The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-05
BATTLESHIP's OEVELOPMENT.
A Comparison of the Present with
Those of the Past.
From the Philadelphia Times.

and far-reaching have taken place as dur
ing the last century. It Is my purpose 10
consider the development Of the battle
ship in the immediate future: and 10 dis
Germ, if it is possible, in the light of the
past the direction in which the express
train will travel.
An abyss already sunders the sailor of
to-day from the sailor of the past The
details of naval warfare have completely
changed though the general principles are
and must be the same TO all time. Not till
machines have been thoroughly tested in
practice can they be pronounced wholly
satisfactory and there have been very few
such tests Of our modern ships. We move
in an atmosphere of Doubt ana uncertain
~, ignorant what is the actual fighting
value of our behemoths. Like Franken-
STEIN the naval constructor has produced
a monster which cannot always be con-
troled, and which can only be HANDLED to
advantage by men possessing In an eX-
traordinary degree, deXterty, coolness
and the faculty of insunctively correct
action, The strain upon the captain of
battieship is exhaustng in peace; it will
be fare more facilitating in war. The nerv-
Gus organization of mankind has not yet
fully adapted Itself to its new surround
ings. Hence the great danger of the pres
ent position.
y
naval progress during the past few years
The application of armor 10 ships and its
great value was undo rstoOd by Admirals
Mackau, Louis Philipa's minister of ma
rine, in 1870 but was kept by him pro-
found secret. Yet. according to Admiral
Page, he intended to employ it against
England when occasion arose, hoping that
its use would make the French ships ir-
resistlble. Ericsson. about the same date,
conceived the general idea of the monitor
In 1912, Stevens had commenced in the
United States a ship plated with four and
a half inches of iron. though the vessel
was never finished. In the Crimean war
both England and France built armored
batteries of Indifferent seawortbness, and
by 1857 Dupuy de LONE was busy with the
famous La Gloire, the first sea-going iron
clad England quickly followed suit with
the warrior class and others. The race for
marine supremacy, in fact, recommended
with the close of the Crimean war
The early European ironclads were sim
ply line-of-ba ttleships cut down, with one
tier of guns, armored on the water line
and over the battery. They We're no rad
ical departures from established types As
early as 1855 Capt. Coles had projected
turret ship of an imperfect kind, with
a self-acting gun running in and out OF
itself, and Brunei had pointed out that
only a breech loader was wanted to make
the system perfect. In 1862 Coles sug-
gested conical and slpper-shaped tur-
rets, such as are carried at the present
by French and American ships. In the
same year the turret vessel was first
tested.
The torpedo Is a terrible weapon, but.
perhaps not so terrible as it sounds. The
naval maneuvers of 1894 demonstrate that
a fleet of ships, running at a good speed,
| is fairly safe By daylight the torpedo
! boat is a negligeable quantity; by night
| it is an uncertain one. 1t cannot make
sure Of hitting when 1t has got within
range. The torpedo itself is nearly az
| dangerous to friend as to foe; it may be
| discharged against a friend and send her
to the bottom before the mistake can be
rectifed. 1t is also a very delicate and
awkward thing to handle. War alone can
appraise it at its correct value.
The torpedo boat is a potentality rather
than an actually; and il it is to be the
standard type of warship, and with the
cruiser to replace the battleship, 1t must
became more seaworthy and more COM
Portable.
1 cannot see then that there is any rea.
son for suppcsing that the iron clad Is
doomed. In the immediate future 1t Will
still be built as to-day, but it will I'M
doubtedly become faster and faster as the
| science of engineering progresses. Speed,
we have seen, is not all-important. but
it is important, as the swift ship of one
generation may become the lame duck of
the next. The movement must be stead
lily forward.
At the present date, the weight Of en-
gines and boilers in a mail steamer is
about $50 pounds per horse, in a cargo
steamer 440 pounds i'm a first-class bat
tleship 22O pounds and In torpedo boats so
pounds. But Mr.. Maxim has produced for
his aeroplane a motor which has actually
developed one horsepower for every five
and one-half pounds. OF course the diff
Guilty of supplying such motor with fuel
would remain, though we cannot doubt
that progress will be made in getting the
full value out Of the coal. But are there
not other fuels besides coal If we retain
steam?
There are two. The first is oil in some
form Astald is generally employed--the
refuse which remains when crude petro-
leum is distilled. 1t is a heavy, treacle-
like fluid which does not flow freely, and
must, in consequence be forced into the
furnaces by means of pressure in fine
spray. A steamjet is commonly used for
this purpose, but there Is necessarily a
great waste of steam and water.
As the steam, which is usually condens-
ed and used over and over again, in the
boilers is consumed in the furnaces, oil
fuel becomes very doubtful economy, yet
so great are it's tactical advantages, that
1t is being widely adopted as an accessory
to coal First of all, there IS no smoke in
itself an immense gain for work with
cruisers or torpedo boats where the OBJ
iect is to surprise the enemy or to survey
him unseen. In the second place, there is
considerable gain in speed without any
strain upon the stokers, for on the Sar-
dogma It was found that oil with the Cuni-
berti furnace gave almost double the pow
err of coal Thirdly, oil can readily be
slowed In the double bottom and easily
bumped from ship to ship at sea.
Coal gas we can get In abundance wher-
ever there is coal. II can be extracted
from the mineral on, shore and pumped
into the ship under high pressure, there
would be no need OF large
watch of sokers. The stocking
would be automatic, and there
to be stored I'm steel tanks, or, If possi~
BILE In the double bottom. IL may be said
that it would be dangerous to carry such
a substance on shpboard. 1t would un-
doubtedy be dangerous. but not more dan
gerous than the nigh pressure boiler. And
the gain would be very great. A great
part of the coal which any ship carries
goes to waste, and IS cast overheard in the
shape Of ashes and clinkers. This waste
would be eliminated.
Again there would be no difficulty in