The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1898-06-29

stroyers, which are vastly supe-
rior, the more mythical becomes
their terrors. These gadfly fight
ers that we have been told were
able to destroy battleships have
never yet found the chance to dis
play any offensive capacity, and
apparently the present war will be
finished without demonstrating
that they have all they can attend.
to to take care of themselves.
In all the history cf warfare the
attack has succeeded i'll maintain
ing its superiority over the defense,
from step to step. Armament has
not for long at a time been con-
CURED by armor. However,
great the advance Of the latter has
been from time to time, its triumph
has been short lived. Armament
has soon overtaken and discom-
forted it. The invention of gun
powder relegated all the armor of
the soldiery of the middle ages, to
the junk shops and the antiquity
collections. The iron walls of the
Merrimac collapsed before the
great guns of the Monitor and the
solid iron wall of the latter's turret
has been replaced by Harveyized
steel in the effort to keep out the
sharp pointed projectile of the
rifle, while frowning Notifications
have been reduced to holes in the
ground where the armament may
disappear for safety when out of
action.
The torpedo boat is the extreme
development of the art of attack.
1t is all armament and no armor.
1t Is ofense naked of defense.
Like the man with the weapon
that shoots that demoralized the
knight whose mailed armor turned
aside the sword blade, the torpedo
boat was designed to pulverize
the great urwieldy battleship.
Like the knight of old, too heavily
encumbered with weight of armor
to give a good fight to the ninble
foe, the great battleship looked
to the torpedo boat destroyer to
fight its battles against the torpedo
boat and feared both, if the enemy
had them.
So far, no defense has been de-
vised to foil the torpedo and the
mine. Our splendid Maine which
cost three millions of dollars was
shattered in twinkling by mine
or torpedo, costing a few hundred
dollars to build. Perhaps, never
shall armor be developed invul-
nerable to such attack. The pros
pect was gloomy indeed when,
for the first time in all history, the
defense could see no way for even
temporarily stopping the offense. |
The experts declared that the
struggle of centuries as between
armament and arrnor for suprem-
acy was ended, and armament had
won conclusive and permanent
triumph.
But because o. another factor |
the torpedo boat is not to have its
own way. That factor is counter
attack. "There are others" as |
well as torpedoes. The torpedo
boat is defenseless, absolutely, the |
destroyer defenceless against any
thing but the torpedo boat. The
rapid fire gun solves the problem |
and limits the power of the tor
pedo boat, if 1t does not sound its |
doom. The rapid fire gun and the |
man behind the gun, that is, for |
the human element comes again |
to the front as the highest devel- |
cprnent OF the science of war to |
demonstrate that it rules the issue |
today as it did in times of hand to |
hand warfare. The torpedo is
death to the biggest battleship, |
but the rapid fire gun is death to
the torpedo boat, and it works be-
fore the latter can get into action.
Where the torpedo boat is glar.
ingly weak the machine gun
strikes and prevents it from using |
its tremendous strength. If
Goliath had had long range |
gun at command, David could |
never have got near enough to
sling that destructive stone.
The St. Paul, which the Span
ish torpedo boat DESTROYER at |