The herald., 1898-05-22

ships, and their value with their car
goes is estimated at not far from S20.-
900, 900. American privateers took over
1000 British merchantmen in this war.
merce was caused by about $50 ships
most of them like the celebrated yam
kee," "Rattlesnake," and Gen. Arm
strong" carrying but one big gun each,
Long Tom," and q crew of about nifty
men. The damage done to British ship
ping by these terrible sea-hornetB
rather than any victories on land or
over regular men-of-war brought the
war of 1872 to a successful close. But
in spite of our successes, the tonnage
of our ships on the Atlantic coast.
which had been 1,424, 7S3 in 1910, was re-
duced to 1,159, 2O9 in 1914 Our mackerel
fisheries were almost totally destroyed
and not q single whaler remained on
the sea.
The Alabama, in her short but menu
orable career, burned 81 vessels and de-
stroyed property which the Geneva
convention estimated to have been
worth $6,750,00O In addition large
number of ships were taken and re-
leased for ransom. But three effective
ships were sent against the merchant
marine of the United States by the
eign trade registered 2496,S94 tons In.
1861 and the registry fell to 1,4S6,0oO tons
in 1864. This result was brought about
almost altogether by one privateer.
The Alabama was steamer with q
displacement of about 1000 tons, and q
draft Of fifteen feet. Besides a broad
side of 80 Founders, she carried one
S-inch gun and one finch one hundred
FOUNDER. These guns were large enough
to sink any vessel then afioat. Her
speed was under IA knots. She was de-
signed for privateering and her bunk
ers held sufficient coal to last for Is
days hard steaming. Within herself
she had the means of making all re-
pairs. This was the ship that for two
years defied the whole United States
navy and evaded nearly a score Of
cruisers that were sent after her. 1t =
not particularly pleasant for American
shipowners to know that scores of such
commerce destroyers may be let loose
by Spain. But conditions have changed
since the Alabama was the DOGGY of
Yankee seamen. At the beginning Of
the civil war our merchant marine COM
sisted almost wholly of sailing vessels.
Not ten per cent. of our ships in the
foreign trade were steamers. At pres
ent less than 30 per cent. of our mer-
chantmen are sailing vessels. This
means that only steamships Of the
highest speed-at least 10 knots-can
hope to be successful privateers. There
are something over one hundred steam
ships in the Spanish merchant marine,
and perhaps one-third of these may be
converted into fast cruisers. Two swift
liners are now in Spanish docks, and
tn foxxy wi
commerce destroyers.
1t takes fortune to purchase a pri-
vateer nowadays, and few people will
care to risk quarter of a million dol
lars in such venture, so that 1t is not
probable that there will be rush by
Spanish citizens to increase the num-
! Der of SPANS auxiliary warships." The
clipper ships" of the beginning Of the
,, century were built at small cost In q
few months, and the provisions once
purchased, there was no expense to the
| owners for year or more. Steamships
must take in coal every five or six
weeks, and coal costs from So to SIG 4
| ton. An ordinary ship burns ten tons
of coal day. Besides, the United
States hopes to have coal declared con-
traband of war by European nations
Italy will not declare it so, but Eng
land will undoubtedly refuse to sell any
coal to war vessels except to get them
to the nearest home port. This will
seriously interfere with SPANS pri.
watering, though it is difficult to see
why Spanish vessels at Newfoundland
cannot take on coal to bring them to
Cuba and incidentally scour our At
lantic seaboard on the journey.
But the prizes that might be taken