The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-01-15
BEST THAT FLOATS.
Admiral Jouetts Faith is Still in the
Monitor.
washington
Boston

Transcript
If we had 80 ships like our newly
built monitor Puritan we could defend
our coasts against the entire navy of
Geat Britain" said Admiral Jouett yes
terday. f'She is the greatest fighting
vessel ever built, and she can whip any
warship af1oat in the world today She
cannot be sunk and to hit her is almost
out of the question, because she sits so
low in the water. On that account she
cannot be seen actually at distance of
two miles and to strike her with shot
would be as difficult as to hit the edge
of visiting card at 30 PAGES with a pis-
toll bullet. Not the strongest battleship
could Withstand the blows delivered
simultaneously from her four great
12-inoh rifed guns concentrated upon the
target and discharged together by the
touch of an electric button.
"What can whole fleet Of ordinary
war vessels do against powerfully armed
antagonist that 10 practically invulner-
ableG The average cruiser or battleship
towers IS to 80 feet above the water-that
is to say Ms high as an ordinary house.
She is an easy target at a distance of
eight or ten miles, taking into considera-
ton the accuracy Of modern gunnery.
The Puritan on the other hand shows
only 80 inches above the water line. She
presents no target, while she is able to
plug the high freeboard vessels every
time before they can even come within
sight Of her.
"A few such vessels would be infinitely
more effective for coast defence purposes
than the best possible forts You may
have as many forts and guns along the
coast as you please, out what good are
they SO long as hostile ships armed with
modern high power guns can stand off
on the ocean at distance of 10 miles,
or even IA miles, and PUNK shot and
| shell into US? Excellent preparations
have been made for the defence of the
harbor of New York from the land, but
they are not likely TO be efficient so long
as an enelny's fleet can stand at a safe
distance outside of Sandy Hook and cast
explosives upea the island of Manhattan.
That this might be done without diff
GUILTY there is no possible doubt. But
half dozen ships like the Puritan
would Ieuder such thing impossible.
Protected by such defenders the great
safe against any attack by sea; its bill
lions of dollars worth of property would
not be imperilled, and their need be no
more alarm lest the city be laid under
contribution by a foreign invader. =
"In vessel like the Puritan we have
not merely an engine for harbor defence.
such ship is able to go around tho
world. 1t is the staunchest type of craft
that floats and nothing can sink it. The
suggestions has been made that such mon
itors could not fight their guns as in sea
way but no notion could be more absuros
| Monterey, an inferior vessel Of similar
! type, out into the ocean with the delip-
crate purpose Of looking for a storm.
He went through two big gales, and his
ship f1oated like duck on the water and
was perfectly manageable under con
| oAuiOho WAAOii WOdAO nlloSO AOAdOlC0 II
impossible tor other warships to cast loost
their guns. He found that he could pas.
| the Columbian river when mere ut
steamers did not dare to make the at
tempt-and that without the slightes
discomfort In word we have in tn,
Puritan an unequalled floating gun plat
form.
Did you ever see a pine chip and {
hickory chip floating near together oil
troubled waters? If so you have noticed
that the pine chip bobbed about on tn,
crest of every wave while the heavy hick
DRY chip was undisturbed by the waves
breaking over it. The monitor Of tn,
Puritan type corresponds to the hickor.
chip, though the waves break over it n,
trouble results. 1t is an air tank hermet
ically sealed and it canuot sink. Their
Is no question of turning turtle and go
ing to the bottom, like a battleship. Ad
miral Bunce who is the greatest liYin.
authority on monitors says that the onl!
fault OF the Puritan { is that she stand
too high out of WATER she might as wei
be nearly flush with the surface. Man.
! years ago he commanded one Of the oil
monitors and he found that the lowe
he vessel " as Sunk in the water by talk
ing on extra GOAL the steedier she was.
"We do no. wish to invade Englan,
or her possessions but merely to driv
her fleets from our shores in case the
should attack US. This we could accom-
plish with ease if we only had q few
more vessels like the Puritan. The Pur
itan as you know is almost finished W
have five other modern double turrete,
monitors-the Miantonomoh, the Am
phitrite, the Monterey, the Monadnock
and the Terror. The Puritan with dis
placement of 5000 tons is much TIL,
largest of the six Next comes the Mon
terey OF 40S4 tons. The remaining fou
are OF 1890 tons each These vessels will
doubtless cut large figure in a war will
England in case such a misfortune shoult
eventuate. All OF these monitors ar,
powerfully armed the Puritan carrying
four 12-inch rifles. the Monterey tw,
10-inoh and the Amphritite. M1sntono