St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-30

guns. The old monitors were 200 feet
long, 46 feet wide and drew liz feet
of water. The Monterey is 256 feet
long, So wide and draws IA feet. She
can develop SPA horse power, which
will send her through the water at
thirteen or fourteen knots, while the
old monitors had $40 horse power,
and could only move along at five or
six knots. They displaced 1878 tons
when ready for sea; the Monterey
displaces 1854. They had a single
screw, driven by grasshopper en-
CINE; she has double screws, driven
by triple expansion engines. They
carried about 100 officers and men
each; the Monterey has nineteen Of
ficers and 172 men.
ARMED WITH A RAM.
And the Monterey has another thing
hidden by the water at her bow,
more effective when well used than
all her big guns-that is her ram. 1t.
is hook shape and turns up like the
snout of razor-back hog, and it roots
about the same way. 1t is made to
get right under the armor of a vessel
and open her vitals like a bull opens
the flank of horse. A blow from
this ram, we'll directed, would not have
to strike below armor even-the thick
est armor could not resist it. But the
thing is to use it. In the first place
the Monterey would have to be going
at ten or twelve knots and it would
take a mile run TO develop that speed
If her antagonist were a good dodger
she could probably jump to one side.
But if she did not there would be
lot of candidates for Davy Jones'
locker.
The Monterey's guns are a thousand
times more effective than the old guns.
The f1fteen-inch smooth bore guns on
the old monitors fired shot only eff
fective by its racking. 1t had no pen
etration to speak of. The Monterey's
guns fire a pointed projectiIe with
whirl motion, and, as it's small point
strikes first, it has tendency to bore
its way in, like an auger. AT 1000
yards this projectile will penetrate
thirty-three inches of iron - nearly
three feet. The old monitors had five
inches of iron armor. One of these
projectiles would have let light
through armor, hull and all. This pro-
jectile weighs $50 pounds and it takes
425 pounds of powder to make it troub-
lesome, but when it goes it goes fast,
and when it strikes something has to
give way. 1t leaves the guns muzzle
with a speed of 200 feet per second
and it's energy is 25,sS5 foot tons-that
| is, it has that power, and that power
is capable of raising a ship as heavy
| as the Monterey six feet out of water
| At 1,500 yards this projectile penetrates
| tWenty-one inches of steel. This gives
an idea how one of the Monterey's
shots would feel if it hit you at the
| waist. A shot from the old monitors
| would not feel so bad. Their fif-
teen-inch guns used 100 pounds of DOW
der and sent a 450-pound shot from
their muzzles making 1,600 feet per
| second, and this Shot had a muzzle
energy of 1887 foot tons, equal to the
shot from an eight-inch rife of today.
The monitor idea is to make it posi-
| Die to change the range of guns quick
| ly. The turret, where the guns are,
| reVolves. 1t is steel-covered, of course,
and practically shot-proof, and it can
be turned clear around in a few min
utes. There has been no change in
this central feature of the monitor
and 1t remains the most destructive
| type of war vessel for hot hard, close
fighting ever devised. That is one rea-
son Secretary Herbert wants to keer
the souvenirs.