The age-herald., 1898-03-27
THE NAVY OF THE
 UNITED STATES

| From the Chicago Tlmes-Herald. The United States is 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 con l sists of four battle ships of the first class, | one battle ship of the second class,two l armored cruisers, eighteen cruisers, nfteen l gunboats, six double turreted monitors, one 1 ram, one dynamite gunboat, one dispatch | boat, one transport and eight torpedo boats.
 The Iowa weighs nearly 12,000 tons. and as | twenty tons is the average load of a freight | car and twelve cars Is a good load for | locomotive engine, 1t would take fifty loco- l motives to haul the great steel structure. The powder used Is brown and in chunks 1 the size of a caramel. charge for the | biggest guns weighs 800 pounds and is | hoisted to the breech by derrick, the l powder being sewed up in burlap bags | Armor plates are tested by firing steel | projectiles weighing from 100 to 1,500 pounds l at them from guns charged with 300 pounds l of powder at distance of about city 1 block.
 | Our battle ships have a speed of from | fifteen to seventeen knots an hour. Cruis- l CTS make nineteen to twenty-four knots, | while the monitors can travel only five to l seven knots.
 l The biggest guns in the navy are forty | nine feet long, big enough for a man to | crawl into; four feet in diameter at their | largest part and weigh 135,500 pounds or l whereabouts.
 | There are six rear admirals in active ser | vice. The offices of vice admiral and ad- l miral are unified so there is no head of l the navy excepting Secretary Long. | Barnaees form on the hull of a ship, | impeding it's speed. six months cruise will decrease the speed of ship 15 per | cent, and it must go into dry dock. | Sixty-one merchant vessels belong to the l auxiliary navy. These ships are subsi- | dized and by contract must be given to | the United States on demand | Some of the guns in the navy can fire l shot twelve miles, farther than a man | by machinery. | The amount expended by the navy de- | partment in 1897 was $34 ,561 ,546. This is a l larger sum than has been expended in | any year since 1866. | In a battle the woodwork and all articles | of wood are either slowed below or thrown | overheard lest the men be injured by 1 splinters.
 | The origin of the navy department may | be said to date from October 13, 1775, when
 congress authorized the equipment of two | cruisers.
 The fastest vessels in Ithe navy are the | torpedo boats Porter and Dupont, each of | which can travel 27 knots an hour.
 Battleships cost from S2 300, 600 to s. 750,O 900, and cruisers from $6OO,OOO to B, 000 A | good torpedo boat costs over $100OO0. Battle ships are for the heavy work | cruisers are commerce destroyers monitors | are useful culy for coast defense. The Indiana could lie outside Sandy 1 Hook and throw 1, 1,200-pound shots into New York at the rate of four a minute. Those artists who show smoke in their | pictures of naval battles are wholly wrong. | Smokeless powder is used. | All of the cruisers are namef in honor Of | cities, and the batt,eshfps, except the Rear | sage, in honor of states. l The "grog" ration was abolished in 1855, l and since then the crew has been forbidden l to drink while on duty. Marines are the police on board ship. | Originally they were employed to prevent | miftiny among the sailors l The guns of battle ship can carry from | six to twlve miles, hur.ing a shot weigh l ing half ton.
 Only 60 per cent. of the enlisted men are | Americans, and a smaller percentage yet l are native born.
 Projecti!es thrown by naval guns are l shaped much as the bullets shot by the | ordinary rifle.
 A big battle ship has on board an cleo | tric plant capable of lighting a town oi 5000 inhabitants.
 The boilers of the Iowa have a heating | surface of eight acres and hold thirty tons | of water.
 Great Britain has 294 torpedoes and tor | pedo-boat destroyers; Uncle Sam has only
 eight S
 Five hundred and twenty-six men and | forty officers are required to man the | cruiser New York.
 l Battle ships are covered with armor o1 | nickel steel from five to seven inches thick
 We have four armore1 battle ships-tht | Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts and Texas. l A submarine torpedo boat to be known a:
 the Plunger is now under construction. | At present the total enlisted force of thf
 naval militia is 3,S70 officers and men.
 Behind the heavy armor there Is a pad
 ding of either corn pith or cocoa husks.
 1t costs $500 every time one of the big
 guns on board a ship is fired.
 The Brooklyn and the New York are oul
 armored cruisers.
 Sailors are paid from $950 to s12.50 peI | month and board
 An act of congress Iii 1872 abolished fog
 ging in the navy.
 The American navy has practically all
 been built since 1883.
 nel in the army.
 The oldest iron vessel is the Michigan | built in 1S44
 Five battle ships are now under construc
 tioH.~
 | We have the only ram-the Katahdin | The ships are painted white. POINTED PARAGRAPHS.