The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1898-06-25
YANKEE GUNNERY.
The Excellence Displayed mt MA
Mia No New Thing In the His
tory of the American Navy.

The old skipper unburdened his pa
triotie soul the other day on the sub
iect of Yankee genius and yalor in
naval warfare. He had an audience OF
youngsters who felt dimly that they
were the seions of great nautical race,
and when he got through with his
palayer they were quite sure of it.
"In the war of 1872" the old skipper
said eve proved even to the satisfae-
ton of the British admiralty that in
duel of warships noise, smoke, smash
and splinters were inferior to skillful
maneuverng and quick, strong and ac-
curate firing-otherwise, gunnery.
Nelson's tactics, to close in with your
antagonist and pound him, went up in
the smoke of the Guerrero, the Mace
DOMAIN and the Java captures and is now
nothing but a tradition. The superiori-
ty of American ships, guns and sea-
men in those days staggered the Euro
pean naval world. Those victories of
ours made the battles of the Nile and
Trafalgar appear whatthey really were
-brutally stupid.
when our frigate Constitution met
the brave Guerrero and the Java in sim
gle combat, it was a struggle of keen
intelligence against brute force and ar
rogant ignorance. The Guerrero was
then the crack frigate of the British
navy, and the first one in 30 years to
strike her flag in naval duel between
single ships. The great disparity of the
loss in killed and wounded-fiye times
as many on the Guerrero as on the
stitution-astounded the naval
world Our sea fights set all Europe
thinking, just as our fights in this war
may do. It was many years, however,
before the English acknowledged that
the real cause of their defeats in the
war of 1912 was the superiority of the
gunnery on the American ships. lit was
their excuse at the time of the war,
and many years after, that the British
tars had been simply overpowered by
the American ships and the weight of
their guns. The true explanation was
that we were marksmen.
"At the siege of Yorktown, in our
revolutionary war, the deadly accuracy
of Washington's artillery fire aston
ished the European artillerists. Your
progress in artillery is wonderful said
the gallant Lafayette to Maj Shaw.
Gen. Knox personally superintendent
the serving of the guns. He was bred
in the woods of Maine, and was born
artillerist. You fire better than the
French, upon my word you do said
Lafayette, as Maj. Shaw modestly pro-
tested.
I'm all cases except one, American
gunnery in the war of 1912 was superior
to the British. That exception was in
the case of the British frigate Shannon,
which whipped and captured the Amer
lean frigate Chesapeake. 1t was an
Illustration of stealing an opponents
trumps and playing them back a him
The Shannon's guns were fitted with
American sights and her crew were ex-
ercised after the American fashion.
The commander of the Shannon paid
particular attention to gunnery; in
fact, he was the only officer in the
British navy who did at that time. The
brave Lawrence who, as Decatur said
afterward, had no more dodge in him
than the mainmast,' dashed recllessly
against the deadly fire of the Shannon
After receiving the Shannon's first
broadside the Chesapeake was out of it,
CAS- late as 1880 the American gun
sight was considered the best device
known to naval artillerists. 1t was in
PRODUCED into naval gunnery by the
Yankees in 1771. l have no doubt that
in this war with Spain, and in any flu.
ture war that we may have on the sea
Yankee ingenuity and intelligence will
achieve the success that has always at
tended them. IN. Y. Sun.