Huntsville gazette., 1892-04-02
ENGLAND'S WARSHiPS.

Flagship of EngIands North Pacific
Squadron, Beside which Our Cruisers
Would be as Yachts-Happily. However,
the Prospects of Trouble are Very Faint.
WASHINGTON. March 29.-Much specu-
lation is indulged in by naval officers
respecting the possibilities of conflict
In Behring sea. The vessels of the
United States navy that can be put into
these waters within reasonable time,
have already been named in these dis
patches. England has now three men
of-war in the north Pacific, and it would
take her but few weeks at most to
rendezvous her Chinese, Japanese and
Australian squadrons in those waters
Only one of the three vessels now there
is regarded as formidable by our
that our heaviest cruiser would be
but pleasure craft alongside of her,
and England owns dozen just such
men. .of-war within easy distance of the
theater of possible hostilities. The War
spite is the name of the dreaded vessel
the flagship of the English squadron,
and she is heavily armored with the
most recent plant. She has displace-
ment of S,400 tons, while our largest
man-of-war has but $500. She was
built in Chatham, England, in Sc, and
was reftted year ago. Her horse
power is 10000 and her speed over a
given mile was 1915 knots per hour,
but her nominal speed is about Is.
She will .uage a.65 pounds
of coal horsepower IN
e1s each hogi ps'nusarrv y, 1'iso | Oot tons Of
without recoaling. Her combined
length is 325 feet with 81 foot beam,
and the immense draught of 27.4 feet.
She is armed with four 22-ton guns. six
6-inch guns, eight rapid-fre and ten
Gatling or Hotchlxiss guns, and has two
torpedo tubes and four carriages for the
purpose of exploding the Whithead tor
pedoes. She is beyond doubt the best
equipped man-of-war in the matter of
guns in the world. Her sister ship, the
lmperiuSe, of the same size. has as large
guns, but not quite as many of them.
A commander in the navy said that the
Warspite could, as he expressed it,
click any three ships we had at once,
and not have much of fight either"
The other two vessels in the squadron,
the Champion and Melpomene, how
ever. would be easy prey for our ships,
as they are unarmored. The latter is
built of steel, but not thick enough to
withstand the big guns of the Balti-
more or New York. She is rated as q
third-class cruiser with displacement
of 2,940 tons, 5000 horsepower, and an
average speed of about Is knots per
hour. Her draught is seventeen feet
and her steaming radius is 5000 miles.
She is 265 feet long and has beam of
forty-one feet. Her guns consist of six
6-inch breech-loading rifles weighing
five tons each, ten rapid firing and three
Hotchkiss guns. The batteries of the
Melpomene and Yorktown are almost
identical The Baltimore would give
the Warspite the hardest fight as she
can outsail her and is very heavily ar
mored.
The Champion is superior to the Mel
pomene for fighting purposes, as her
battery is very heavy for her class and
consists of four 6-inch and eight 5-inch
rapid-firing and six Hotchkiss guns. In
addition to this she has on board twen-
ty-one submarine fish torpedoes, pro-
jectiles that can be launched and will
propel themselves on the waters edge to
the objective ship. Her displacement is
1850 tons. Her length, beam, speed
and coal bins are about the same as the
Melpomene.