The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1898-07-02
OUR NAVY EPITOMIZED.
FACTS ABOUT OUR SEA POWER TOLD
IN TERSE PARAGRAPHS.

Inc OnlteQ 6babeS ID tuo Hull uhNhi
power in the world, writes Frank Lee,
in the Chicago Times-Herald. The
navies of Great Britain, France, Rus
sia and Italy rank ahead in the order
named. Germany and the United
States are about tied.
Our present effective fighting force
consists of four battleships of the first
class, one battleship of the second
class, two armorcd cruisers, eighteen
cruisers, fifteen gunboats, six double
turreted monitors, one ram, one dyna-
mite gunboat, one dispatch boat, one
transport and eight torpedo boats.
The Iowa weighs nearly IL, 900 tons,
and as twenty tons is the average load
of freight car and twelve cars is
good load for . locomotive engine, it
would take fifty locomotives to haul
the great steel structure.
The powder used is brown and in
chunks the size of caramel. A charge
for the biggest guns weighs 500 pounds
and is hoisted to the breech by der
rick, the powder being sewed up in
burlap bags.
y Armor plates are tested by firing
steel projectiles weighing from 100 to
1900 pounds at them from guns
charged with 500 pounds of powder
and at distance of about city block.
Our battleships have speed of from
fifteen to seventeen knots an hour.
Cruisers make nineteen to twenty -four
knots, while the monitors can travel
only FIVE to seven knots.
The biggest guns in the navy are
forty-nine feet long, big enough for
man to crawl into; four feet in diam
eter at their largest part and weigh
1876, 500 pounds or thereabouts.
There are six rear-admirals in active
service. The offices of vice-admiral
and admiral are untitled, so there is
no head of the navy excepting Secre-
tary Long.
Barnacles form on the hull of ship,
impeding its speed. A six months
cruise will decrease the speed of q
ship fifteen per cent, and it must go
into dry dock.
Sixty-one merchant vessels belong
10 the auxiliary navy. These ships
are subsidized and BY contract must
be given to the United States on de-
mand.
Some of the guns in the navy can
fire shot twelve miles, farther than q
man can see, for the guns are aimed
and sighted by machinery.
The amount expended by the Navy
Department in 1897 was $34, 1851, SIG.
This is larger sum than has been
expended in any year since 1865.
In battle the woodwork and all
articles of wood are either slowed be-
low or thrown overheard lest the men
be injured by splinters.
The origin of the Navy Department
may be said to date from October ID,
1775, when Congress authorized the
equipment of two cruisers.
The fastest vessels in the navy are
the torpedo boats Porter and Dupont,
each of which can travel 27.5 knots m
hour.
Bsttleships cost from 81, 500, 900 tc
50, $50, 900, and cruisers from $500, OO(
to $4,000, 900. A good torpedo boa
costs over 800, 900.
Battleships are for the heavy work
cruisers are commerce destroyers
monitors are useful only for coast de
Tense.
s, The Indiana could lie outside Sand.
Hook and throw 1200-pound shots in
to New York at the rate of four {
minute.
Those artists who show smoke il
their pictures of naval battles ar
wholly wrong. Smokeless powder i
used.
All of the cruisers are named il
honor of cities, and the battleships
except the Kearsarge, in honor o
States.
The 'grog" ration was abolished il
1853, and since then the crew has bee
forbidden to drink while on duty.
Marines are the police on boar,
ship. Originally they were employee
to prevent mutiny among the sailors
The guns of battleship can carr
from six to twelve miles, hurting
shot weighing half ton.
Only sixty per cent OF the enliste
men are Americans, and q smaller PEI
centage yet are native born.
Projectiles thrown by naval gun
are shaped much as the bullets she
by the ordinary rife.
A battleship has on board an cleo
trio plant capable of lighting a tow
Of 5000 inhabitants.
The boilers Of the Iowa have
heating surface Of eight acres an
hold thirty tons of water.
Great Britain has 294 torpedos
and torpedo-boat destroyers; Uncl
Sam has only eight.
Five hundred and twenty-six me
and forty officers are required to ma
the cruiser New York.
Battleships are covered with armt
of nickel steel from five to SIEVE
inches thick.
We have four armored battleships-
the Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Al
= Texas.
A submarine torpedo boat to
known as the Plunger is now und
construction.
At present the total enlisted for
of the naval militia is 1870 office
and men.
Behind the heavy armor there is
padding of either corn pith or coc'
- n