Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-09-06
BROOKLYN MAYNARD.
Trip of Young Man ENcelIentiy De-
scribed by Him.

The following letter, written to Rev.
DR.. Jere Witherspoon by young friend
Of his, who is yet in his teens. will doubt
less prove interesting, as it describes in
excellent manner a trip of inspection
over the leviathans which made glorious
the history of this country's navy:
ION last Saturday afternoon. in com
pany with my cousin, Ellis, went over
| to the Brooklyn nayy-yard, where The
warships are being taken care of as fast
as room can be made for them. When
we got there we could not get in because
! We had no passes, and the crowd was
| kept back from the gates by sentinels
| Finally we got into conversation with a
| young soldier, who had a pass for himself
| and friends, and after negotiating the
matter, we gave him 81 and he took us
| inside the walled city-for it is almost a
| city unto itself.
Passing the cOmmandant's house and
other offices and buildings, we came 20
the great factories, passed mighty an
chors, heaps Of chains, and cannon every
where. Finally We came TO an Immense
dry-dock, and, like decoy duck in
dry tub, the Atlanta stood, all revealed to
the very keelsOn. There is always some
thing mysterious about a ship in water.
You wonder what submarine chambers
are below the water line, and even the
barnacles on her bottom, gathered per
haps I'm the far-on tropics. have a my,tic
song in them. Passing on we came 10 the
grandest of all our battleshlps-the Ore
gon-hoary and gray, alongside the dock.
1--WE soon found ourselves on board,
ard / felt a strange reverence stealing
over me as / walked forward. and with
81 a h.. Ill. r.t - or
twins, whose 13-inch mouths projected far
out towards Santiago, / thought, per-
hapsD beyond the massive steel turrets.
A sailor obigingly took out the plug from
one Qarge as a nail keg and bearing a
single white star on its end, allowing me
TO look into the bore from the mouth to-
wards the breech. AS highy-polished
steel as ever graced a hunters pet. and
it's thirty-two twists as evenly cut. IL
seemed yards and yards down TO the end.
Afterwards / crawled through the man
hole into one of the turrets bearing S-inch
guns on the deck above. and saw the
beautiful mechanism, and put my hands
on every spot.
1.-THE guns leave scarce space for turn
ing around; everything is polished metal,
some of it exquistely Drowned, as are
also some OF the great guns and most OF |
the hOtCnklSS Tdplu-nFe guns, Il rev guns |
below deck and fancy iron work are en-
amelled white with polished tubes. The |
ammunition comes up from below by an |
electric hoist to the gunner's side; steam |
is used 10 train the guns and TO revolve |
the turrets, which makes these gun tur-
rets insufferably hot places in action. /
This same sailor told me that the 1S-inch /
guns were easily elevated sufficiently TO
throw shells over the hills at Santiago
without listing ship. as was reported. The
gunner stands close 10 the breech in
firing his gun, and using an electric fuse
for the purpose.
Going above / crossed the bridge and
climbed up a narrow armored stair or,
rather. ladder TO the coming tower. pass
Ing mean time the great search-light. This
fighting tower is all Steel protected by
heavy armor around the small nests in
which are mounted the Hotchlxiss 6-pound-
ers. The steel mast Itself is hollow and
Is sent up through IL. Going
below again, we went astern by way or