The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-17
What This New and Terrible De-
StrOyer Can Do.
NEW ERA IN WARFARE
COULD LITERALLY DELIBERATE
THE ENEMY.
Throws Nearly Four Tons of High
Explosive In Ten Minutes, Enough
to Wipe City on the Face of the
Earth-Santiago Test Not Com
plete.


States dynamite cruiser Vesuvius evil
IDENTIFY began a new era of warfare
when she made havoc of the Santiago
harbor Notifications Monday night
with three of her giant shells. Army
and navy men are talking about her as
reverently as if she were something
supernatural. Citizens generally COM
pared her with Ericcsons monitor and
said she is a hundred times more de-
Structive.
De Borden Wilmot is the representa-
! tive of the Pneumatic Torpedo & Con-
struction company of New York, which
designed and built the cruiser Vesu-
vius and sold her to the United States
! government, after she had undergone
a series of severe tests.
1.-The Vesuvius,'' said Mr.. Wilmot,
has a battery of three pneumatic
guns, mounted in the bow at an angle
| of Is degrees. The guns are 80 feet
long, Is inches bore and built rigidly
into the vessel. From all have read
about Mondays trial with three shots,
am convinced that she has not shown
| half of her ability.
What can She do? She can drop
| 500 pounds of nitro-gelatine nearly two
miles away with accuracy. She can
repeat this feat Is times in ten min
utes. That means three and three
quarter tons of high explosive thrown
on the Spanish ships or forts, or what
ever the object of attack may be.
THE destructive power of such
/ broadside is almost beyond computa-
ton. 1t is enough to destroy city,
to wipe it off the face of the earth and
| eliminate every trace of its existence.
The nitro-gelatine is half as strong
again as dynamite. Imagine the effect
| of three and three-Quarter tons of it.
| The moral effect of a bombardment
| by the Vesuvius must be tremendous.
/ By way of Illustration, let me tell you
one fact: The dynamite cruiser Mic
theroy put an end to the late Brazil
] ian revolution without firing a shot.
Her mere presence was enough. Dom
Pedro, the emperor of Brazil, sent Adj
miral Saldema de Cana of the Brazil
ian navy up here to find out how the
pneumatic dynamite gun worked.
| The admiral was deeply impressed.
I'D rather be with that gun than
| against it, he remarked to me standing
beside the gun on the proving grounds
at Fort Hamilton, where he witnessed
| its range, accuracy and destructive
power. Within a short time Dom Pedro
abdicated, a republican form of govern
ment was set UP and Mello began his
revolution. Admiral de Cana was his
chief fighter.
the Nictheroy in New York with one
small dynamite gun. Her coming was
reported by telegraph as she ap-
preached the Brazilian coast She
steamed into Rio Janeiro llarbor cleared
for action. There was nothing to fire
at. The mere news of her advent put
De Cana and all his men to flight.
They abandoned all their ships. That
ended the revolution.
.'The VQSI1VillS has NOT one Crr1a c5IIn
but she has three large ones. Their
calibre is Is inches. l can give you a
suggestion of their force. There are
three 15-inch dynamite guns at the
Preside, near San Francisco. AS a
test one of these guns sent a projectile
containing 200 pounds of nitro gelatine
across the Golden Gate into one of the
mountains, one mile away. The ex-
plosion of this shell dug a crater in
the solid rock 50 feet deep and 60 feet
in dimeter. OF course it must not be
forgotten that the Vesuvius is using
guncotton in her projectiles. Gun
cotton is only one-fifth as strong as
nitro gelatine.
Where a shell strikes from one of
the guns of the Vesuvius the havoc is
awful. One of her projectiles dropped
in the midst of a regiment would elm
mate it from the war. If any man in
the regiment was not torn to bits, he
would not be fit for fighting.
Against a ship the Vesuvius would
be deadly. One of her big shells drop
ping on the deck would crush through
the armor and exploding in a vital part
would shatter the ship. If one of these
shells exploded in the air or in the
water within 30 feet of a ship of war it
will crush her side or bottom and sink
her. If one of these shells explodes
within so yards of modern man-of-
war it will render her useless for fight
ing, for the defamation will throw the
bearings of her engines nearly out of
line, dislocate the shaft or jam the
neatly fitted parts. Thus the ship will
become a mere helpless target"
Many leading artillerists in the army
are in favor of the use of high eX-
plosives, and in their official communi-
cations to the war department have adj
vocated its more extensive use. The
only thing that has worried them is the
absence of a convenient as we'll as a.
fitting means of firing it, The great
dynamite guns at Fort Hancock and
the Preside are to a certain extent re-
garded in the light of experiments.
John P. Holland, inventor Of the sub
marine boat which bears his name,
was enthusiastic over the favorable re-
ports received of the practical test of
the dynamite cruiser Vesuvius.
LITTLE BULLETS.