The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-04-16

Fatal surprises may be included among
the incidents of war. Two subjects little
understood and not much discussed are
the dangers which warships Threaten to
their own crews and the international
standing of privateers. A naval authority
states that privatcering in the old sense OF
the word has been condemned by all the
civilized powers of Europe with the ex-
ception of Spain, and it is extremely
doubtful whether even the latter would
dare TO fly in the face of civilized ideas to
the extent Of -countenancing piracy. For
the privateering of former days was moth
ing moro or less thar that. 1t consisted
in private individuals fitting up vessels at
their own expense as warships, manning
them and offering them with a crew OF
their own choosing, and then obtaining
from the government a SO called letter OF
maroue, or sort of state commission which
| entitled the owners of the ship to the ma
jor portion of any loot that their vessel
might secure by ~plundering merchant
shipping belonging to the enemy. A small
percentage of the SO called "prizes" of the
venture were supposed to go to the gov
ernment as a quid pro quo for granting
/ the letter of marque 1t will readily be
seen that this form of privateeIing was
little else than piracy, the sole motive of
the fitting out of the priyateer being plum
! der. Neither officers nor men were bound
by any of the rules of the regular service
or of professional honor, and in nine cases
out of ten the flag flying at the masthead
| should not have been that of tho country
which gave the letter of marque, but the
I1.-I~ d. z,~,~ with cEt1I ond aroce-
| bones.
It may safely be taken for granted, says
| the same authority, that were Spain, tax
! ing advantage of the fact that she is not
bound by the terms of the convention of
Paris of 1855 TO abstain from privateering,
to revert to the old practice of granting
letters of narque England, in pursuance
of her self imposed task of policing tho
high seas as the principal maritime power
on the face Of the globe, would consider it
to be her duty to subject Spanish priva-
teers to the same treatment that she has
on several memorable occasions accorded
to vessels engaged in slave trading or pi-
ratical enterprises.
Few people realize that the warship of
today carries within it a host of forces for
its own destruction. Its enormous weight,
that tends tt drag it down its huge steam
plant, that stretches 1000 arms into every
| portion of the vessel; its powder, gun cot
| ton and dynamite-all arc brainless serv-
| ants, ready to turn against their masters.
1t is science only s~econdarily that has
/ made the modern steel ship. Competition
was the real creator of it. The fighting
instinct is the same today as it was CEN
turtles ago-s'up and at them" Men will
| fight as nearly hand to hand as they can
| whenever circumstances permit it, and
probably tho lighting sailors of all nations
| today would prefer the old wooden ships,
where the question of victory depended on
| the man, tho gun and the craft in their
simplest forms.
Aside from the weight of the armor.
which may Drag an injured ship to the
bottom, armor has in it another element
| of great danger-a danger which is caused
! to an extent by the very strength Of it.
Naval mon who may have to answer the
question with their lives are asking wheth-
er the resiste.ce Of the steel walls will not
cause the explosion Of many i~mpineing
shells that might pass clean through q
wooden ship without doing material dam
age. This danger of what is considered
generally TO be the safeguard Of the steel
ship has been shown in several engage
anents between arInore ships in the past
i've or six years.
In tho Argentina revolution Of 1892 the
rsyolutioDists seized tho coast defense
nrneorclad Andes. She was an English built
craft, with eight inch arsnor on her tur-
ret and i've inches or her oonnlng toWcr-