Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1891-05-21


prepared, 50 far as our naval strength
goes. than we were fifty years ago, when
twelve line Of battle ships could have
been equipped In sixty days A navy
cannot be Improyised or built at will
against an enemy that has navy al.
ready constructed. And modern mem
Of-war, such as we must have III we have
any, are complicated machines, requiring
years to build. We cannot fight against
brass knuckles with kid gloves, and the
ability to run away is not the best safe
guard for national honor.
The American navy to-day is in state
Of transition. IL has shaken Off the
old" and is only beginning to "put on the
new" Our twelve remaining wooden
ships would be of no benefit In contest
with any naval power. As elements Of
fighting force, either for defense or
offense, they could render no service. !,
OF the new steel ships, sixteen have
been commissioned. OF these, the Mi
antonomah is an iron doubfe-turreted
monitor, and the only armored ship we
have afoat. Four are small gunboats.
Eight are protected cruisers. One is
known as dynamite cruiser, and is still
an experiment One Is torpedo-boat,
as yet unarmed because the department
has not found torpedo satisfying all re-
quirements; and the remaining ship is a
dispatch-boat, indispensable as an ad.
junct to feet, but not a serviceable adj
dition to the actual fighting force.
Thus our present naval strength
resolves itself into one armored
monitor for harbor defense, eight
cruisers, and four gunboats. The
Miantonomah is practically the only
fighting ship we have; that is, the only
one that would be able to attack an ar
mored adversary as we'll as to success
fully defend itself against attack. She is
our only reliance to protect our coasts,
our interests, our rights, and our prop
erty, and is of 4, 900 tons displacement, 26O
feet in length, $50 in breadth, and
draws 14.6 feet of water She is of the
monitor type-low free-board. two tur-,
rets with superstructure between for
her secondary battery, an assumed speed
of ten knots; seven inches Of compound
armor on her sides, liz on her turrets,
and an armament consisting of four 10
inch 27-ton guns, two in each turret,
four rapid-fire guns. two Hotchklss re-
volving cannon, and two gatIings.
Five of the eight cruisers, the Balti-
more, Philadelphia, Charleston, San
Francisco and Newark, are excellent
vessels of their class They have speed,
armament, and protection against the
fire Of secondary batteries equal to that
of any cruisers, of any nation, of equiva-
lent displacement. They are well armed,
and with guns believed to be equal if
not superior to those on any similar ves-
sci yet launched. They constitute the
true nucleus of any navy; are the Skin
mishers, the scouts, the cavalry of the
fleet; but their offensive power is only
intended for use as against an enemy's
commerce or his unarmored cruisers
They are built to maneuver quickly and
to run away successfully from armored
1essels and fighting ships. The three
/ remaining cruisers, the Chicago, Bbo ton
and Atlanta, belong to the same class
and are constructed for the same pur4
pose as those just described. They ara
also effectively armed. The four gum
boats, Yorktown, Concord, Bennington
and Petrol, find their field in war time
in rivers and in shallow waters, going
where armored vessels cannot venturel
Of vessels authorized and in process
of construction, two are gunboats of
1850 tons, or 600 tons smaller than tho
Yorktown class; seven are unarmored
cruisers, three of 1000 tons, two of 3, 1873
tons, one of $500 tons, and one of 7,4OO