Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1894-03-29
Amer q Batt1eship Fight.

One of the current magazines
contains an article written by
Lieutenant s. A. Stanton, United
States Navy, which suggests an in
teresting question. 1t described
prophetioally, a sea fight between
the Farragut, of u navy, a new
ship on the pattern of the Iowa
and an unnamed enemy, presuma~
bly, of the French Navy. The
Farragut comes of victor through
better gun practice, which is reason
able enough supposition to be drawn
from the history of our sea fights
and the closing picture shows the
enemy waving the white flag at the
moment the United States ship il
about to ram.
Here is where the interesting
question comes in. When one bat
tleship captures another in midocean
in the next naval war. what is she to
do with her prize? In the old days
of wooden walls there was no diff
Guilty in the practice. If the cap
tursd ship could float a prize crew
was put aboard, and al practicable
sail vas made for the nearest friendly
port, while the victor continued on
her cruise or if both ships were
badly Injured, both put into har.
Dor. But nowadays the position OF
. prize crew would be far from com.
handing. The captured vessel
could not be managed by her cap.
tors-she would have to remain in
charge Of her own engineers, and
her own iremen. and the victors
instead of sailing the ship, while
the prisoners remained under
matches, would be reduced to the
status of a police. And thus
would the opportunity for a recap
ture be greatly increased,
For, while in the old days the en~
tire captured crew was disarmed and
imprisoned, the non-comhatants of
. captured b%attleship would have to
be given their liberty, practically
speaking, and much might be &C
somplished by a couple of second
engineers with their wits about
them. For instance, would it be SO
difficult to superinduce a slight ex-
plosion in the port engine and un
der cover of the confusion to llber-
ate the prisoners? Again. the
armament Of a modern battleship
would complicate affairs. Relas
lively to the powers of a machine
gun, the prize rev would be greatly
disproportionate in strength, since
the chances for the prisoners to OBJ
tain control of one of these engines
would be increased by the freedom Of
their non combatants.
Altogether the number Of men re,
quired for police duty on a captive
~battlesbip would be very large, and
victorious ship would have to re-
duce the efficiency of her own gun
crews to an unpleasant extent. i
would probably be found ne cessary
Ii N by avery case for the captor te
stand nd accompany her prize
home across the Atlantic, or the Pa
Icifc, IS the case might be. And
this would be a double incentive tt
the conquered to effect a swift ano
noiseless recapture of their owr
ship, for if they did SO n unex'
pected torpedo or discharge of
twel se-inch gun, carefully aimed
might very easily turn the fortune
of war entirely in their favor.
In other words, and not to define too
closely upon the possibilities of th'
case, the capture OF q b%attleship il
an ocean duel in the next naval wal
Will by no means ease the mind o.
the successful commander. He viii
have q leviathan on his hands thai
it will tax all his energy and clever
ness to bring safely into port, an6
there may be moments when hi
will be tempted to lock up every
mothers son of her engineers ane
fremen in the military tops and rur
her home under jury sails.