The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1894-09-29
ARMoREp VESSELS REsT.
ordna ace Officers Do Not Believe That
Chinese Battieships Were Sunk.

ordna ace Officers DO Not Believe That
Chinese Battieships Were Sunk.
WARRINGTON, Sept. a5.-Few of the
ordnance officers of the navy ure pre-
pared to accept the recent engagement
between Japanese and Chinese fleets at
the Ialu river as u demonstration of
the superiority of fleet unarmored
or uisers over heavily protected but
moderate speed 6nttleships. This is
natural, in view oil the fact that for
many years the officers in this branch
OF the service have devoted their in
genuity to the development of the pas
sively resistant quality of ships, hold
ing that design best which carries the
heaviest armor. Thus they created
the great battlestip and now they
stand prepared to defend her.
One OF the most distinguished Of ord
nance officers, in his report of the work
accomplished, a man who has had
much to do with designing the uns
for and amor for the modern ship.
spenling upon The subject of tho Ynlu
light was inclined to be slSeptical as to
the defeat of the Chinese battleships.
said he:
I'VE are still in the dark ia to the
details of the battle, but | will venture
the Insertion now that not one OF the
battieships was seriously injured and
that their loss was confined to cruisers
or only partly protected vessels. And
even the best of the Chinese battleships
is not n titSt-class vessel. The Chem
luen is u second-rnte ship, about like
our Maine or Texas. But as it is, there
WAS only n reason, though it was a
very good one. why the battleships did
not speedily destroy all of the Japan
csc fleet, and that reason is the inn
mensc superiority of the japanese fer
sonnet.
'The Japanese themselves fully UNI
dorstand the value of battleships and
have been making strenuous efforts to
purchase some. Lately they have been
trying to buy the Captain Pratt, the
new armored vessel built in Europe for
Chile.
"A good deal of nonsense has been
said and written about tho value of
high speed unarmored cruisers, mainly
by the private builders, who are after
the big premiums paid for speed. 1
you'd rank excessive speed about tenth
in the list of valuable qualities for u
wnrship. 1t will not help her even to
run away if she is once in action; the
difference between the Is knots of n
battleship and the 20 knots of the
cruiser Is not enough to save the latter.
Then, after once coming within fight
ing distance, she could not choose her
position, for she wonld have to move
whenever the heavy ship came up.
when the explosive shell was
brought ont in the Crimeun war naval
warfare was revolutionized. We have
percussion shells now that can explode
with certainty almost inside of a
cruiser and tear her to pieces. But
these shells will not penetrate the ar
mored side of the battlcship. The
only proiectile that can do that is the
arnor piercer, and that, while partly
hollow, is never charged with explos-
i've. An expert commander on one of
the battleships can meet at once and
destroy half Il dozen cruisers and come
out Of the fight without serious injury,
else all naval opinion is ut fault: and
tho naval power thut seeks to get
along without battleships will cor
tainly rue its lack of foresight in time