Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1898-04-08
The American Navy.

The American Navy.
The United States 10 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 battleships
of the first class, one battleship Of
the second order, two armored
cruisers, 10 gunboats, six double.
turreted monitors, one ram, one
dynamite gunboat, one dispatch
boat, one transport and eight tor.
ped0 boats.
The Iowa weighs nearly 10000
tons, and as 20 tons is the average
load ola freight car, and IL cars
is good load for a locomotive
engine, it would take 30 locomo.
motives to haul the great steel
structure.
The powder used is brown and
in chunks as big as a caramel. A
charge for the biggest guns weighs
500 pounds, and is hoisted to the
breech by a derrick, the powder
being sewed up in burlap bags
The powder is smOkeless.
Our battleships have a speed Of
from 10 to II knots IA sea mile) al
hour. Cruisers make 10 to "a
knots, while the monitors can
travel only five to seven knots.
The biggest guns in the navy
are 40 feet long, big enough for a
man to crawl into; four feet in di
ameter at their largest part and
weigh 135,5OO or thercabouts.
Some of the guns in the navy
can fire a shot IL miles, further
than man can see, for the guns
are aimed and fred by machinery
The amount expended by the
navy department in 1897 was
$34,561,546. This is a larger sum
than has been expended in any
year since 1866.
In battle the woodwork and
all articles of wood are either
slowed below or thrown over
board lest the men be injured by
splinters.
The origin of the navy depart
ment may be said to date from
October 10, 1775, when congress
authorized the equipment OF two
cruisers.
The fastest vessels in the navy
are the torpedo boats, Porter and
Dupont, each of which can trave
27.5 knots an hour.
Battleships cost from two and Q
half millions to three and three
quarter million dollars and oruis
ers 100000 to three million dol
lars. A good torpedo boat costs
over 100000.
The Indiana could lie outside
Sandy Hook and throw 1000
pound shots into New York, 1.
miles distant, at the rate of four {
minute. ~
The guns of a battleship cal
carry from six to II miles, hurting
a shot weighing half a ton.
Proiectiles thrown by nava
guns arc shaped much as the bul
let's shot by the ordinary rifle.
A big battleship has on boart
an electric plant capable of light
ing a town of 5000 inhabitants.
The boilers of the Iowa have {
heating surface of eight acres ant
hold 80 tons of water.
Great Britain has 294 torpedoel
and torpedo boat destroyers
Uncle Sam has only eight
Five hundred and rs men ant
40 officers are required to man TIT
cruiser New York. -,
Battleships are covered WIFI
armor of nickel steel from five tt
80. ;oohao fhink
At present the total enlisted
force of the naval militia is 3,S7'
officers and men.
Behind the heavy armor there
ia a padding of either corn pith o.
or cocoa husks.
It costs $500 every time one o
the big guns on board a ship ii
fred. A.. NJ
YORK are our armored cruisers.
Sailors are paid from $3.50 tt
$3.50 month and board.
The American navy has practi
cally all been built since 1883.
Five battleships are now under
construction.