The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1894-11-09
MODERN BATTLESHIPS.

Mistakes In the Construction of Such Yes
sells as the Ill-Fated Victoria.
The naval war vessels that typify
the modern conception of sea-fghting
qualities represent only theoretical
or, rather, let it be said, an ideal ex-
preston. 1t is beginning to dawn on
minds most vitality interested that the
great armored warships are neither
efficient nor safe. The fate of the
Wanted Victoria last summer that
found an eighty-fathomed bottom from
the result of an accident while ma
neuvering with other vessels, and the
more recent sinking of Admiral Mello's
flagship, the Aquidaban, from damage
inflicted by a torpedo, has put a
practical side to the conceptions OF
modern armament that the idealistic
theories seem not to have had in theil
reckoning.
The French minister of marine, 9th
erwise the secretary of the navy, con-
siders the structures recently built at
Toulon entirely unseaworthy, and de-
clares they will turn upside down in
their first encounter with heavy sea.
The loss of the Victoria, together with
Admiral Tryon and his gallant men,
and the behavior of another favorite of
the royal navy, in the Bay of Fundy,
has touched the English admiralty in a
sensitive place, and their opinions now
coincide with those expressed by the
French department.
Our own naval department, which
seems sort of initiative echo to those
of Europe, is in considerable turmoil,
but, may succeed in turning public at
tention from colossal laundering in the
row over blowholes in armor plate
1t would have been thousand times
better had the Victoria been towed
with two lighters and grounded as
near as possible to some English city
and fitted up and rented out as an
apartment building, than to allow her
to float under the delusion that she
was war vessel, and thus entrap some
hundreds of men to sudden and in
glorious death. No one that rode on
the Resolution during that Biscay
storm, which was not at all phenome-
nal. had any idea of other fate than
had befallen the Victoria only a few
months before.
1t was a lesson of most awful import
for a contingent of men to be cooped
up in practically alright quarters for
eighteen long hours with all the hatch
ways closed, the vessel drifting help
lessly, lurching from side to side forty
five degrees, and the seas washing over
her decks. And yet there is not now
what is considered first-class armored
vessel afoat that would not, under
similar conditions, involve the same ex-
Perience. and the escape of the Resolu
ton from laundering was little short
of the miraculous.
To this complexion have the worlds
navies come at last that, in an age of
steel and of boosted superior intelli-
gence, with unlimited resources and
after an immense expenditure of money,
the deep is dotted with crazy construc-
lions nowise so well adapted to any
thing as to self-destruction. When
such an enormous weight and clumsi-
ness are involved the least detriment
to the hull or little displacement of
the center of gravity puts everything
into most serious jeopardy.
The eternally-vigilant law of gravi-
tation is on the alert and ever ready to
improve its opportunity, and the mod
ern naval construction raises the ques-
ton whether the conceptions concern
ing armament ever come from minds
that hold one single scintillant CLEAN
of an idea of natural law. These are
not merely theoretical protests; they
are objections that have been sustained
in practical demonstrations, in tests of
weakness that have carried sorrow into
hundreds of homes, and any further
repetitions should be held and treated
as simple manslaughter. An indignant
world should voice its condemnation.
N. Y. Commercial Advertiser.