Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-10-18
ON BOARD THE INDIANA.
What 1t Means to Handlea War-Ship These
DAYS.

Being on board the new battleship In
diana, could not help but be struck with
the wonderful change in naval architec-
ture and the appliances of war. We have
all read of these things and some of us
have witnessed the various stages of
modern shpbuldlng, the assembling of
guns, or the manufacture of armor plate.
But it is really only when these are COM
bined In the superb fighting machine
manned by 500 American sailors, and Of
ficered by modern intelligence and eXper-
fence, that the facts become obtrusively
impressive. Sitting in the luxurious cab
in of the Indiana, sacred to the uses of
the commanding officer, l said as much TO
the gallant and delightfully."- companion
able Fighting Bob Evans, the autocrat
of the ship.
Yes" he replied, musingly, "the sailor
and man-o'-warSman of today lives in
new world There is actually nothing of
the days depicted by Dana and Cooper
and Malryat left but the salt water
Many of the same nautical terms survive
but when they apply to the parts of a
modern ship and her armament they no
more mean the same article than that
hollow iron mast with its machine guns
aloft Is like the towering spars of the
old Constitution"
All this in my lifetime These steel
ribbed sides, these 40-foot, 13-inch rifles
that throw over 1000 pounds of metal
II
below the water line. these powerful
screws of bronze that bear the monster
through the briny seas, these myriad
electric lights throwing daylight through
the innermost recesses of the ship, these
slender lacquered tubes modestly peep
ing over the steel bulwarks that in ac-
ton literally rain explosive bolts of steel
with the precision of a squirrel rifle, this
complicated steering gear operated by the
touch of the thumb, these curious cylin-
darc raa oh iy,t N ha nd ho
bright torpedoes with their charges Of
gun cotton reclining in the racks, these
massive turrets of tempered steel rising
one above the other and sweeping the
horizon In response to the finger touch,
these wonderful charted instruments
which fix the range for the great guns
so they may be fired and reloaded and
fired over and over again by men who
never see the target-all these and a
thousand concomitants of the new era are
the product of less than half century
But all of this is only single feature
of the revolution in naval construction
One other more important, In sense, Is
in the transfer of the shipbuilding indus
try from the coast of Maine to the coast
of Pennsylvania. Almost everything that
enters into the modern construction of
naval vessels-modern fighting machines
lis found in Pennsylvania. You may
call "a battleship Indiana, but she bears
the stamp of Pennsylvania. 1t doesn't
much matter either, whether she is act
ually built there, or as political sop con-
structed somewhere else-her steel ribs
are dug from the mines of Pennsylvania;
her tempered sides are from the Keystone
forges her great guns are from the pri-
mary labor of skilled Pennsylvania work.
men; the roar of her 13-inch gun Is the
voice of Pennsylvania; the thousand
pounds Of loaded steel that are hurled
among the enemies of the union will be
the blow dealt by Pennsylvania. The
strong right arm of the Pennsylvania ar
tisan is latent in every ounce of iron and
fiber of toughened steel throughout this
mighty fabric-to become living force
in the hour of battle The intelligence of
Pennsylvania labor breathes in every
throb of the wonderful machinery that
speeds this gallant arbitrator forth to up
hold and preserve the. honor of the re-
public.
what do sailors read most?" repeated
the handsome young ensign, as we paused
before the crews library. Fiction, of
course. Russells tales of the sea are out
about all the time. Every sailor reads
Dana's Three Years Before the Mast
Paul Jones' furnished inspiration for APP