The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1893-07-01
MINNEAPOLIS PAUL, SATURDAY, 4,

4 v { :
ahoat. They are top heavy, easil,
lrammed and very open to torpedo attack
Sir Edward Reed admits that ''there il
not one Of them which little guns cannot
easily sink by merely attacking the un.
farmored parts. They are strncturally
weak and badly engined. In 8 heavy
|!sea they are unmanegeable. The dis
honesty Of their building was apparent
and notorious long before they were
launched. In the navy generally there
lie general distrust Of the seaworthinesa
of the admiral class Of ships which must
|Rravely affect the morale of the crews.
Ut is a noticeable fact that the officers
assigned to the newest ships are eager for
pther naval employment.
h The American naval department, after
paying privately large sums for the plans
pf the Victoria and the Hero, found that
It could make no use of them, and it's new
battleships will be built without any
reference to the English designs.
! This report, which takes up column
and half in Figaro, is in itself an abridg-
lment of Lieutenant Courtols' paper,
which was of course a lengthy and very
technical document. He concludes thus:
il And that this general belief among the
eeamen Of other nations is not shared by
the English admiralty is best shown by
the fact that the ten new battleships,
now building or to be built, and which
IRE to cost over seventeen millions
ffrancs) each, are all variations of this
same new model so universally con-
demned.
/: The Americans who have gone over the
Benbow agree with me that it is an un-
Fseaworthy vessel, more dangerous in &C.
tion to it's own men than to its enemies.
Like the Lepanto, it cannot fire its great
guns without irreparable damage to its
own structure. 1t has been built with
out any conception or thought of the
povar of modern explosives, and I would
stake my credit on the prediction that it
will not survive an action Of half an
hour 8 length with any one Of the mod
srn srn French, Russian or American vessels.
n ENGLISH ADMISSIONS,
.Tlfis being French testimony will
naturally be looked upon an being at
least tinged with national jealousy Look
to the English press itself and the same
story is told. During the jubilee year
(1887) the admiralty ordered a series OF
nayal maneuvers which were to display
to the world the effectiveness and suprem.
acy Of the English navy. The result was
most incredible end humiliating break.
down, in which, so far as the conditions
of actual war could be brought about
England was shown to be without feet
Here is an abridgment of what the Lon.
don Tele graph, the optimist Tory organ
and the jingo paper Of England, had te
say on August u, 1887:
The report is saddening and humiliat.
ing enough to all who desire to see thei1
coun ~ mistress of the seas in realty al
we'll as in name We cannot conceive
that anybody who lays claim to patriot
ism can feel the slightest pleasure al
hearing that ironclads supposed to steam
fourteen knots an hour can only steam
ten, that our commerce is at the mere,
Of the enemy owing to our want Of swift
cruisers, that boilers ''break down." tha
steering gear "goes wrong" that one iron
clad nearly rams another, and that th'
armor of many Of our vessels is too thin
guns too old and capacity for carry in{
coal too slight to satisfy modern require
mepte.
A letter from the scene of mimic hos
tilities sounds like q catalogue of tn
chapter Of accidents which might be ex
pected to happen if all our ships we're a
old as the fighting Temerarie when it wa
dragged to it's last berth. When Admira
Tryon's cruisers broke the blockade 0
Bantry Bay and got clear away the new
had to be taken nearly three hundred
miles to Admiral Rowley, and the Mersey
q so-called swift cruiser whose steamin,
rate is put down on paper at Seventeen
knots an hour, was deputed to carry th'
intelligence.
Instead Of going at seventeen knots
she could only do fourteen and q .quarte
miles, and after this tremendous exertiol
her engines promptly broke down. Then
when the British fleet in gorgeous ARA.
was steaning along the Irish Sea Of
Holyhead, the Active took upon hersel
to delay progress by steamiDg ct sevel
knots an hour, although her proper speet
is stated at thirteen knots The Mohawl
was left behind, completely broker
down. the Tartar was patched up i
transitu and was brought on. As If ther,
had not been enough disappointment
two sstthird. class cruisers, 2 the Archer an.
the Racoon, began to have seriou
trouble. The formers boilers leak badly
neceasitating her going slow, and the LAT
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