The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-19
AN IMPORTANT pRoB1EM.

If war occurs between this country
 world will await with great and eager
 interest not only how the battles be-
 tween the big armored vessels result,
 but how these direful and bloody "ob-
 ject lessons" will determine the effec-
 tiveness of their own armored vessels
 of the latest designs,-their points of
 strength and weakness. The world
 will also have a deep interest in the
 work of the torpedo boats and the tor
 pedo boat destroyers. The torpedo boat
 Is little known in modern warfare, and
 the torpedo boat destroyer is an un-
 known quantity yet, but of which great
 things are expected. It is the impress
 sion that the torpedo boats will achieve
 poor success on the open sea, especially
 if the water is rough. The torpedo de-
 stroyers, on the other hand, will, it is
 expected do deadly execution even on
 turbulent sea, these being much lar
 ger craft than the torpedo boats. The British navy indicates that they may prove very effective by reason of their
 great speed, which is superior to that
 of the war ship, while the tremendous
 explosives which they can discharge
 are sufficient, if well directed, to blowup
 any war ship. The question is whether a battle ship with her big guns could
 disable destroyer before the latter could get in her deadly torpedo gun
 work. But with three or four destroy CTS working together, having first cor
 nered a big battle ship and caught her away from her colleagues, the battle ship, it is believed, would be quickly
 disabled or knocked to pieces. An
 English expert says: -Four destroyers, which, unless expert opinion overrates
 their fighting capacity, would probably
 sink any single battle ship they were to attack, cost one-fourth as much as
 the Iowa or the Kentucky The cap
 tain of destroyer would naturally take more desperate chances than the
 captain of a battle ship, and If the former were to lose his vessel in an at tack gallantly made there would be no
 word of censure from his government.
 She might be sunk by the guns of the
 battle ship, but, on the other hand the
 battle ship might be blown sky-h high
 by the big torpedo of the destroyer.
 As auxiliaries to fleet in open sea
 fighting, especially toward the close of an action, when some of the enemy's ships are disabled, this type of fighting
 machines must have our respect, at
 least until it has been put to the test
 in an engagement. At the close of the British naval manoeuvres in 1895 an
 officer who had been attached to the torpedo squadron expressed the fol- lowing opinion: The impression left
 on my mind by the manoeuvres was that all the present types of torpedo boats are obsolete (chiefly because of their inadequate speed and their un- seaworthiness), and that probably no
 more will ever be built. But believe that boats of the size of the destroyers
 will take their place in every navy and that a competition as regards the num- bers owned will begin.''' D As says the Evening Sun on the subject: "The
 United States are only just beginning to appreciate the possibilities of the destroyer as a factor in the naval bat tie of the future. Spain's poverty has stood her in good stead in this instance she boasts a very formidable flotilla of destroyers. If she had good coal
 base in the West Indies the strategists If oI1r navy poirht wall he copearpnd