The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-08-20
SAVING THE PEIAYO,
Would OF Give the Yankees a Shot
at Their Best Ship.

Pittsburg Dispatch: The numerous
and humorous dispatches received from
the other side regarding the troubles
and trials of wandering Spanish fleet
which couldn't get through the Sue7
canal without paying toll have made
no mention of one rather remarkable
/ point regarding the fleet. 1t contains
| SPANS only battleship. The one soil
| tary heavyweight craft of the boast
ful Dons is with the fleet of Admiral
| Camara, that set out to try and turn
! the tables on our Dewey.
1t would have been far more inter-
/ esting to the world at large if this only
! battleship of Spain's had come over
| here and engaged in single combat with
| one of our superb craft. Such a duel
! could doubtless have been arranged
with the United States government.
Spain might even have secured a hand
| leap. The United States battleship
| could have had one hand tied behind
! her back, so to speak. Any concessions
would have been made to Spain for the
sake of a real stand-up fight with her
one battleship.
The name of this pride of Spain's
navy is the Pelayo. Before the war be-
gan we heard some terrible stories of
her fighting abilities and some Ameri-
cans looked upon her as a particularly
formidable ship. Divested of the fiction
regarding her powers the Pelayo is
fine ship, and would be a foeman wor-
thy of our superb fighters. She has
just received a new and powerful ar
mament at La Seyne, where she was
also fitted with new machinery. The
accompanying illustration shows her
character very we'll. Upon a displace-
ment of $500 tons she has her main ar
mament disposed on the French sys-
tem-a system, by the way, now appar-
emily abandoned.
The four heavy guns are disposed
singly in barbettes, of which one is
forward, the second aft and the others
sponsored on each broadside. The adj
vantage claimed for this arrangement
is that Of not putting too many eggs
in one basket, in case "a turret should
chance to be disabled.
When the ship was built she was
armed with u 5-inch Hontoria guns
in the principal turFets, and 11-inch
guns in the others. She is now armed
with the new Canet "a inch 22-ton gun,
which will perforate about 80 inches
of steel at the muzzle, and is much
more powerful than the heavier prede-
cessor ',,r
The ship also mounts a very large
quick-firing armament, and is protect
ed by a complete compound belt, with
a maximum thickness of III inches. a
3.5-inch deck, 157-inch bulkheads and
lis inches of steel on the barbettes.
Admiral Cervera, the Spanish hero
who so CALAMITY allowed his fleet to be
bottled up in Santiago. is the man who
caused the Pelayo to be built He |
awoke one day to a knowledge of the
fact that Spain had no battleShips, and /
he made such a fuss about it that the
Pelayo was the outcome. This was II
years ago, She was built according to :
the best naval ideas of the time, but,
viewed in the light of more recent
knowledge, she. has many weaknesses.
Her coal capacity is limited, a limita-
ton second in Importance only to that
of ammunition. Her maximum speed !
being 16 knots an hour, she would be
able to steam only 1900 miles with the
coal she can carry in her bunkers. How
important an oversight this Smallness
of the Pelayo's coal-carrying capacity
is can be seen by the difficulties already
by the Spanish fleet in the
matter of obtaining coal to replace that
used on the trip from Spain.
In spite of these weaknesses the Pc
ayo is the finest boat that Spain owns,
and were it not for the fact that she
IS manned by Spanish officers and sail
)rs and her guns are in the hands of
Spanish marksmen, who could hit moth
pg but the sea or air even by accident
she might give a good account of her
self in a fight with our ships. AS il is
he longer Spain can keep her away
md let us admire her at distance the
better for the Pelayo and for Spain.
With the Pelayo at the bottom of the
ocean Spain would be without battle
ship, which is sad fate for a modern
nation.