The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-04-26

An impression generally prevails that
the casualties in a modern naval battle
are bound to be a~ppallingly great-great-
er, probably, than those recorded of the
battle between the old wooden vesseisin
the days of three-deckers carrying seven
ty-four Smooth-bores. The high-power
gun and the death-dealing explosive ac-
count for this impression. Plenty of sta
tistics are furnished by the past; the
present yields comparatively few, and
until a battle takes place between two
fleets of more ghting capacity than was
displayed at the Yalu, we shall be able
only to conjecture the casualties of mod
ern naval warfare. In the Yalu ten Jap
anese and ten Chinese vessels were en-
gagged. The Japanese fleet consisted of
cruisers ranging from $50 to f,20 tons
displacement; the Chinese of two battle
ships, the Ting Yuen and the Chen Yuen,
each of 1880 tons displacement and heavi-
ly belted, and OF cruisers ranging in dis
placement from 1900 to ESQ tons. The
cruisers of both fleets had either steel
belts or steel decks. Four Pinch guns
were carried by each of the Chinese bat
tleShips, besides 5-9-inch guns and rapid
fire batteries. and the heavy armament
of the Chinese cruisers ranged from Al
inch to S.2-irch guns. A ffotilla of four
torpedo boats supported the Chinese fleet.
The larger Japanese cruisers each car
rfed a 12.S-inch gun, a powerful secondary
battery of 4.7-inch guns, besides rapid
fire and Maxim guns. Each, therefore,
was a modern feet, although neither was
as strong as the United States, or eve
Spain. could put on the sea.
I'm the battle the Chinese lost half their
ships in line; the japanese lost none. The
Chinese battleshfps Ting Yuen and Chen
lei and the cruisers Lai Yueu and Ping
Yuen caught fire from shells; the cruiser
Yang Wei also took fire and grounded;
the cruisers King Yuen and Chin Yuen
were sunk: the cruiser Yang Wei went on
a reef and was subsequently, destroyed by
a spar torpedo, and the cruiser Chao
Yung was rammed and sunk. The havoc
among the Chinese ships was terrific. and
yet the loss of life was not remarkable.
| Chinese reports made The Casualties 81
doubt that between 600 and 700 were
| drowned. An official report gives the Jap
| aneSe casualties as 80 killed and 2Oi
| wounded. Fifteen per cent. OF the Jap
anese shots fired were effective and 10
| per cent. Of the Chinese. Torpedoes fired
the mark. The gunners OF neither fleet
| can, therefore, be considered better than
| third rate.
The battle of the Yalu is naturally no;
| regarded by experts as a test of the
I fighting capacity OF modern fleets. mol
| ualties. At Trafalgar the allied French
| and Spanish lost in killed and wounded
| according to a French report, between
| 100 and 1000. ct was probably more)
| and the English 1857. Out of 643 men or
| board the French ship Redoubtabie alone
800 were killed and ID wounded. At the
| battle Of the Nile 5.3S Frenchmen per.
ished. according to Southey; the British
| loss was $50 in killed and wounded. Only
| 3,i6 of the French, many Of whom were
wounded, survived. The loss OF tn.
| French in the engagement between Rod
ney and De Grasse in the West Indies In
11So was more than 5000 in killed ane
wounded.-New York SUM-