Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-31
OLD AND NEW SHIPS.
A Strange Contrast Between Two Mod
els at the Navy Department.


els at the Navy Department.
TIE OLD SHIP OF THE LINE PENNSYLVANIA AND
TIE MODERN ARMoRED vEssEL-How NAVAL
fIGHTING WAS DONE BEFORE THE LATE WAR
THE GUNS TO BE CARRIED BIZ THE MAINE.
The methods and means Of conducting naval
warfare have undergone great and radical
shanges in the past twenty-five years. The ex-
perience OF other nations, added to the failures
and successes of our own country during the
late war, have caused almost a Transformation
In the system Of attack and defense on water.
New inventions have come into the field to aid
the progress and today the ship of war of a
modern make is as totally unlike her sister of q
quarter OF century ago as the latter was DIFF
terent from the Roman trireme. There has
been a constant warfare between the makers of
armor and the makers Of guns during the past
two decades, a conflict for superiority, IN which
the gun makers have endeavored to build en-
gines that would pierce the thickest armor,
while their opponents have striven as eagerly
to End the limit at which a vessel can be coated
with metal 10 ward off blows without impair
ing her speed or efficiency or endangering her
floating capacity. There is, no doubt, such
limit to the advance in this respect, both in
armament and gunnery, for while the destruc-
tive or staying qualities Of a vessel are OF high
importance her agility and dexterity are still
greater considerations.
THE PROBLEM IN SHIP BUILDING.
So that this is the present problem in war
ship building, to construct the feetest longest
enduring, most destructive vessel possible,
each element being brought to the highest
point without impairing the others.
The wonderful difference between the old
and the new navy is nowhere shown to better
advantage than in the Office of the Secretary of
the Navy, where two models form one of the
most attractive centers Of interest in the great
building. Visitors are apt to overlook the sec
ond model in their admiration Of the first a gilt
tering mass Of nickel and steel, a perfect beauty,
but those who do look over into the window
corner and study the old vessel will find in it.
or in the contrast il offers to the new model an
essay on Improvement This older model is of
the ship-of-the-line Pennsylvania and its more
modern, much larger rival is of the armored
cruiser Maine, now being constructed at New
York The former model is less than one TWEEN
tieth the size of the latter, and it is constructed
In the rough jack-knife carving style of old
sailors, while that of the Maine is a perfect
likeness of the proposed vessel, every detail
being reproduced In exact proportion down to
the smallest item.
THE OLD PENNSYLVANIA.
The Pennsylvania was launched at Philadel-
phia in 1887 and was burned at Norfolk in 1861.
She was built of wood and followed the lines of
IL.
out OF the water several fathoms and presented
the appearance of great floating house. She
carried q complement of 100 officers and men,
small army. This was in conformity with the
older ideas of naval warfare, in which the
bosrder. with his cutlass and pike. his dare
devil spirit and his paralyzing yell, swarmed
over the gunwales Of his own ship and upon
the decks of the enemy, cutting, slashing, fir
ing. throttling until he had driven the foe be-
meath the decks or had been swept back upon
his own. Marine murder was performed by
sheer force of numbers, while the guns and
small arms added TO the general demoraliza-
ton Eleven hundred men on board man-of-
war fighting and half insane in the excitement
of battle must certainly have been in one an
others way, offering fair targets for pistol
shots, food for the bursting shell.
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY GUNS
This old vessel carried sixteen eight-inch
guns and 104 thirty-two Founders 100 guns in
all, presumably smooth bores. This gave her
broadside battery of sixty muzzles. capable
OF pouring forth a most destructive fire at short
range. She had q displacement measure
ment, as it was then called, of S,241 TONS
large ship for that time, and she cost the gov
eminent 1854, 500 She was a sailing vessel,
full-rigged ship, carrying an immense amount
Of canvas when under sail, and showing a be-
wildering maze Of spars and ropes when
stripped of her cloth. single shot might do
tremendous damage if she were in motion, and
under almost any circumstances would proba-
bly, infict u telling injury. Her wooden sides
offered but little resistance even to the COM
Paratively weak guns Of that day, and in &C
tion she would probably have soon presented
the appearance of a sieve. With 100 port holes
Kidding her sides, the least heeling caused by
the recoil of q broadside, the blow of a shot or
the action of the waves meant the shipping of
water and, il severe enough, her laundering.
But she was never in action, and in 1861, when
the confederates fred the Norfolk yard, this
great hulk. which would today be but a play
thing before the guns, rams, and torpedoes Of
the modern vessel. went up in smoke This
model was made by Commander John Waters
OF the navy, and ives presented by his family
this year to the government
THE MODEL OF THE MAINE.
The contrast between it and that of the
Maine is rather confusing, for the dazzle Of the
newer toy is apt to bewilder the observer SO
that he neglects to draw a parallel card
hanging on the great glass case covering the
newer model tells the story. Ii describes the
Maine as an armored cruiser $40 feet long and
81 feet beam, of 6,64S tons displacement. She
Is expected to steam IL knots an hour and to
develop 5000 Indicated horse power. She will
be driven by two screws, propelled in turn by
the most modern engines. She is heavily ar
mored and bears three masts, two of them full
rugged. Her spars and ropes are reduced to
the lowest possible limit and everything about
her is kept down to the range of actual neces-
sity. She will be a terror when afioat with
Rer battery ana ammunition aboard.
HER ARMAMENT.
Her main battery consists Of four .1O-inch
breech loading rifles and six 6-inch, and her
secondary battery will be composed of four
6-pounder rapid fire guns, four 3-pounders four
47-millemeters revolving cannon, nine 81
millemeters, 4 gatlings and seven torpedo tubes.
This makes, exclusive of the tubes thirty-fve
guns, most Of which are little more than hand
guns, capable Of firing at great speed She
viii carry two torpedo boats to be launched at
short notice from her decks
A fight between the old PENNSYLVANIA and
the new Maine would be altogether one-sided.
The latter, with her 400 officers and men,
could lay couple of miles from her antagonist
and drop explosive shells upon her decks with
destructive precision, while the others smooth
bore guns would be roaring and beching in a
frantically futile effort to reach her enemy
Her thousand men and more would fall ON eyery
hand like sheep. and at last here would come
the monster dashing ahead at five times the
speed of the sailer, and, keeping up the fatal
ire from long guns and rafting small cannon.
abe would shoot out a streak Of foam from her
bows; q few seconds Of waiting, q terrific ex-
plosion and the mass Of wood ropes and
humanity would ascend to the skies in the
agonies Of destruction.
COMPARISON OF cosr.
On the other hand are two lines Of figures
The Pennsylvania cost se94 500 and the Maine