Evening star., 1898-07-23

therein not merely equal, but superior to
Its well-trained adversary.
Almost as instructive as the combats on
land have been the sea fights. In the first
place, a former experience has been con.
hrmed, namely, that bombardment of
modern earthworks, even with guns Of
large caliber, does little damage. When the
English, sixteen years ago, bombarded the
fortifications of Alexandria they believed
they had completely destroyed them but
on landing they found out, to their aston
ishment, how little harm their heavy firing
had done. The Americans have row NET
with the same experience at Havana at
San Juan de Porto Rico and at Santiago "a
CUBA. 1t is not alarm over he mines bur
Tear or the guns of Morro Castle and of La.
Socapa that has restrained Admiral Samp-
son up to the present from riskin.y an entry
into the harbor OF Santiago, although the
Morro fort has been repeatedly DomDarded,
and the ne gspaper reports haze more than
once announced that the fort has beeu re-
duced TO a heap of ruins"
OF an effective use of mines We bave
heard as little as of the use of torpedoas
In the battle between the fleets the Ameri-
cans had no occasion to approach the
SpaniardS near enough to bring their tor
pedoes into play, while the Spaniards were
SO hard pressed by the American fire that
they could not even think of letting loose
torpedoes. Whenever Spanish torpedo boats
have attempted to approach American
ships they We're either, when the attempt
was made at night, discovered by the
searchllghts and then overwhelmed with
such hail of shot that they were Obliged
to withdraw, or else, as in the case of Cer-
vera dash, were at once shot to pieces.
The two Spanish torpedo boat destroyers.
Furor and Pluton, had a speed of 2S 10 80
knots, and were armed with two 14-pound
and two 6-pound quick-firers and a Maxim
gun. AS soon as they came out of Santiago
harbor, nevertheless they were attacked
by the armed yacht Gloucester, carrying
only a few 6-pounder and S-pounder quick
hring guns, and rendered useless in a short
time The Gloucester is said to have fired
l4oo shots and suffered hardly any dam
age. The fact must be noted that in this
case two torpedo boat destroyers, vessels
which heretofore have been represented as
extrmely dangerous for battle ships, were
destroyed by an armed yacht of inferior
speed to theirs.
Equally interesting are the observations
made on the fight between battle ships and
cruisers. As in the battle Of the Yalu, be-
tween the Chinese and japanese, saperiori.
ty in craftsmanship decided the fight OF
Santiago. The Spanish vessels were in perti
superior In speed to the American; the
yalor and discipline of the Spanish sailors
are much praised by the Americans; ex-
perienced officers commanded the ships but
nevertheless they were defeated without
doing any damage worth mentioning to the
enemy. 1t is well known that for years the
Americans have kept up industriously tar-
get practice, and that they expected good
results from this themselves. Good guns
without good gunners are useless in a
fight. The Spaniards shot poorly and the
Americans shot well. The result was that
the Spanish vessels caught fire and were,
therefore, compelled to run ashore. Howl
far better armor influenced the outcome Of
the fight cannot be determined with GER /
tainty. One thing however is settled. Her
speed could not save even the CristobaI 1
Colon from the sure aim Of the Americans, !,
Besides this, the American material mis- 4
siles as well as armor plate, seems to have
shown itself to be much better than the 1
Spanish American experts, indeed believe I
that in this respect they are superior even
to the English.