The record-union., 1898-04-18

life Coast Defense which Would
Rapidly Ennihilate Any Assah-
ing Fleet.
Major Edward Field, Second Artil-
lery. Artillery Inspector. Department OF.
California gives in the following essay
an exposition Of the harbof defense OF
this city and Of the manner in which an
assailinG fleet would be received ana
annihiIated:
In estimating the dangers to which
city is exposed at the hands Of hostile
feet the error is often made Of suppos-
ing that the extreme range OF guns can
be obtained Oh shipboard, whereas an
elevation which would give seven mics
range is the utmost that the structure
of a ships deck viii admit. MAJOR
Clarke Of the Royal Engineers (Brltlsh),
one of the highest living authorities on
coast defense, considers 3OcO yards as
the practical limit Of fire from Heet.
Regarded in the light of these facts, the
epecter Of distant bOmbardment Whlca
has been so often invoked to the terror
of the average layman becomes a DIT or
bogy. From one to two miles oil shore
is as near as a hostile fleet would at
tempt to come without first overpoWer-
ing and silencing the batteries OF the
defense. land the range from that point
would fail some three miles short OF the
business portion of the city Of San
Francisco It is not conceivable that
an enemy many thousand miles from
his base with a supply of ammunition
necessarily limited and each round
costing a good round sum IN hundreds
of dollars would expend it on market
gardens and cottages. In the allotment
of funds for coast defense the city OF
San Francisco has been treated as It's
commercial Importance and its unique
position demand. The difficulties
which it's situation presents have been
studied patiently and thoroughly, and
met as far as present knowledge anu
resources go. It is a most fortunate
thing for the city that its defensive
works should be directed by a man who
has learned attack and defense not
only from books and charts, but in the
high school of war. Colonel Suter IS
one of the few surviving engineers Of
the civil war, and worked with CHI
more, perhaps the most original and
daring engineer of the nineteenth CEN
fury, when we dug our way up to the
terrible sand mound of Wagner in the
closest and deadliest grapple between
forts and guns that our age has seen.
Not a single site on which a gun could
be placed advantageously to damage an
assailing fleet has been neglected, and
it has been the desire to guard against
every form of attack that could be en-
70 q
with those qualities which we in com
mon with the great sea power of the
world fondly consider the special herit-
age of our Inequalities against which
the resources of science and the most
skillfuI mechanical devices are some
times brought to naught. when these
incalculable factors, human valor and
human genius, assert thei" God given
qualities; as when the boats Of the
British ships at La Hague pulled
through the fire of fleet and forts and
burned the navy of the Grand Mon
argue under the guns of Cherbours; as
when Nelson pierced the line and an
chored inside of the enemy at the Nile:
as Porter ran the frowning batteries of
Vicksburg. and Farragut replied to all
words of advice and caution, Damn
the tOrpedOes! Go ahead" In fact,
the projected defense of this city is al
most an epitome of the science OF coast
defense, and there is hardly a mOoted
point that does not find its Illustration
here.
To begin with the outer line: The
principle of dispersion of fire to make
concentration upon a vital point diff
cult, if not impossible has been carried
as far as would be safe, and, indeed,
but for the exceptional strength of the
flank defenses at MERGED, it might be
feared that the line was too long; but
nature has done so much that it would
be a case of absolute failure to grasp
the situation if we did not avail our
selves of her bounty. A natural trav-
erse of great thickness will defend the
guns from enfilade, and a succession OF
deep and narrow ravines running w
perpendicularly to the beach will make
the difficulty of assault insurmountable
"A single machine gun at the head OF
each ravine would in a few minutes
convert it into the terrible sunken road
of Antietam, and 1000 decent troops
could stand off those gallant divisions
which rolled successive waves all that
December day to break in vain against
Maryes Heights. till the sun went
down and the hill famed in the winter
twilight. Upon this outer line the con-
'centration of mortar fire is very great
for this will be the best means of pre-
venting a fleet from anchOring OF
Steaming slowly and there is not much
damage to be feared from the guns OF
a fleet which is only intent upon run
ming by. At the second line inside OF
the Heads armor- piercing shot will
have a better chance than in any har-
Dor on earth. owing to the narrowness
of the channel, while the great hight
of the Lime Point and Presidio Nights
batteries will give a fire even more eff
fective than that of Drewry's Bluff on
the James River. which put the Galena
Monitor and Naugatuk out of action by
means of guns whose power, tried by
the standard of to-day. was insignifi-
cant. Here, too. the comparative merit
of high and low sites have been thor
oughly studied, with the result that one
supplements the other; the guns OF
Diavolo and Gravelly Beach sweep the
bases of the high sites and the much