The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-18
Y THE FIGHTING TOT
PLACE OF GREATEST PERIL DUR
ING AN ENGAGEMENT.
Changes in the Military Mast-Hns
iie'n In Use in Nnvies From the
Earliest Dnys-Vurious National
Types.


From the Washington Star. Il
As 4 place Of peril the fighting top Of
modern man-of-war is the most exposed
position in a heated action cut off as its
occupants are from all sheltering armor
and poised high and clear as a tempting
target for an enemy's quick-nring guns. Let
that mast be torn away, and the brave de
tenders must go to certain death, without
the chance OF a bit of floating spar, as in
the olden days to hold them up till succor
comes, after the fierce rush Of conflict
The story of the fighting top reaches
back centuries before the Christian era
in fact, back to the earliest time when
war craft might pardonably be called ships
by virtue of their successful struggle with
wave and tempest; and amid the rapid
changes of to-day it is hard to trace the
connection between those ancient craft,
with their rude equipments, and the mod
ern battle Ship.
The carvings and drawings of the war
craft of the ancient Egyptians and Asiat-
les, 1900 years before Christ, bear the en-
bryo of the military top perched at the
mast head of the single spars that bore
their sails. 1t was merely a rough basket
like arrangement in which one or two men
might stand and assail the warriors of the
roe where they crouuched behind the shell
tering bulwarks of bucklers hung against
the sides.
Perched high above, the men In the "ga
bic, as later It was called, picked off
Ike sharpshooters, the enemy before ne
could come aboard or tempted him into
open exposure and the consequences such
rashness brought Down upon the foes
deck the hurting spear was sent, while
the topman rested far above retaliation
save from the enemy s topmen, if he had
any. During the time of the naval strug-
gle between the Greeks and the Romans
the ighting tops disappeared, for it was
customary then TO lower the masts and
trust only to the 0great sweeps or oars
when going into action. Strange as 1t may
seem, the merchant vessels alone carried
| lighting tops then, and for the purpose
| only OF meeting the attack of pirates, with
| whom nearly ever sea was then infested.
| These tops were not unlike casks and
| wath two or three men in them could be
| hoisted well up and into position in time
! to BE of service. g Marry of our large mer-
| chant liners and all whalers carry some
4 what similar arrangement well up on their
| masts to-day, and from the crows nest
| as 1t Is now called, most of the lookout
| duty is now done. The Japanese have
adopted something of the kind for their
| modern naval vessels. and the cut of the
| Chttose's mast Is typical.
AS the ships grew in power their masts
had to -be heightened by splicing on addi-
| tionat, spars, and to give spread for the
/ stays and shrouds that held them in place
1 a platform was built at the top of the low
er mast. There the archer and spearman
4 found ample room for his work; and the
| Saxon chronicles of that lusty writer Sir
| Johh troissart, in the latter part of the
fourteenth century give us some very in
/ teresting accounts of the damage inflicted
! upon the French, the Spanish and the Cen
/ oese by the topmen of the British ships
/ Down upon the fragile structure of wood
| they hurled great stones that bore down
| the foe in great bleeding Masses tore
| through their decks, opened their seams
| and sent them TO the bottom in a style
that Sir John makes highly commendable
| Then II was for the archers from the high
| castles. fore and aft to pick off these ton
| men, and, as a consequence, we see the
| tops later hung with the shields or BUCK
| lers of the soldiery 10 form a bulwark for
the topmen in the growing peril of their
| duty. In the sixteenth century these tops
| had multiplied as the masts went upward
and we find the Great Harry carrying as
| many as three on each mast, each re-
| splendent with shields and fiuttering pen
| mons. In the seventeenth century we find
The tops broad and open, save for the after
| part, where a wooden breastwork was
reared to shield the topmen Why only
the after part should have been singled
out for protection is open for speculation:
| but ii is not improbable that the sails
before the mast covered to a great extent
the marksmen I'm the top, and behind the
| mast only did they need 5 supplemental
protection. These wooden bulwarks in the
tops were variouslyA painted, according to
the nationality of the ship and for cou-
pie of hundred years that style of top
prevailed and I'm form, square formed
| and rounded in front, still is in vogue IN
modern sail-powered naval vessels. Early
| In the history ordnance the French put
swiveis in their tops, but, despite the good
| execution done by those guns, other ma
tons did not take kindly to the idea or
adopt il generally.
During all the frigate actions of the war
of 1912 the sharpshooters in the tops of the
| various ships did excellent work and there
1t was the marine showed what could be
expected of him, even though he stood out
with no shelter other than a stray ham
mock or SO. hastily triced up for his pro-
lection. During the rebellion howitzers,
wheels and all, were carried into the tops
and the bloody havoc they worked on the
enemy's decks or against the lower breast
/ works and defeuses of shore batteries is
now matter of history With the greater
| application of steam and the growing use
Of thin armor plating, down came most OF
the upper spars when going into action and
save perhaps for the "Od Glories" at the
masthead. the signal flags at the yard
arms and the lower tops belted by half
inch iron plating, the masts of our ships
like the Hartford, the Richmond and
the like were practically bare Proof
against the old leaden bullets of the six.
ties. those tops served their purpose adj
mirably; and we are told that even the
presence Of hiding strip of canvas
mad good moral effect upon the men in
the tops and made 1t somewhat harder for
the enemy To pick out his victim
The first of our ships of the new navy
had tops that were practically steel dupli-
cafes of those OF The late war. and but for
the presence of modern rapid-nre guns
were really of less defensive value than
those of thirty-odd years ago. 1t was not
till we began TO build our battle ships thai
we really launched out into regular modern
military masts, and then we followed in
principle the practices OF the French.
The modern mast on lighting shin il
purely for military purposes, l. e., on such
ships as are without a spread of canvas of
any sort; ana It's duty now Is principally
for "A Service d.