The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-05-25
LESSONSTOLEARN
NAVAL BATTLE BETWEEN MODERN
SHIPS AWAITED WITH INTEREST.
The Designers of Fighting Craft Be-
lieve the Art Of Building In Their
Line Has Been Brought to Perfec-
ton, but 1T VIII Take a Contest
to Tell the Experimentation of
Various Kinds Of Ships Now in Use.

WASHINGTON. D. c., May 2S-What will
the coming sea fight show to be the most
formidable style of warship Of all the armed
vessels upon which the nation pins it's
faith? This is the question to which the
whole world waits a practical answer. To
obtain the answer it will be necessary to
spill much blood. and send millions of dol
lars worth Of property to the bottom Of
the sea, but no practical lesson in warfare
was ever learned without an expenditure
of this kind. and, anyhow, the blood
shedding is inevitable, the most might as
Well be gotten out of it.
The designers of fighting ships have theo-
rized beautifully. They have had so many
years of peace in which to plan and
scheme that it is natural they should be-
lieve the art of designing and building
floating fighting machines has been brought
to perfection. They have graded the
strength of the naval craft from the big
battle snip to the sacuy little torpedo boat,
according to all the best teachings of the
art of war, which include such apparently
unWarlike maXims that there are times
when the right thing to do is to run away
and keep running until you are out of
the enemy's reach.
1t would be folly for cruiser to attack
battleShip, for the reason that battle
ship is supposed to be invulnerable to the
attack of the guns that a cruiser usually
carries. On the other hand, it would be
absurd for a battleship to chase a cruiser
that was beyond gunshot distance from the
battleship in a trial of speed. This is the
principle upon which modern vessels of war
are built Where amor is lacking speed Is
there, so that the advantage of the lumber
Ing battleshp may be offset by the cruis-
erS speed.
battleship is a floating fort. a mass of
steel. protected all around with plates Of
the hardest meta! procurable. Around
her most Vulnerable points are eighteen inch
armor plates Of Harveyized steel; her deck
is a steel casing from three to five inches
thick, Her guns are placed in revolving
steel turrets the metal Of which is from
fifteen to eighteen inches thick. The guns
OF battle ship are the heaviest made.
She is a big floating fortress, against which
the guns of small caliber would be useless
She cannot make much speed, therefore
she must be able to defy anything that
may come against her except vessel of
her own class. relying solely upon her guns
and her armor to keep afoat and send the
other fellow to the bottom.
Besides the turrets, wherin are the big
guns, battle ship has what are known as
secondary batteries, in which are guns of
lighter calibre. Nothing must be left to
chance. and a battleship that has only it's
own strength to look to for protection must
ed torpedo boats, against whose attack the
great IL inch rifles might prove too slow
and ponderous.
Take away this secondary battery leaving
only the great guns in their turrets, and
with the deck nearer the waters edge, the
battle ship becomes monitor, a
class of vessel that experts maintain is
more useful than a battle ship for coast de-
tense purposes. The monitor is a poor
vessel in rough sea, and can only make
a speed Of about thirteen miles an hour,
but she is hard vessel to hit, presenting
a very small mark by reason Of her low
freeboard. and possessing. with her big
guns, tremendous effective means Of Of
Tense.
A cruiser is armored with but three or
four inches Of steel. She carries guns of a
lighter calibre than the battlesh1p, the 8
inch rifle being about the maximum size of
her armament. A battleship, with its 49,
inch guns, could settle the fate of a cruiser
with one broadside, while the cruisers guns
would be harmless against the battleShip
thick hide. but the cruiser can make twenty
five miles hour to the battleship's eigh-
teen. so that an alert commander is safe
from the big fellows heavy guns
Faster even than the armored cruiser and
lighter as to gun metal Is the protected
cruiser. which usually carries one heavy g.
inch gun and several 4-tnch and lighter
rapid-fire guns. The protected cruiser is pro-
coal that is stored around the most vulner-
able parts protects the rest Of the vessel.
She can make speed of several miles an
hour faster than the armored cruiser, and
so has her running abilities to count on in
a meeting with more powerful ship.
Gunboats and torpedo boats are the small.
est types Of war vessels. The gunbOat is
a small cruiser, drawing very little water
and built for river service, and to go where
the bigger boats could not without ground
ing. Torpedo boats can beat nothing with
the few rapid-fire guns they carry except a
boarding party. They are intended solely
to sink ships with their one weapon-the
torpedo. Whether they are to be feared or
laughed at is a moot point. Many naval men
say the latter, as they are easily disposed
Of, and cannot get near enough to be dan
gerous in these days Of searchlights.
But the question of their harmlessness or
usefulness, like that Of the whole system of
naval designing. remains for practical les
sons to decide.