Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-01-25
COULDN'T TAKE NEW YORK.
The Metropolis Has Little to Fear
From Foreign Fleets.

The Metropolis Has Little to Fear
From Foreign Fleets.
From the New York Sun.
A Sun reporter took his way to the Army
building day or two ago. The questions he
had to ask were inspired, not SO much by
anxiety as by a curiosity to know whether
Printing House Square might calmly, and
with safety. receive and give out news in
the event Of a bombardment, or whether the
square had better move uptown and get its
news by wire from the Battery. The re-
porter followed the procession. and in due
time found himself in the private Office of an
officer of engineers, to whom he explained
who he was and his business.
There won't be any bombardment," the
officer said, land II there was, we needn't
any of us worry much about 1t"
Then he proceeded to make very guarded
statement about the distance the ships Of a
foreign power would have to be from the
city in order that their guns might do dam
age to its property. I'm the first place."
said the officer. lit must be borne in mind
that the distance gun will carry depends
upon the elevation Of the gun. No naval
commander has ever considered it safe to
sight gun on shipboard at a greater angle
than fifteen degrees. Many commanders
will not elevate the gun higher than twelve
degrees. The reason for this is that the re-
coil of gun at a higher elevation than
twelve or fifteen degrees would do great
damage. The gun carriage would be brok-
en-, the electric apparatus would be de-
stroyed. and about everything breakable
on board would be smashed. On land,
where there is no danger from the recoil,
the angle of elevation may be higher but
even on land the greatest angle at which
gun has been sighted was in England during
the queens jubilee. At that time a gun,
sighted at an angle of forty-five degrees,
carried twelve miles. Now, If the maxi
mum elevation on shipboard be fifteen de-
grees, the maximum carrying distance of
the largest guns would be about six miles.
Therefore, vessels sent to lombard the city
would have to be stationed in the Narrows,
between Forts Wadsworth and Hamilton.
Then If they opened fire, the shells they
dropped about, here and there, would be
quite likely to incapacitate for further SER
vice whatever they struck.
1T must be remembered, though, that be-
fore any vessel could get near Fort Wads-
worth or Fort Hamilton it would have to
pass the defenses at Sandy Hook and over
the submarine mines in that vicinity. Just
at present the chances of a foreign fleet
passing Sandy Hook are not bad. When
the defenses are completed, however, I'd
rather be up in balloon without a COM
pass than on ship that tried to pass those
defenses. Just where those mines are 10
Gated Is Kept a profound secret in the War
Department. In addition to the batteries
on Sandy Hook, it must also be borne in
mind that there are also batteries at Forts
Wadsworth and Hamilton. These are not
powerful batteries, to be sure, but they
would do good service before they were ST.
leEced. In addition to these harbor de-
lenses, the channel would be filed with
sunken vessels, which would prove very OBJ
structive to the ships of an invading fleet.
OF course, all the damage done to the city
would be in the lower part. Supposing the
city were destroyed up to Canal street,
everything would be serene above that