The morning call., 1893-09-15
THE HOSTILE FLEET.
Great Damage Will Be Done to Conn
merce bV the BOmbardmeut,

Great Damage Will Be Done to COM
merce by the BOmbardment.
Business interests of merchants of the
United States would suffer more by the
destruction of Rio de Janeiro than by sim
liar disaster happening to any other city in
South or Central America. Though the
imports into Brazil from this country do
not compare with those Of Great Britain
yet the exports are much greater and
millions of bags of coffee are now stored
along the water front in the Brazilian port
awaiting shipment to New York, Balti-
more and other points. Tie warehouses
in which this valuable cargo is Kept are
constructed of infiammable material and
bombardment of Rio would destroy prop
erty to The value of millions of dollars.
The losses would fall upon North Ameri-
can houses. for their agents purchase the
coffee at the fields and it is stored at their
risk. The large firm of Arbuckle Bros.
has two experts located in the Brazilian
capital the year around and it takes many
sailing vessels besides the steamers of the
LlmpOrt d Holt line to carry away the
eargoes to the north.
Rio de Jeneiro is the largest city in
South America and with its suburbs has a
population of nearly half a million. At
lea 10 coo North Americans are in busi-
ness there and pro baby three times as
many Englishmen. TO say nothing of those
IF other nationalties. There Is by far
more foreign canital invested in business
in the city than Brazilian and the effect of
a long-continued bombardment would be
felt in all quarters of the civilized world.
The bay of Rio Is by many considered
The most beautiful OF any. 1t is fully
thirty miles long and twelve miles broad.
When the revolution was declared by the
officers of Ibe Brazilian navy they had the
best of the situation. The vessels were
lying in this bay; they did not have to
pass the forts at the entrance. and by
steaming to the other end of the harbor
they would easily get out of range of Fort
VlllegagnOn, which is the one lying nearest
to the city. The Notifications of Rio are
excellent. The guns of Santa Cruz CON-
mand the entrance 10 the bay, and at that
point all vessels are spoken. The channel
there is narrow, and with a supplemental
torpedo force 1T would he almost impos-
sible for foreign feet to enter. Nearer
tue city lies Fort Large and still nearer
Fort San Juan, but all three of them were
built to prevent an enemy coming in from
the sea. The revolving navy will not have
10 cross their line OF FIRE to do the work of
bonn harding, for the ships are already in
side, and they would only be troubled by
shots from Vllegagnon. The cable dis
patches say that one Of the fOrtresses has
surrendered and it is probably the latter.
Such being the case, the revOlutionists
have the city at their mercy, for in Rio de
Janeiro proper there is not a mounted
piece nor f0rIifcation.
The feet in front o. the city undoubtedly
comprises the entire navy, for it has been
the policy of different Governments of
Brazil TO keep the large ships in tue land
locked bay and have a dozen Gunboats and
sidewheel steamers do what little patrol
duty is required at Para, Bahia, Santos
and other ports. Brazil at present has no
squadron, not even y man-of-war. In
foreign waters and the show of force off the
city is probably as great as it could present
to an enemy.
There are two large armored battle
ships, the Riachuelo aud Aquldaba that
could reduce the business portions of the
metropolis TO ashes within forty-eicht
hours. The former is of steel. sheathed
with wood. She is of 500 tons dIsplace-
ment. 305 feet long. 81 feet beam and has
IL inches of armor over her vulnerable
parts and II on the turrets. These are two
in number and each contains two 9-inch
breech-loading rifles. These cotton guns
when they were first built and before they
were bored out and retitted sent steel
projectlle clean through IS inches of armor
and had some energy to spare. They are
SO arranged that they can be fired all
arnnnd hnriznn oil
can be discharged ahead. astern or on
either beam. Besides, there are on board
six 70-pound breech-loadng rifled guns
and Is machine guns. The AQuidaban is
built on the same lines as the Riachuelo
and carries the same size guns. She is not
quite as long and has less tonnage.
In addition TO these formidable craft are
six armored vessels, built of iron. They
are the Bahia. Brazil, Jarvary. Lima
Barros. Mariz-P-Barros and the SOimoes.
The Bahia is It's feet long. has 51s inches |
OF arni0r on her turret and carries two |
finch rifles. The Brazil, 179 feet long, has
AZ inches OF armOr and carries four finch |
rifles. The Jarvary is 240 feet long, has |
II inches ot armor. Is inches on the iurret. |
and carries four 10inch rifles. The Lima
Barros, $50 feet long and armored with
4R-inch plates. carries four 7-ineh guns. |
The armament of the Mariz-e- Barros is the
same, and she is Is feet longer than the
Lima. The Solimoes is 240 feet long. COW
cred with armor Is inches lex and car |
ries four PISTON guns. There are also two
wooden armored ships-the monitor Ala
goas and the central battery Sete de Sc
tembro. In addition the navy has FIVE un-
armored cruisers and four unarmured
corvettes. The former are the AlmIrante
Barroso, Almirante Tamanderi, Imperial