The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-15

of her hull was greatly admired. An
official report on the behavior of the
Ohio says: "She has logged IL knots
on the wind and 10 free. Steers and
works like pilot boat; has very little
| rolling motion; Is easy on her spars
and cables, except in a head sea, when
she pitches deep, and Is comparatively
comfortable in wet weather. We rode
out a norther. off Vera Cruz, when
some 30 merchantmen parted their ca
bles and went on shore" The Ohio
| carried 81, 900 gallons OF water, provis-
ions for five months, and was ballasted
with 200 tons weight. The North Caro-
lima was probably the fastest of the
line-of-battle ships. Her log says:
"She is stiff, lies to and scuds well:
rolls deep and lurches quickly In a
heavy sea, but without much strain on
the spars. Close hauled, she head
reaches and holds on better to the wind
than the Columbia or the Delaware
They all carried crews of $50 men and
officers, with the exception of the Penn
sylvania, which, on account of being
larger by a deck. had a crew of LOO
The main batteries were 32-pounders,
and the Pennsylvania carried 16 eight
pound additional guns. The line-of-
battle ships represented at a very late
day a long felt necessity of the Amer
lean navy for vessels equal in every
way to first rate English and French
ships of the line. Their appearance
! shortly after the war of 1912 is proba-
| bly, partially accounted for by the
strong feeling against the promoters of
the gunboait scheme, as numbers of the
gunboats had been sunk during the
war with great loss. This group of
baftleships, taken collectively, is a dis
tinct epoch of American wooden ship
building, and was the finest example
of the shipbuilding craft in this coun-
try. Unlike the older frigate class they
"a ffratr. 70. In fhE fxTfI
They came into the navy like ghosts
of a departed age, served through sew
eral terms of cruising, and with the
/ innovations of steam and armor passed
out of it as silently and peacefully as
/ they had entered.
After the war of 1912 the United
| States built beside the battleships, a
! number of first class frigates, one sec
ond class frigate, the new Macedonian,
and "a number of first and second class
sloops. some of which are still afioat,
the St. Mary's, jamestown and Sara
toga.
The war of 1912 saw the development
of the torpedo and it's acceptance as a
legitimate means of destruction. Tor
pedoes We're first used in the revolu-
ton, but Americans, considering the
practice dishonorable, abandoned IT al
together. No harm was recorded by
their use in 1912. and the only good
that resulted from them was the eau
tious manner of entering American
ports that it senforced upon the En-
glish. The present Whitehead torpedo
and other submarine self-propelling
torpedoes were not developed until af-
ter the war of the rebellion.
Thomas Jefferson's gunboat policy
has materialized again in this country
in a more matured form. in a number
of modern schooner-rigged twin-screw
steel vessels, carrying from four to six
siX-pound prOtracted rifles in the main
battery and a number of smaller rapid
fire guns in the secondary battery AS +
a class they do not represent strength 4
either by armament or resistive pow +
ers, and as their speed is only seven :
teen knots at the maximum, their ac- I
tons are limited to the penetration of 4
rivers for purposes of effense or escape, |
where cruisers would be unable to fol- /
low. Their cost of construction and /
running is small, and they could be +
used effectively for small blockades in /,
time of war. The sister ships York /
town, Concord and Bennington are the I
largest gunboats of the new navy.
The application of steam to vessels /
of war began in 1914, when Fulton /
built for the United States govern !
ment a single paddle wheel boat. The .
originator of the steam propulsion idea :
has been lost in controversy. Fitch /
produced a boat in 1890 that carried
passengers up and down the Delaware, J.
Fulton built a successful boat in 1896.
and Bell. in England, built a better one {
in 1872. Fulton's man-of-war, named /
the Demologos. but better known as I
the Fulton the First. was "a double boat /
AS feet long and 80 feet beam across
the two decks, and had "a displacement
of 1900 tons. The paddle worked be-
tween the two hulls; her machinery /
was designed by Watt and was mount
ed in one hull. while the boilers occu-
pied the center of the other. She was
felucca rugged. drew only eight feet of
water and moved at the rate of six
miles an hour. Her battery consisted
of two 100-pound Columblads, the most
powerful gun of the time, mounted I
fore and aft, and 30 32-pound carron-
AIDES. Much ingenuity was employed in
her construction. She was fitted with
four rudders, two at the bow and two
at the stern, so that on the reversing
of the engines she could be steered
either way. Below deck she was pro-
Vided with FORCES TO heat the carron-
ade shot, and pump to deluge the
powder magazine of an'enemy. Fulton
the First was by no means a weak
vessel. her hull having been sheathed
with heavy scantling to resist any or
binary fire. 1t was cause of general
regret that owing TO the scarcity OF /
skilled mechanics the Fulton could not
be gotten into good condition before
the close Of the war of 1912. She was
finished in 1915 and was blown up at
New York Navy Yard in 1929. whether
by accident or design was never learn
ed. a second Fulton was built i'm 1895
and a third some years later. The Full
tons were condemned as "unsuited to
the purposes of war" They were
heavy and SLOW and their progress was
said ito have been impeded by the large
snrokestacks offering a resistance to
the wind. They were only intended for
harbor defense, but never having been
given an opportunity to display their
ability, they were laid aside by the
government and were soon superseded
nv vessels of a moro py-acffoal h,,fla