances for fighting. the pilot house, the central sri- p.rs;ruciure of the battery, etc, and then, looking at ne with a sharp, penetrating glance, asked;
 'Ehat k her spcedf'
 ..S,ot quite thirteen knots, sir, l replied
 The admiral shook his head and said en- phatically:
 Then. as a war veSsCl she Is useless. A cruiser is of no use whatever unless she has spcc,l enough to catch fast ocean steamer; t,..t is Co say, unless she has a speed Of nine teen knots. Cruisers of l,ss sped thun this aru q weakness, not a strength, Co a navy, for they will only bc captured or sunk by tho enemy. The new cruIsers Co be built for the French navy are Co have minimum speed Of nineteen Lnots. capable of being increased to twenty lnois during five hOurs at a stretch by the app.ication of an apparatus of tirase force. II they don't ut;aIn this speed the government will refuse them
 I then asked the admiral if no would ex- plain the best way for the United States to set about to get navy. The admiral rang
 -. a .H.. HNsaHHH
 Don't let any one interrupt me for half an teur." He rollel cigarette and said:
 MUST HAVE SPEED.
 You have a truly magnificent body of naval oiiicers, you have splendid sailors, and you have no heavy ironclads, three points upon which you are most heartily Co be con graduated Naval experiments have now clearly demonstrated that the huge ironclads in which European governments have spent hundred, and hundreds of millions have had their day Thee maStodons of the ocean have had their day. They will be scarcely more uscful m the next naval war than the grand oil line-of battle shils Of Trafalgar and Aboulsir The mastoiOns have been rendered. worthless by those micrutes of the sca. torpeio boats and swift cr7Iiscrs. The fault ha, been tha. all the naval constructors till lately have attempted the impossible. They have tried Co unite iu the slme vessel all the means of modern naval warfare-the ram. heavy guns. nrmor plating and torpe- dos. The DSult k vast unwieldly floating fortrcsS. liable Co be sunk by the trst we'll directed torpedo The United States, l re Ie-st, are sinceryly Co be congratulated at hay- ing ncnc of the>c useless monsters.
 Your situation is this. In the first place you are not hampcnyd by having any mer- cantile marine to protect. In a naval war this will give you great advantage. All your naval operations can, therefore, be con iiuel Co protecting your harbors and destroy ing the encmy's commerce You can make your harbors imppSnaLle with your land fOris, torpeSlo's and torpedo boats Forty or fifty unaruI0red cruiers. with sufIirient speed, could destroy your enemy's commerce, for all the irol-clads of all the fleets Of the world wOull to-day be utterly inadequate to blockade your coasts and prevent these cruisers from getting Co sea But these cruisers should have a minimum speed of nineteen knots.
 EoN-CLADs UTTERLY VOORHEES,.
 That Is Co Say, they should be faster than the great transatlantic steamers. They should. besides the ordinary machine guns. have twoor three guns of the longest possible range. firing projcctilcs filled with the latest explosives discovered by science. Such cruisers could today destroy or demor- alize the entire maritime commerce of united Europe. Even if one of these cruisers were compelled Co fight a huge European iron-clad the advantage would still be with the cruiser. for the cruiser. being small and moving about with rapidity, l. almost impos- F.ar l. spl, ndid target, and the huge steel plates are now perfectly vulnerable Co projectilos charged with fulmi cotton or with meniline
 Here tho admiral showed me thre- steel plates pisrccd by projectileS containing fulmi-cO.on, meuiline. and third sul-tanre, a composition which is a secret Of the French .-ovcrrmru;. which has twice the power of rueui.inc, and is no more danrcruus Co man i1ulate than the ordinary gun loader This new explosive will enable the caIilcr and consequent weight of the guns to be dimin- i,iel anl makes the steel plates almost as u.ustrable a. the wooden wall, Of ships in the days of Decatur and Bainbrii-e. The alIi- rul continued.
 Now. compare one of these cruisers with mn iruuclad In attacking port Both are e0rally vulnerable Co the ironcllds, but thc cruiser is almost invisible from the dis tancc from which she can throw her explo- ,ivcs. while th, ironclad k so huge and cum I..rsome as Co bc a good mark rum the land. For even at night, when all the move ments of this floating fortress can be fol- lowed by electric lights. the cruiser. on the contrary, k almost invisible because of Der sulalln,ss. and uncatchahle because of her speed Thcs, proposed cruisers are mostly the application of lessons taught by yorr great civil war. They are merely Alabama, adapted Co the latest advances of science. The motto of your naval reform should b., Les Alahanls. encore les Alabamas. ettou ionrs les AlabamaS Paris Cor. New York Herald