News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-05-18
Our New NAVY.

Our New Navy.
WASHINGTON, D. c., May II, 1898.
Mr.. EDlToR:-
If we have been astOnished by the
progress made by the worlds navies
in building vessels of iron and steel,
one of which would be able to with
stand the combined attack of the
most powerful of the worlds great
fleets at the commencement of our
war, we shall be none the less SO
i when we come to the armament of
these vessels and of the works which
are planned, and a beginning made
in their erection, to withstand them.
In fact it has been a race between
armor and guns all the way through
first, the ship would seem to be in
vulnerable and then a gun would be
made that would "laugh to scorn
! the efforts of her builders" and make
it seem as though nothing could be
made that would be able to with
stand the shock of its projectiles; but
then came the wonderful method of
strengthening The resisting power of
the armor by various processes,
among which our own, known as
"Harveyized STEEL" is considered to
be the most effective, which enables
a plate to double it's resisting power,
so that at the present time so far
as guns and armor are concerned the
honors seem about equally divided.
At the commencement OF the war
ten-inch Dalgrens in the navy and
Rodmans in the navy were the most
powerful guns we had in use, and
they were considered as good as any
in the world. There had been little
talk about rified guns and some ex-
periments had been made with them
but had not on the whole proved
very satisfactory-at least in this
country. A practical breech-lOader
was then a thing unknown. Right
here, however, | want to say that
the man who thinks a breech-lOading
cannon is a modern invention will
charge his mind very soon if he will
60 into the Navy Yard museum and
see an old bronze specimen there.
do not know its age, but more than
one hundred years, and | think more
than two, have passed since it was
founded. As far as the weapon goes
it seems to me it would be more dan
gerous to the men behind than those
in front, as its mechanism consists Of
a block of bronze with a handle like
a flat-iron to work it by and key
to bring it somewhere in the neigh
bOrhOOd of the bore to the gun.
Great ships armed with a large
number of broad-side guns of moder-
ate calibre and one or two pivot guns
of larger build, that would sweep
fore and aft, composed the fighting
navies of the world; and while steam
had been adopted as the motive
power it was still so imperfectly de
veloped that the fast sailing vessels
of the world only wanted a good
wind to get away from the steam
vessels, and on them sails were used
as auxiliary power. For our Moni
tors we built what were then enor
nous guns of fifteen-inch bore; anU
| we'll remember my astOnishment
when | got a man to row out beyond
the target that was built to try the
first ones for the original Monitor
when her thirteen-inch ones were dis.
placed, and on getting outside of the
target, eighty rods from the gun,
saw that it had made clear breach
through five and one-half inches Of
iron and three feet of oak. The army
not to be outdone built sixteen-inch
Rodman pattern guns that carried q
round shot that weighed about 43C
pounds and had an effective range o.
from three to four miles. These guns
were thought to be well nigh invinci
BILE.
Early in the course of the war We
began building rifed guns of small
calibrp, PARROTS and some WARDS
a gun that it seems to me did not get
the credit due to it, for those who
used them called them effective anG
easy to handle. | think they were
the first guns made of steel in this
country. The Parrott was q gooC
gun in the smaller Sizes Most O
your readers are familiar with
a very good example in "Black Bet
sy," but her carriage is not as GOOD
as the service guns. PARROTS of the
largest size were never safe to use Oh
account of the danger of bursting, OF
rather blowing out the breech, al
though the charges were very small
ones, never being as | remember
more than one-fifth the weight of the
shot.
Now compare these guns with those
of to-day, an immense mass of stee
more than forty feet long and weigh
ing more than seventy-ive tons, with
calibre of thirteen inches, using five
hundred pounds of powder and hurl
ing a bolt of steel with a hardened
point to a distance of more than ten
miles, and with a force sufficient at a
distance of one mile to pierce more
than twenty inches of solid iron, the
shot weighing one thousand pounds
Such are the largest navy guns we
have to-day, but other nations are
building then much larger, as those
who go to the fair will see in the i'm
mense Krupp gun that uses a shot Of
twice the weight mentioned.
But all the attention is not de-
voted to great guns as all the vessels
are provided with guns of from four
to eight-inch calibre that are the
ones intended for the destruction OF
commerce and all uses except great
battles Beauties these guns are too
long and slim, looking as though
they intended to perform their work
in the neatest possible manner, al
belt a gruesome work it is at the
best in time of war. There are the
rapid-firing guns, too, and the Cat
lings, saucy little fellows, one and
all, as any one would find who should
have occasion to feel their power.
Then there is that other element OF
destruction, with which every mod
ern war-ship is provided, dynamite,
which bids fair to compel the world
to be at peace on the sea, at least,
for what construction of man can
withstand it's fearful power,-so i'm
mense that a single charge of it
would send the strongest ship of the
earth to the bottom of the sea in
less time than it takes to tell it. And
what of the torpedoes that can be
| 10 he Al +nio 4