The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-11-27

by about one-third, or 1900 pounds, at
each discharge. Then we have the Texas
and Maine, OF e,8l5 and e,6se tons re-
spectively, with 1e-inch Rrmor, the former
carrying two 12-inch and six 6-inch, and
the latter four 10-inch and six 6-inch guns.
or armored cruisers we have the New York,
8 ZOO tons, 81 knots, and six S-inch and
twelve 4-inch guns, and the Brooklyn,
9,271 tons, 21.9 knots, and eight S-inch
and twelve 5-inch guns. OF monitors
we have the Puritan, 6,o60 tons,
ld-inch armor and four 12-inch and six a.
inch guns; the Monterey, 4,oS4 tons, ID
inch armor, and two 12-inch and two 10
inch guns the Amphitrite, Miantonomoh,
Monadnock, and Terror, of 5000 tons and
four lO-inch guns, and two of them also
two 4-inch guns.
How enormously Spain ia outclassed in
armored ships Is thus evident at a glance;
but In addition we have n dozen single
turret monitors available for harbor defence,
and the ram Katahdin, while the battle ship
Iowa, of l1,410 tons, with ID and 10 inches
| of armor, and carrying our 12-inch, eight
S-inch and six 4-inch guns, which will be
ready in the spring, could easily be hurried
forward.
The facts just given are absolutely de
cisive of the naval superiority; but the un-
armored cruiser class tells the same story.
| Spain's only very important protected
cruisers are the sister ships Alfonso XIII.
and Lepanto, ench credited with twenty
knots, and carrying four 7.S7-inch and
six 4.72-inch guns. They are like the
Reina Regente, which foundered at sea.
Then we have the Castillo, the Navarro, and
the Aragon, sister ships of 3,342 tons, or
something like our Cincinnati, and the Al
fonso XII, Reina Christina, and Reina Mer-
cedes, of 5000 tons and carrying, we believe,
half a dozen q. 3l-inch guns
Against these are to be placed our 1875
ton Minneapolis and Columbia, with their
speed Of about 28 knots, each carrying an
S-inch, two 6-inch, and eight 4-inch guns;
the Olympia, $3.50 tons, 21.T knots,
and four S-inch and ten 5-inch guns; the
Baltimore, the Boston, the Charleston, the
Cincinnati, the Detroit. the Marblehend, the
Montgomery, the Newark, the Philadelphia,
the Raleigh. and the San Francisco, not to
include the Atlanta and Chicago under re-
pair. Here our superiority Is marked, as
in the armored class.
If we turn to gunboats, Spain shows a
somewhat greater number of small craft
than ours, but has nothing so large as
our three of the Yorktown class, while
the Wilmington, Nashville, and Helena,
the Machias and Castine, the Petrol and
Bancroft, amply furnish us forth in this
respect. We should also have many mer-
chant vessels capable of being fitted up
rapidly rs gunboats. Thus Spain, with her
Ensenada. Isla de Cuba, and 1sla de Luzon.
of 1890 tons, and her Don Juan de
Austria, Don Antonio Ulloa, Condo de
Venadito, and lnfanta Isabel, of 1,18O
tons, and her nine torpedo gun vessels,
ranging from 45S tons to the Filipinas of
100, is still far below us in the unarmored
class OF wal vessels as q whole. Some dis
placements may differ a little from those
here given, but the essential fact remains.
In torpedo boats alone does Spain excel
us. Yet they are in large part of less than
100 tons displacement, and the question
arises how many could cross the Allan
tic. The two best are presumably the
2S-knot destroyers Furor and Terror, just
completed at Glasgow. But our own tor
pedo boats are now rapidly coming forward,
and. taking into account their vast advan-
tage in operating from a home base, our
forces would have nothing to fear.
To sum it all up, wholly apart from the
cooperation OF our land defences, Spain's
navy would invite destruction by attacking
that escaped it.