The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-08-12
SWIFT COMMERCE. DESrROYERS
France and England Increasing
Their Fleets of Fast Cruising
Steamers.

The European powers are already
competing with the United States in
furnishing their navies with swift
steaming commerce destroyers. In
France new cruiser, known as the
CecjtIe, has recently been unched
which is to be armed with six five ton
and ten three-ton guns, and is expected,
says the New York Tribune, to make
between nineteen and twenty knobs.
This is one of fifteen vessels OF this
class to be built there. Her displace-
ment Is 5 150 tons, and as she can carry
enough coal to steam around the
world, and has a heavy armament of
breech-loaders, she Is looked upon as a
most formidable cruiser. Vessels of
this sort would make terrible havoc
with the British commercial marine in
the event of war. II the CsciLte sue
ceeds in developing the estimated speed
on her trial trip, there will not be q
vessel in the English navy that can
overtake her on the high seas. Fifteen
commerce destroyers of this class will
be a Standing menace TO British COM
merce. France, moreover, is not the
only country where fast cruisers are
builting. Russia has TANNED three,
of which one, the K0rniItf, will soon be
aaoat. 1t is to be armed with fourteen
tive-ton guns, is to have displacement
of 5000 tons, and is expected to be as
fast as either tle French Cecille Or the
American Baltimore. The five cruisers
now under construction in Philadelphia
and San francisco have an estimated
speed of nineteen knots, and range be-
tween $3.50 and 400 tons in displace-
ment. They are smaller tan the
Kornt'0f and the Cecate, have, perhaps,
less coal carrying capacity, and are less
formidable in their ornaments.
England could not afford to rem in
idle when three great nations were I'M
dartaklng to build cruisers which would
outs:rip the heetest craft in her navy.
The MnqiCienne, which was launched
ten days ago, is one of the series OF five
cru sers whose construction was
ordered by the admiralty last year.
She is also timed for nineteen or twenty
knots, but is smaller than any of her.
rivals in the French, Russia or United
States navies, her displacement icing
9 $50 tons. Her Inferior tonnage does
not seriously impair her facilities for
carrylnE coal, since it is hoped by her
designers that she can steam from
Leni's Fad around the world without
calling anywhere for q new stock OF
fuel. her horsepower is 5000, which
is above that of either the Charleston
or the NelVorE. hut inferior to that in
dictated for either the Baltimore, the
Sa': FIaaciSco, Or the PHILADELPHIA. In
armament she will not be Elatch for
either the H0TniEQf or the CeciUe, since
she is to haze only six fve-ton guns.
Her designers are talking confidently of
a speed Of twenty instead
nineteen Knots on the trial trip. If this
be done, she may be able to show her
heels to any of her rivals.
The most remarkable fact in connec
tiCn with England's fastest cruiser is
the speed with which the work of con-
struction has bss proceeded. The
has virtually been built in
seven months. American ship-build-
ers have considered eighteen months or
even two years to; short an allowance
OF time for the construction of the
Charleston and Baltimore. The quick
ness with which the British cT1..ss. has
baen turned out shows what can be
done in great shipyard whsn supplies
Of materials are furnished without de-
lay. The recor sruction of the Ameri-
can navy and the introduction of steel
Industries required for modern naval
architecture will ultimately enable ship
builders Of the Atlantic and Pacific
Coasts to quicken all the processes
which at present are undertaken at |
erious disadvantage. At the launch of
he Magicienne, Sir William Pearce pre-
tic ed that the time would come when
heavy ordinance could be made in Eng
AID as easily and effectively as in Ger
many, and that the gunmakers only
needed sufficiently large orders to in
iuce them to provide themselves with
the requisite plant. The principle ap.
plies equally well to steel manufacture
srs here. They have received large
government orders for gun-metal and
steel Iiants, and the Industries have
been practically domesticated. The
tt1,a is coming, we trust, when cruisers
ran b. built within a year from the
sening Of the contracts, and when their
sTran ent can be furnished almost as
promptly.