The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-04-12
UNCLE SANS NAVY.
Here Is a Lot Of Interesting 10 formation
About II Put Into Few
Words.


Frank Lee in Times-Herald.
The United States is the fifth naval
power in the world. The navies of
Great Britain, France, Russia and
Italy rank ahead in the order named.
Germany and the United States are
about tied
Our present effective fighting force
consists of four batteships of the first
class, one battship of the second class,
two armored cruisers, eighteen cruis-
ers, fifteen gunboats, six double tur-
reted monitors. one ram, one dynamite
gunboat, one dispatch boat, one trans
port and eight torpedo boats.
The Iowa weighs nearly 1900 tons,
and as twenty tons is the average load
of freiSht car and twelve cars is a
good load for a locomotive engine. it
would take fifty locomotives to haul the
great steel structure.
The powder used is brown and in
chunks the size of a caramel A charge
for the biggest guns weighs 500 pounds
and is hoisted to the breedA by a der
rick, the powder being sewed up in
burlap bags.
Armor plates are tested by firing
steel projectiles weighing from 100 to
500 pounds at them from guns charged
VIII SUV DDuIlhS VI DONN anu sil IL
distance Of about a city block.
Our battleships have a 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-nne feet long, big enough for a
man to crawl into; four feet in diam
eter at their largest part and weigh
1876, 800 pounds or thereabouts.
There are six rear admirals in active
service. The office of vice admiral
and admiral are untitled, SO there is no
head of the navy excepting Secretary
Long.
Rarnacles form on the hull Of a ship.
impeding it's sneed. A six months
cruise will decrease the speed of a ship
fifteen per cent, and it must go into
dry dock.
SiXty-one merchant vessels belong to
! the auxiliary navy. These ships are
| subsidized and by contract must be
! given to the United States on demand.
Some Of the guns in the navy can
| fire q shot twelve miles, farther than
| "A man can see, for the guns are aimed
and sighted by machinery.
The amount expended by the navy
! department i'm 1897 was S34, ,56l, 546 This
! is a larger sum than has been eXpend-
! ed in any year since 1866.
In battle the woodwork and all ar
ticles Of wood are either slowed below
or thrown overheard lest the men be
| injured by spinters.
| The origin Of the navy department
may be said to date from Oct II, 1775,
when congress authorized the equip
| ment of two cruisers.
The fastest vessels in the navy are
| the torpedo boats Porter and Dupont.
| each of which can travel 27.5 knots an
hour.
Battleships cost from 81, 500 900 to So
| 10000, and cruisers from 100000 to
! $3,O00,00O. A good torpedo boat costs
over 100000
Battleships are for the heavy work;
cruisers are commerce destroyers; mon
| itors are useful only for coast de-
fense.
The Indiana could lie outside Sandy
| Hook and throw 1900 pound shots into
| New York at the rate of four a min
ute.
Those artists who show smoke in
! their pictures of naval battles are who'll
! ly wrong. Smokeless powder is used.
J All of the cruisers are named in hon
or Of cities, and the battleships. eX-
! cept the kearsarge, in honor of states.
! The "grog" ration was abolished i'm
! 1863, and since then the crew has been
forbidden to drink while on duty.
Marines are the police on board ship.
Originally they were employed to pre-
vent mutiny among the sailors.
The guns of "A battleship can carry
/ from six to twelve miles, hurting q
shot weighing half ton.
! Only 90 per cent Of the enlisted men
| are Americans, and a smaller percent
age yet are native born.
ProjeCtiles thrown by naval guns are
shaped much as the bullets shot by the
! ordinary rifle.
hig bottleship mas on board an cleo
! trio plant capable of lighting a town
! of 5000 inhabitants.
The boilers of the Iowa have a heat
! ing surface Of eight acres and hold
| thirty tons Of water
Great Britain has 29i torpedoes and
| torpedo-b boat destroyers; Uncle sam
! has only eight.
Five hundred and twenty-siX men
! and forty officers are required to man
| the cruiser New York
Hattleshps are covered with armor
Of nickel steel from five to seven inches
| thick
We have four armored battleships-
! the Indiana, Iowa Massachusetts ana
! Texas
\ submarine torpedo boat 10 ua
! construction,
| Pehind the heavy armor there is a
! padding of either corn pith or cocoa
| husis.
IT costs $500 every time one of the
! big guns on board a ship is fired.
The Brooklyn and the New York are
our armOred cruisers.
Sailors are paid from $3.50 to $3.50
/ per month and board.
IN act of congress i'm 1872 abolished
| foEginE i'm the navy.
The American navy has practically
! all been built since 1889
At present the total enlisted force OF
4 known as the Puneer Is now under