Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-05-31
sail area OF 1880 square feet Her compile
ment OF men ia three hundred
TIE COAST nEFFNsF VESSEL

sail area of 1880 square feet. Her compile.
ment OF men ia three hundred.
THE COAST DEFENSE VESSEL.
1t will not be long before there is another
vessel turned off the ways and put into com
mission that will present decided contrast to
! the Chicago In all of her features The Chicago
Is designed to do the fast fighting, the chasing,
ana, II need be. the running away from bat
tie. she Is 10 make long cruises for warlikc or
| peaceful purposes. and has all the requisites
| Tor such service. The other vessel is what Is
| known as IL coast defense ship, one intended to
remain near the coast to protect harbOrs, to
| act. instead of extensively. ON the defensive.
She has been named the Monterey, after the
renowned battle that was fought in Mexico.
whero the arms of the United States were 80
victorious. She is now under construction at
the yards Of the Union Iron Works at
San Francisco. She is decidedly of
the monitor type Of vessels, her low
free board and turrets Offering no target,
comparatively, to the guns of the enemy. The
accompanying illustration Is not exactly cor
rect, as the designs for this vessel have lately
been changed SO that she will have two guns IN
each OF tho turrets instead of one, and of a
smaller calibsr. The drawing shows her with
two of the largest gucs that are ever mounted
on board of men-of-war. IT was the idea of X
Secretary Whitney TO make this vessel one of
the most formidable alOat, and his original de-
signs contemplated these very heavy guns one
Is inches and the other ~ inches in bore, be-
sides coating Of the most solid armor that
could be made. With the exception of the
guns these plans are to be carried out. Ten
inch guns are to be substituted, two in each
turret.
The Monterey will be a twiu-screw vessel
provided with submerging tanks, into which
water Will be admitted when the ship prepares
FOR action. thus bringing her down eighteen
inches lower into the sea and diminishing her
exposed surface. Her dimensions are as fol-
lows:
Length on the water line .......... 256 feet
breadth extreme. ................. SO feet
Mean draught. sea-going trim. ... Az feet
Mean drauSht, fighting trim. 1t feet
displacement, sea-gOInS trim. DOB tons
Displacement, fighting trim. ......4, 436 tons
indicated horse power. ........... 400
Speed. ........... STANDARDIZATION. 1G knots
iOho per iHCH 70. ~
such ship, with such guns and such armor,
would be terrible foe for any vessel to meet
going into a harbor with hostile designs She
could not only hold her own in a stationary
fight: but she could take hand at chasing
when occasion required. The armor varies
from six to eight inches and is so distributed
as to protect the engines, boilers and maga-
zines of the ship. Behind this belt is a heavy
back OF solid oak.
FoRMIDABLE VESSEL.
A vessel of this descrl ption could not carry
much coal. not over two hundred tons and this
would not be sufficient to propel her more
than couple of days at the longest at the
highest rate Sixteen knots) at which the vessel
Is Designed to run At a nine knot speed she
could last for twelve and half days. This
shows that it is not the theory that such q vessel
should travel very far from her coaling base,
but should hug the coast of her own country,
stay IN her own harbors and lay IN wait for the
enemy. She has no sail at all, the one military
mast being solely for battery and observation
NJ
SIX 33- FOUNDER rapid-fire guns, and besides these
the vessel is to be provided with one fifteen
inch dynamite gun similar to those that form
the armament OF the Vesuvius The muzzle of
this gun may be seen projecting from the bow
of the vessel.
The Monterey will probably be duplicated
several times ii her trials, which will not take
place for some time yet, demonstrate her
success. She Is not, however, an experiment,
but development of an older type of vessel.
CoAL-PRorECTED CRUISER.
There is a decided objection among naval
men to the building of small ships They say
that such construction is money thrown away
and IL is not at all likely that many more such
ships AS the Yorktown will be put into the
water. This vessel Is classed a gun boat,
although there are some cruisers that have
tonnage but Il little greater than that of this
ship. She is rated at 200 tons. She is what
is popularity known in the service as a Whitney
ship. having been designed and built entirely
un Ter the administration of that Secretary,
an she stands rs type Of the smaller boats
OF The new navy. She Is at present cruising in
III waters of the eastern Atlantic on her way
to Brazil with the squadron of evolution.
The Yorktown is a sister of the Petrol, which
will be shown in a later issue, and is denomi-
mated IN her description as coal-protected
cruiser. That is, she has AL of the character
stlcS of the Chicago except that she is built on
a smaller scale throughout, has less coal
endurance, carries ightcr batteries andis much
weaker vessel generally. 1t is to be seriously
doubted whether she or any of her class would
be Of much service in Il battle. except for the
work Of dispatch carrying. One design is that
such ships would be useful in carrying the flag
Of this country into foreign countries which
cannot be reached by the vessels of the deeper
draughts. She could run up shallow rivers and
into narrow channels and do all the work OF
impressing and intlmidat:ng the natives with
out being really able to make much of fight.
These vessels. however, have no double bot
toms and therefore quite vulnerable,
especially to such dangers as sunken obstruc-
tons, which would have but little or no effect
upon the double-bottomed ships or those built
OF wood.
The rig is that of thrce-masted schooner,
spreading about $500 square feet of sail The
normal coal supply il 100 tons the same rs that
of the Monterey. while the bunker capacity of
the smaller ships is 400 tons. StcaIninG at six
teen knots the vessel could last six and third
days, while at six knots she would be able to
run for 6.32 days, or total distance of Is, $40
knots.
The ship is provided with two triple expan-
sion engines, developing 1920 horse power at
natural draught and $500 Mt force draught.
The screws are two in nun Der, each 1919 feet
IN diameter.
ARMAMENT.
The main battery is composed of six 6-inch
breech-loading rifles, two on the forecastle and
Two on the poop, with the line of fire about IS
feet above the water. One is mounted on each
side on the waist III SPONSOR. at a height of
about 10 feet having an arc of fire of about 70
degrees forward and 20 degrees aDgft the beam.
The guns are mounted or the central pivot
carriages, with three sogmCHtal shields. The
forward two guns concentrate at 800 feet for
ward the stem and the after two at 800 feet abaft
the vessel, while three guns on one side can be
concentrated at point 100 feet from the side
of the vessel
The secondary battery consists of eight rapid
fire guns and revolving cannon on rail and tri-
pod mounts.
The vessel has eight torpedo guns or launch
ing tubes, fixed ones, in the stem and stern,
and three training tubes on each side. Auto
mobile torpedoes will be fired from these
tubes, and there will be a complete outfit of