The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-14

IHey uO HOl ulHl dl ull III lllS Ollt sense. They simply take their orders by telephone to aim their mortars at certain exact elevation and direction which Is given by the commanding otti- Ger from some point of advantage where he has located an elaborate set of instruments called range finders. The whole water expanse has been previ- ously mapped, and divided into sections about the size of the deck of a ship. | These sections are all numbered on the maps. The position of the ship is | located with the range finders and the | angle and direction for each mortar | battery to train it's mortars has been previously exactly figured out for each separate section. The gunners, there | fore, aim as ordered and four or eight | big rifle bombs weighing 500 pounds and upwards each go sailing up into | the sky and strike at or near the sec tim where the ship is.
 | Some say that the defenses at the | east end of the sound would prevent any hostile ship from from entering" That, I think, is a grave mistake. In fact having been licensed pilot l for nineteen years I will venture to say that know it is a mistake. Any good navigator could bring a ship into the Race" the main entrance to the sound, I any time when there is a fog without | the gunners on either side knowing | anything about 1t. The entrance is abolt four miles wide with only one small obstacle-"Valiant Rock There is two and one-half miles clear from | Valiant Rock to Little Gull Island on one side and there is one and three | quarters miles to Race rock on the other side and these two passages are from 100 to 300 feet deep with a four and five knot current, which is too great for mines to be anchored in such a depth. The effective limit of depth ] and current for mines is 100 feet and seven feet per second. venture to say | that there are now no defenses which would prevent a hostile ship, even a | gunboat or unarmored cruiser, from destroying this city and could they not in case of war come here as likely | as anywhere? T do not say that we are to have war; indeed, we trust not, but were it not possible our govern ment would not be preparing as well as it can at this late day"
 The officers and men stationed at the various forts in the harbor and on the sound, which guard the approaches to New York city, are actively engaged in preparing the batteries under their care for active service. At Forts Ham, ilton and Wadsworth at the Narrows, and also at Fort Schuyler and Willets Point, work has been steadily going on for some time, and is being pushed as rapidly as possible.
 | Of the defenses about New York har- bor, with the exception of Fort Han- cock on andy Hook, the batteries of nearest completed
 The work at Forts Schuyler and Slo- cum, and also at Willets Point, on Long Island Sound, has been until re- gently going on slowly. There are only two of the ten inch guns mounted at Willets Point. The work was begun early last year, but up to a few months ago little of it had been com~ pleted. Orders were sent from Wash ington some time ago to rush the work, and since they were received the ofIt- cers and men attached to the engineer corps have been kept at work day and night. Many derricks and other tools were shipped to the fort. The work of exeavating for the construction of the casemate at Willets Point has been of a dangerous nature, and more than one man has lost his life there during the last few months.
 Most of the work that has been done there has been in the manufacture of torpedoes and mines. Many of the de- vices for submarine mines and torpe- does that have been sent there are new and are now being thoroughly tested, both as to the mechanism and the explosives used.
 A set of five submarine torpedoes charged with gun-cotton and other | high explosives was recently tested with satisfactory results They were placed in the sound about three miles from the fort and fired separately by means of electricity. The new eletric torpedoes recently adopted by the gov ernment after repeated tests of most severe character, have been sent to Willet's Point and the other forts on the sound to be used in case an emer- gency arises.
 The. Notifications that he war de- 1 ldE tllxEdll StdIlcu IO COllStE uCt Oll Island, at the eastern entrance to the sound, are being rapidly completed. Considerable difficulty has been met by the commission that was appointed by I the president to condemn Fishers Is- land and other property for fortifica- tion purposes at the end of Long Is- ]and
 | For some time the war department has been anxious to get control of the small islands between New London l1arbor on the Connecticut side and Gardiner's Bay on the Long Island shore for defense purposes. There are several of these islands, and they com
 nand the eastern entrance to the sound. Some of this property has been sold to the government, and forts are now being constructed on them. Yet the work is seriously delayed, as some of the larger and more important of the islands are held by their owners for high prices.
 The commission appointed has been at work on condemning the lands for l several months, but it is not known 1 how much longer it will take to have the property turned over to the gov | ernment.