The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1897-11-21
VISION OF ITS FALL.
ADMIRAL JouETT ON NEW works.
CHANCES IN A WAR.

He Claims More Floating Forts In the
shape of Monitors Are Needed to De
fend the City-warships Below the HO-
rizon Could lastly she'll the Town.
Admiral James f. Jouett, who was in
Louisville recently on a visit to rela-
tives, said, in discussing the statement
that no warship can approach within a
dozen miles of New York until it had
destroyed the barriers in the bay and
sound
You can only see ship eight miles
ont at sea, and therefore man-of war
IL miles away from the harbor and be-
yond the vision of the gunners in the
forts could leisurely throw its shot and
shell into New York and be perfectly
safe itself. Give a half dozen good YES
sells with their high power guns accurate
charts, and they can so place their shells
that New York would be reduced in a
surprisingly short time Forts are all
right when it comes to keeping the fleet
of the enemy out of the harbor, but to
prevent the ships from effectively bonn
harding city they must have the assist
ance of our modern built monitors
ANY large squadron blockading New
York city would be more powerful than
all her forts combined. 1t would be only
a question of time before the forts would
have to capitulate if the vessels should
concentrate their fire. But put three or
four monitors out in the shoal water
and let them poke their shot into the
ribs Of the enemy, and before you can
say Jack Robinson they will steam
for the open sea as fast as their screws
can propel them. Not only that, but
should any of the opposing feet become
disabled a monitor could hustle up and
tow her in as prize before the neces-
sary repairs could be made
''Say that we are ON the defensive in
stead of being the aggressors. We
wouldn' t want to go abroad. Give us
about 80 feet commerce destroyors, all
trim frigates with good pairs of legs
like the Columbia and Minneapolis, and
we would have the enemy begging for
mercy in no time. Take the little Essex
that was under command of Porter dur
ing the war of 1912. Single handed
she drove the commerce Of England off
the Pacific ocean and was only finally
captured in neutral port Forts are
necessary, but let us have more active
and moving forts, those that can ven
ture out to defend the coast and those
that can prey upon the commerce of the
aggressor.
''Let these little frigates go abroad,
let them burn, sink and destroy, and
then get away. Why, l would run like
a dog after / had committed as much
depreciation as possible and then saw a
bigger fellow than bearing down upon
me. Let us have about ten more moni-
tors, even though we have about that
number now. We also need about &c
more torpedo boats. These, together
with the speedy vessels that have just
mentioned, would put us i'll good fight
ing trim.
"War with Spain? Well, it would be
foolhardy in the dons to press us toe
hard Spain knows her navy is almost
on par with ours, and as the fight
would all be ON the sea and about the
vicinity of Cuba she would undoubtedly
give US trouble for time, but only g
very short time. The Spaniards are an
ignorant people, the most densely igno
rant, believe, of any of the civilized
nations. But they are naughty, anG
should they see that their cause in Cubs
is lost they would fight the United
States at the expense of the freedom Of
the island to save their honor.
GAS to war with England, that i!
almost out of the question. England
couldn't afford it. If our ports were
blockaded, there would be bread riot
i'll the British Isles i'll little or no time
They are dependent upon us for thei1
cereals. The United States, by the way
believe, is the only country that ooult
depend upon it's own resources i'll cast
OF war.
''cpain says she would first proceed
to d stroy our commerce. That is ride
ulous. Almost all of the exports o.
America are carried by foreign ships
because the crews can be employed al
cheaper wages. This, however, is not tC
our credit. More merchantmen that
could be turned into fighting frigates
should be flying the American flag. The
government should expend about $40,
900, 900 in building such vessels or lei
the big exporters build them and pay
for their reconstruction out of what they
would receive from the government fol
carrying the mails The United States
would really be embarrassed right nov
i'll case Of war with any great power be
cause of lack of ships to convey tn,
soldiers. New York Sum-
Underground Corn Crop.