The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-03-01
GUNS AND CRUISERS,
An Alabama Congressman Chats About
Fast European War ships.


An Alabama Congressman Chats About
Fast European War Ships.
Congressman Herbert, who has been
abroad since the close of the last session
OF Congress, devoted considerable at
tention to the study of naval matters.
His service as Chairman of the Naval
Affairs Committee in the last Congress
made him especially familiar with the
subject, and, of course, added TO his
interest in his studies and researches.
II saw the fastest cruiser ever built"
he said to your correspondent, "She
was just being completed by an En-
glish firm when / visited her. She is
finished now, however, and has been
tested and makes, as / learn from the
builders, over twenty-one knots an
hour
"How many miles is that, Mr.. Her.
bert?''
"A knot" said the ex-Chairman of
the Naval Committee, with look of
pity for the ignorance of the newspaper
man who don't know knot from a
mile, "a knot, my dear sir, is about a
mile and one-seventh. Apply your
mental arithmetic, and you will find
| that twenty-one knots are equivalent
to twenty-four miles. As this vessel
made something over twenty-one knots,
| it is safe to put down her speed at
nearly twenty-five miles an hour, or
nearly equal to IA fair railroad rate"
How does that compare with the
speed attained by our new cruisersp"
'Well," was the frank reply. lit is
considerably ahead of us. Our new
cruisers as now completed we began
several years ago, and have not all the
appliances of the latest sort to secure
speed. They make something over
sixteen knots an hour. We are prom
ised, however, that one or two of the
vessels lately contracted for will be as
fast rs any thing afioat in this line.'
'.Does this new fast cruiser carry
very large guns?'
No; cruisers do not carry large
guns, you know. She has four twenty
one ton guns and several smaller
ones"
"You don't call twenty-one ton guns
large, then?''
20, no; they are very small compared
with the large guns made now"
How large are the largest guns now
made?n
'That is little difficult to answer al
an off-hand statement, but it is within
the limit to say that the great guns
now made, the greatest of them. shoot
a ball sixteen inches or more in dame
ter and weighing over 1000 pounds. !"
"How far do they shoot?"
'Some of the great guns now made
will shoot ball fifteen miles"
Fifteen miles-you don't mean
that, do you, Mr.. Herbert?'
Eyes, fifteen miles. Of course, they
will not shoot with great precision thai
distance, nor will they shoot so far a:
that from the deck of vessel Blu
they can shoot that far with sufficient
accuracy, for instance, to throw a shot
into a city or among fleet of vessels
Of course, it would only be by chance
that it would hit a single vessel if free
at it at that distance. In fact, it woult
be difficult, probably impossible, to see
the hull of vessel that distance.
"Why can not these big guns be
fired rs well from a vessels deck as or
landp"
Because the deck of the vessel doe
not offer the same firm and unyieldins
foundations; and, beside, the use of 81
much powder and such heavy gun
would make it likely to sink the vesse
from whose deck it was fired. You Sc,
when they shoot these long distance
they elevate the gun-that is to say
they elevate the muzzle of it, so tina
the gun stands at an angle of thirty O
even forty-five degrees to the earth
surface. OF course. the recoil of gul
weighing two hundred tons, when fire,
with nearly one thousand pounds o
powder would be something tremend
ous."
do the improvements in armor keel
pace with those in guns?"
wei, Lney are now using armor 10
turreted vessels. of thickness of abou
twenty-six to twenty-eight inches. Ye
they are able to make guns that vii
pierce that"
"How about dynamite guns and tor
pedoes."
That is still in an experimental stage
The year past has demonstrated th
pOssibillty of throwing a shell contain
ing great quantity of dynamite dis
tance of mile or so. and exploding
against a vessel. But some of the ex
periments have led to doubt as to tn
effectiveness of the dynamite when ex
ploded against the side Of a vessel i
this way. 1t is still in the experiments
stage. - Washington Cor. Cincinnati
Times.
Plantation Philosophy.