The Penn's Grove record., 1894-10-26
THE NEXT NAVAL BATTLE.
An AFFAIR Of y Few Minutes with Few
Survivors to Tell the Tale.

An AFFAIR Of = Few Minutes With r,v
Survivors to Tell the Tale.
There has not been an engagement
between two navies on a large scale
since the replacement OF the old
wooden walls by heavily armed bat
tleships: and the ability OF the latter
to Withstand the shock OF onset has
never been put to paractical test. A
writer in the United Service Maya
zine predicts that ironclads will make
,hort work Of one another. A battle
will last ten minutes The fleets
will probably approach at the COM
bined rate Of % knots an hour. The
two and a half or three minutes that
elapse before the fleets meet Will be-
minutes OF the most extreme and
agoni7lng tension. The compart.
ments forward in the terrible blast of
tire that will open the engagement
will be blown away or riddled like
sleeves. Waite tight doors viii be
useless when there are no waiter
tight walls. The whole ship will lie
covered with debris, her appearance
will be transformed by the loss of her
tunnels AMI the destruction Of the
superstructure aud upper works. The
rain OF melinite shells which will lie
poured from guns firing ~slnOkeleSs
powder will wreck all parts Of the
ship outside OF the heavy a NOR. In
ships where the barLettes are insult.
fciently protected the explosion Of
shells under them may bring them
down with their weight of 100 or 500
tons II once they give way the
armored deck cannot support them,
and they may be expected to 20 clean
drought the bottom OF the ship, in.
yolyIng her destruction in their down
fall. The destruction of the tunnels
will destroy the draft, the ship will
fill with smoke and the decks proba.
bly, te set on tire.
The big guns will be discharged al
500 or 900 yards. The d~etonation OF
their huge shells will probably, like
the explosion of a powder magazine,
reduce the already wrecked ship TO a
hopeless chaos. destroying all her Or
ganization and the nerve thread that
conveys the captains orders to the
engine room. Even il the armor re,
sists the blow, the shock to The shiE
will be terrific striking the tusret
of an ironclad, one Of these project,
LES, would probably, if it did nj
hurl 1T overheard, stun or kill every
man In 1t and wreck all its comrli'
Gated mechanism. This will Consti
tute the first stage of the encounter.
The ships will now be nearing ont
another. and the surv vors Of the ter
rlble slaughter will drive the BATTERED
hulls, low in the water, at U an
other. ships, surviving the rayage'
of ordnance, will ram and sink on'
another, and in twenty minutes from
the opening OF the engagement four
flfths of the ships will be on thei
way to the bottom of the sea
1t Is a terrible picture, but it doe
NOT appear to be overdrawn. Anc
we have not yet nearly reached th,
end of inventions in cannon, thougl
the lin t of armor- bearing by ship
Is In sight The dynamite gun nov
being tested at sandy Hook throw
a dynamite bomb. large enough t
wreck the largest warship alioat,
distance of three miles; and witt
such accuracy that nine succeSsiv
shots were recently planted in a sptc
not much bigger than a battleshiE
Th SO guns are meant for coast dc
fensa1bnt it will be but a short tim
until they are adapted for use o
ships. When things get to that pas
that two nayiei, three miles apart
c9pfwafa single discharge blow on
a10trsS into nothingness, 'leav n
not a rack behind,n the stu endou
criminaiity OF war will bring abou
its own end. That says the Montrea
Herald, Is the n encouraging feaI
ure Of the continued progress bein
made in the in ention of death dea
ing instruments CT war.