The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1897-12-12
VISION OF IT'S 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 Gould Easily Shell the Town.
Admiral James e. Jouett, who was in
Louisville recently on a visit to rela-
tives, said, in discussing the statement
that no warship can approach within
dozen miles of New York until it had
destroyed the barriers in the bay and
sound:
"You can only see a ship eight miles
out at sea. and therefore man-of-war
10 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 half dozen good YES
sells with their hi gh power guns accurate
charts, and they can so place their shells
that New York would be reduced in
surprisingly short time. Forts are all
right when 1t comes to keeping the fleet
OF the enemy out of the harbor, but to
prevent the ships from effectively bonn
harding a city they must have the assist
ance of our modern built monitors
ANY large squadron blockading New
York city would be more powerful than
al her forts combined. It would be only
q 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 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 fleet commerce destroyers, 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
dog after l had committed as much
depreciation as possible and then saw
bigger fellow than bearing down upon
me. Let as have about ten more moni-
tors, even though we have about that
number now. We also need about 30
more torpedo boats. These, together
with the speedy vessels that have just
mentioned, would put us in good fight
ing trim.
''War with Spain? Well. it would be
foolhardy in the dons to press us too
hard. Spain knows her navy is almost
on a 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
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, and
should they see that their cause in Cuba
is lost they would fight the United
States at the expense Of the freedom of
the island to save their honor.
''As to war with England, that is
almost ont of the nuastion ENGLAND
couldn't afford it. If our ports were
blockaded, there would be bread riot
in the British Isles in little or no time.
They are dependent upon us for their
cereals. The United States, by the way,
/ believe, is the only country that could
depend upon its own resources in case
of war.
Spain says she would first proceed
to destroy our commerce. That is ri1io-
ulous Almost all of the exports of
America are carried by foreign ships,
because the crews can be employed at
cheaper wages. This, however, is not to
our credit. More merchantmen that
could be turned into fighting frigates
should be flying the American flag. The
government should expend about $780,
600, 600 in hui ling such vessels or let
the big exporters build them and pay
for their reconstruction out of what they
would receive from the government for
carrying the mails. The United States
would really be embarrassed right now
in case of war with any great power be.
cause of lack of ships to convey the
soldiers. New York Sun.