News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-05-11
our New NAVY,
WASHINGTON, d. G., May 6, '93.
Mr.. EDIrOR:-

.
Gently were gathered in Hampton
Roads, is the purpose of this letter.
The English flagship, The Blake,
is the one that will first attract at
tention as she is known to be the
latest and best product of the great
est ship-building nation, sea-going
ships, | mean, of the earth.
A single glance shows that she is
very formidable, undoubtedly the
most so of any vessel in the fleet,
! long and rather narrow, setting well
down in the water, not Il large num-
Der of guns but what she has of
! great power, with speed to overhaul
any vessel here she looks to be what
she was intended to be, a great COM
MERGE destroyer in case of war.
Black and with no top-hammer eX-
/ cept that necessary for the purposes
of destruction, by which | mean mill
tary masts, and her immense smoke
stacks, she is almost the antipOdes
of what a generation ago was the
pride of her people, the line of battle
ship driven by steam but still with
considerable sailing power. Her
consorts are worthy to be in her
company and the other great En-
glish-speaking nation has honored
| herself in hOnOring US in sending
such splendid specimens of her navy
! here
The Kaiserin Augusta, which leads
the German line, is white beauty
which seems to set higher in the water
than The Blake but to be nearly as
powerful, a splendid representative
of a power that, while not neglecting
her navy. by any means, is, and
seems to be DESTROYS of being con-
sidered so, to-day the greatest pow
er of the world so far as her military
/ armament is concerned.
The General Admiral, flagship of
the Russian Admiral, looks more
like the ships we have seen in years
gone by, more mast and sail as CON-
pared with her hull, still a glance at
her will convince any one that a con-
test with her would be no bow S
play. When [ first saw her it was
evident that Wash-day" had come
in her calendar for her rigging was
covered with the clothing of the men,
hung out to dry, and | could sympa-
thize with one of the passengers on
our train, who, after a single glance,
said, go, dear, l should die if | had
such a wash as that" and she
would too if she did it herself for it
was that of more than four hundred
men.
The Jean Bart was the French YES
sci that attracted most attention,
in general form somewhat like The
Blake. She had one very distinguish
ing feature, her stem near the water
line projected several feet further for
ward than that of the vessels of any
other nationality,-it formed in fact
almost the break of ram; she also
was black.
The French flagship, however,
was white and was the only wooden
vessel in the whole fleet. And while
at the close of our civil war she
would have been a formida BILE vessel,
as she has a heavy armament of five
and one-half inch rif1ed guns,
mounted in broadside, as was the
custom when she was constructed,
now she would be only plaything
in the hands of giant if attacked
by some of the other ships. 1t is,
however, Enthusiastically true that
wooden vessels of her class are more
comfortable to live on than most if
not all of the ships here; and, there
fore, as | suppose, on this warIike
cruise of peace she is used as the
fiap-ship of the French squadron.
The Brazilian vessels were distin-
guished by being lower at the stem
and stern than the others. having
been so constructed in order to give
their guns a more free sweep in fir
ing. One of them was the only bat
tle-ship in the fleet and her fort-like
structure amidships was an object
of remark.
The Spanish vessels had not ar
rived at the time we were there and
| regretted very much not seeing the
representation of the Columbus Car
avals. The contrast would have
heightened the desire to honor the
man who, in what would to-day
seem such a poor craft, dared
to set sail on such an unknown voy-
age. No doubt the croakers of
Spain called him foolhardy and said
he wonld never return; and doubt
less added, or would if they had used
our vocabulary, "serves him right,
too"
There was one other ship that
regretted very much that | could not
see, the "Veuevo de Julio, I'm plain
English the Ninth of July,-the Ar
gentipe vessel which has never
yet seen her own country, but has
stopped on her maiden cruise to do
honor to this land and the discoverer
Of her country as well as ours. She
is not as large as a great many of
the Others, but has a speed surpass-
ing them all, the only vessel, in fact,
that is likely to make our new YES
sells recently launched, but not yet
in commission, in the language
of the gamin, "take a back seat"
Think of the power required to force
a vessel of three thousand five hun
dred tons displacement through the
water at the rate of twenty-five nau-
teal miles in an hour, over twenty
five statute miles. She has three
screws and independent engines for
each, can turn in her length and
stop and start very quickly.
The sight of all these vessels lying
there in peace was very fine, but to
one who remembers days of battle
the thought would come, what if
these dogs of war were let loose? If
the conflict was terrible in the olden
days what would it be now? One
thing is very sure, it would not be
long, however fierce it might be, be-
fore one or the other of the combat
ants would rest on the bottom of
the ocean.
For generation there has been an
irrepressible conflict" between ma
val constructors on the one hand
and those who manufactured their
armament on the other.
At the commencement of our war
about the most formidable guns
were the ten-inch Dalgrens for the
naval, and ROdmans for the military
service.
The battle between the Merrimac
and the Monitor revolutionized the
guns as we'll as theships of the navy.
A vessel on which ten-inch shot rat
tied harmlessly over her sides or
crumbled and fell on the deck showed
that something with more power in
it's projectiles must be found. The
thirteen-inch guns of the Monitor
were even found to be wanting. The
first round was in favor of the naval
constructor.
In my next | shall have some