Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-06-09
GROWTHOF THE NAVY
FROM WOODEN SHIPS TO STEEL
CRUISERS IN TEN YEARS.

How the Course of the United states Cow
eminent Within the Last Few Years Has
Resulted In Getting Ready Sea Fleet
Adequate For Defense.
Ten years ago the United States did not
possess a single modern ship or modern
arm. Its navy and army were supplied
with obsolete weapons and obsolete ships.
Not single factory in the United States
was capable of turning out the metal neces-
sary for armor or projectiles. The govern
,nent was not possessed of any facility for
the manufacture of ordnance. Modern in
ventions of projectiles and explosives were
matters of theoretical knowledge to the
officers of the two services, but they had
had no practical experience in their use.
and most of them had never seen n modern
piece of artillery nor witnessed the effect of
a modern shot from n high power gun.
Yet the navy of the United States gave
an impulse to the construction of modern
war vessels which is still manifested in
every first class battleship in the world.
The idea of the turret, that first occurred to
Ericsson and was first adopted in the Mon;-
tor, was the cause of the revolution which
has occurred in naval architecture in the
last % years. The monitor is the basis of
the great battleships that make formidable
the navies of Europe, and that are expected
to be added to our own service when the
vessels now in process of construction a:c
comN'ct d.
Havir2, d, veiopgd the ironclad up To the
monitor type, however, and the war haN-
ing ended, the I':..tcl States rested on -
laurels. and naval construction ceased.
The monitor, war2 unfit for sea sorEic-.
so that our dependence WAS entirely on
wooden crJi;Sc~S-t&c OLD Wabash. FRANK
lin, Hartford and other vessels 0f thrt
L.. e. u;
fleets when Farracut went around the
world and until Admiral walker took TIC
White S-,ia,.ron to Europe 10 demonstrate
that we l::l very seriously entered upon
the reconstruction Of The navy.
While the Ame-.--a navy was RESTING
while construction oa this side of the w'fer
had ceased. the English, Trnnch ana Itai..n
naval architects were busy developing
plans which have finally resulted il the
modern battieship. For many years their
experiments resulted in comparative fail
ures Iron ships, heavily arlnored. We're
built and were found to be unseaworthy.
Batteries were arranged in c!tadels and III
broadside only TO demonstrate their ineficct-
ivcness. Turrets were tried in echelo. and
with directed fore and az, fire. and were
discarded. Iron finally gave way 70 com
position and this to steel.
All this time the war between the ta"-,"J
and the projcctile was kept up. some
times it was the projectilc thai was s'lpo-
rior 10 the target, ard sometimes the target
was superior To the rrojcc-i!c.
During the Latter part of this period, in
the Arthur administration, the United
States navy adopted new system for II"
instruction OF its officers. Captain john
q. Walker, who was at the head Of the bu-
reau of navigation, prevailed upon tine sac-
rotary to depend for scientific work upon
officers of the line. 1t was he who insisted
for the first time that the scientific train
ing of these officers at Annapolis should
not be thrown away the moment they en-
tered upon their active duties. He pre-
vailed upon the secretary to accept the lib
eral offers made by foreign governments
and foreign shipbuilders and detailed
young officers who had shown talent in
that direction to study under foreign con-
tractors in order to acquire the experience
which had resulted from the experiments
made abroad.
TEN, possesses a corps of highly instructed
line officers, who are capable of making
plans for ship, of constructing it from
keel to quarter deck, of determining the
best combination of metals for its armor
of building its guns, of making its explo-
sives~and of every other effort necessary TO
the completion of a first rate modern bat
tleship.
mounts for guns, electrical contrivances for
lighting ships and directing them in battle,
for finding ranges, are the inventions OF
officers of the United States navy, whose
work is taken by the government without
compensation as part of the services that
are due in return for the education and
training that have been bestowed and COM
missions that have been earned.
During the last 10 years the United States
navy has acquired few cruisers which are
now in commission, none of which, how
ever can be called first rate. On the ways
are several excellent ships which Will be of
great service, very fast, with large coal
endurance and with exceptionally effective
batteries Two second class battleship5,
the Maine and the Texas, and three thor
oughly good battleships, the Massachu-
sets, Indiana and Oregon, are the begin
ming of a navy Even the most conserva-
tive citizen who believes that the United
States ought never to be an aggressor and
ought to arm herself only for defense viii
concede that double and treble the number
of ships will be necessary for the defense OF
our extended sea coast.
But naval architecture has been revolu-
tionized, the speed of ships has advanced
from 10 to 20 knots, while that of torpedo
boats is very much higher. The system
adopted a little more than 10 years ago of
depending upon the intelligence and train
ing of our own naval officers has developed
thoroughly educated, scientific body of
men, capable of constructing as good bat
tleships and of fighting them effectively
as any body of constructors in the world
So effective are modern weapons of destruc-
ton that the chances of war have been ma
terially lessened. Ten years ago no one
dreamed of such ship as the New York or
Columbia or the Massachusetts or Indiana
or Oregon, and no one had any conception
of the kind of armor that has resulted from