New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-10-07
AN INTERESTING FIELD FOB STUDY
MANY SHIPS OF MANY USES AND KINDS


CURIosIT1Es THAT ARE TO BE FOUND IN THE
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. WAR RELICS.
The Navy Yard has seldom, If ever, been so great
a museum OF interest to everybody as at present.
whether the visitor comes as philosopher for the
purpose Of approaching the advance made in the art
of war-ship building and in the manufacture OF arms
or as an extreme economist TO question whether the
Government has not made series OF mistakes IN
laying UP old and obsolete vessels and building new
ones at great expense TO the taxpayers whether as
a peace advocate who looks upon arbitration rather
than shot and shell the best means OF settling all
International disputes whether as an inventor Of
machinery OF war or as enthusiast in relics, there
is surfeit Of interest for all There is the new and
the old the modern and the antique, the " Rotten
Row. or basin for obsolete decayed vessels, and
for ships that bear the marks of shot and sheu ana
of the old Parrot Dahlgren and other guns which are
loaded at the muzzle and fired with match string
In the foreground are the vessels OF modern type
armed with the brcech-loadng raed cannon the ma
chine gun the Calling gun, and the HotchKsS rapid
fire gun.
Nearly all of the old vessels that were moored In
Rotten Row, as being Of no further use because OF
their decay or supersedure by something more modern
and more formidable been disposed of TO persons
who have dsmantled and dsemoowened them ana
made coal hulks of them, who have torn then' u
peces melting up the copper. the iron and the DrasS
and selling the wood for starting the nrcs Inc guns
IN Rotten Row. or It is called COB DocE- are OF
all ages shapes and sizes; from The huge 2o-inch
Rodman gum weighing $4,000 pounds down to the
little 1o.poundsr brass howitzer. Some Of these
inns are deliberately decorated and relics of the
wars with other nations, bearing English or Mex
lean inscriptions. Many of these guns. grim ana
silent now have not ALWAYS been so thew could tell
tales of havoc of sending missiles of death into the
sides or on the decks OF the enemy's vessels. and
tearing limbs and heads from the sailors and
marines They have done Ike execution on the
rebel privateers Alabama and Florida, the Con-
federate rams Tennessee and Atlanta and the
Merrimac, from tho decks of the Roanoke, Mime
sota Congress and Cumberland. They also aided
in making prizes Of some Of the English blockade
runners which supplied the Confederstes with
provisions and medicine, receiving their cotton
in exchange; took part against the forts at Fort
Fisher the capture of Mobile. the taking of the forts
on the Mississippi the James and the Red rivers
The four 15-inch Rodman guns, with great yawning
mouths into which man might crawl without in
convenience cast for the monitor Colossus which
vessel was finished. and the frame OF which
was recently sold at auction at the Navy Yard.
The three twenty-inch guns, Satan. Lucifer and
Moloch painted black, all Of the guns are painted
for their preservation. are wonder TO all visitors
These guns for special purpose. but aside
from once bein. mounted in fort were never used
Near by IS gun built BIZ Captain Ericsson. the plans
and construc for which cost $4,000 but It cracked
with the first shot Another relic, which causes
ones heart TO beat fast with patriotic emotion, IS
the one which sent the shot from the old keaIsarge
and pierced the side of the privateer Alabama, caus
Ing her to sink of Cherbourg on June 10, 1864
Two English nine-inch rhed guns relics Of Eng
lands aid TO the South. They were made and were
ready to ship when the Rebels admitted defeat and
were afterward given up to this Government and
brought by Admiral Farragut the Franklin An
other relic Of the Rebellion is gun that was on the
Oneida, afterwards sunk in the harbor OF Yokohama
Japan, which bears the mark OF Rebel she'll that
shot away the arm Of Rear Admiral Mullany An
other gun is the mate Of one which exploded on the
Princeton in 1916 and killed Secretary of the Navy
Upshan and wounded several others. On its breach
IS the word Peacemaker.D
Another war relic is a peculiarly small, hermeti-
cally sealed boat IL is shaped like dOubepointed
cigar with small smoke pipe running from the top.
four bladed screw end, and two glass covered
peep-hoes in front This is submarine torpedo
boat that was intended TO do havoc with the enemy
but the Rebellion ended too soon for her work And
still another relic is massive piece OF steel. wedge
shaped, bearing upon 1t inscription which shows
that 1t was the piercing bow of the Rebel Mis-
sissppi There other guns. anchors, shells. shot.
and many other relics of interest at the Navy Yard
Among the modern vessels armed with modern i'm
PIGMENTS of warfare including the destructive torpedo
fred by electricity, the Roach cruisers Atlanta,
and Chicago: the Yantc, the Ossipee, the Ga
lena and the Richmond. Then there is the old line
ofbattle ship Vermont, whose fighting days were
over long ago. and which has been converted into
receiving ship There is, also, the dou-
be-turreted monitors Terror and Mianto-
nomah, now approaching completion; the
torpedo boat Intrepid, first built an experiment
and now being rebuilt Admiral Porter's pet Idea OF
a torpedo-boat. the Alarm. once formidable and
savage looking craft, but DONs being rebuilt and that
last supreme effort OF Captain Ericsson of torpedo
boat Appropriately named the Destroyer vessel
armed with torpedo gun which discharges under the
water a projecte carrying charge sufficient TO snk
the largest iron-clad afoat.