Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1898-09-14
IMAGINE a fleet of 5000 war vessels

armed with more than 1000 new style
u guns some weighing 100 tons, and ac-
tually manned by 10000 men, with as
many reserves and you have the naval
force of the world marshaled in one grand
body. Salamis and Manila are the naval
antipodes of history. Salamis was the
first great recorded battle. 1t drove the
Persans from Greek soil. From crude
galley ships propelled by oars, naval pro
gress has advanced to a stage which al
most reaches the limit of terrible de.
struction. One battleship like the Oregon
could have destroyed the Spanish armada
and its English foe. There are guns on
the Oregon which consume 900 pounds
of gunpowder in a single discharge, while
the most formidable guns in the armada
service consumed four and half pounds
10 the charge.
Although ironclads were used to some
extent in the civil war, in the Chinese
japanese war, in minor engagements be
tween the Peruvian and Gillian fleets and
the Russo-Turkish war in 1877, the Span
ish American fight in the Philippines and
at Santiago, marks the first conflict be-
tween ironcads in which the great sea
monsters of modern warfare received
fair test.
In naval warfare il is the same as i'll
land warfare. The whole history of the
nrt has been divided into tactical periods
ushered in more or less directly by some
great tactical discovery. Such discoveries
have consisted not only of new arrange
ments and maneuyers, but of improved
weapons as well-improyed defensive ar
NOR or improved motive power When the
Tyrrhenian Pessaesus added II sharp beak
to the prov of the ancient galley he intro
duced feature OF greater tactical import
than the oft-quoted invention of iron ram
rods of the Dessaure or of the necdlegun
by Mr.. Dreyse. As the Pyrric phalanX
succumbed TO the more open array the
lighter weapons of the Roman legion and
the Swiss heresson to the short swords of
closed fighting OF Gonsaloos infantry, so
the old line of battle was pierced and
broken by the new tactics, which Paul
Hoste the Jesuit, the clerk of Eldin and
Rodney and Nelson put into practice.
In the battle of Artemesium. about 800
Il. c., an engagement which was of more
political than military Importance, which
the Theban poet celebrated as the place
where the sons of Athens laid the shining
groundwork OF freedom" the Greeks
adopted IL very remarkable order of battle.
Their fleet was inferior TO that of the Per
slams. which was large enough TO literally
surround them. The Greeks, appreciate
ing the fatality of adopting the old forna-
ton, formed their feet in Il circle. with
their prows facing the surrounding en-
envy. and then darted forth TO break the
shipmade wall. AS result the Persians
lost thirty vessels. The Greeks were nom.
inally defeated, although the net result
was in their favor. This was perhaps the
first great naval battle OF which we have
any knowledge, although the battle of Sa.
lamis is usually credited as the first great
recorded sea fight.
Ramming as method of aggressive
naval warfare is almost as old as naval
history. and has not yet been abandoned
although the improvements in shippuild
ing have rendered ii less effective. The
invention OF gunpowder found slow re-
spouse iii the methods OF naval warfare.
galleys forming Il considerable part of the
navy until the eighteenth century. In the
reign of Edward H.. when the English
fought the French mt Sluys. the former
stood off ON the starboard tack and ma
neuyered so as TO turn on the pursuing
French and. aided by the sun at their
backs, dashed their vessels to the French
feet and crippled their antagonists with