The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-08-21
LEARNED ON TIE BATTLESHIPS.
Conclusions Drawn BY Officers On the Experiences of the
War.

tenant 1aeSelef plans pfdcClcdlly
changed the entire arrangement OF the
interior of the sun turretS. but his
greatest Improvement was a controlling
valve. which enables the big guns to be
fired once in minute and twenty nine
seconds. The power by which the
twelve 4-inch guns are fired is now fur
rished by four large hydraulic pumps
in the Tedoubt side OF the turret. The
difference in effect of half Il dozen $50
pound shells laundering against an
enemys sides where only one could
have been fired before, need not be
twelt upon.
ELECTRICITY NOT TESTED.
Electrical appliances on the modern
warship and in the various auxiliaries
of up-to-date warfare" said Lieuten-
ant Bristol. cannot be said TO have had
fair trial as yet Certainly they have
not been of any great use in either of
our big sea fights, although this is not
saying that they might not be of the
greatest Importance under other cir
cUmStances. Before war was consid-
cred a serious possibility, eminent cleo
tricians made forecasts of many new,
strange and valuable uses TO which
electricity would be put in the next
contest between civilized nations
Ships were to be blown up while
sailing over mine fields unconnected by
wires with shore battery. They were
even to photograph themselves on
chart in the shore room of an operator,
who would then send a direct current
to the mines through salt water. Tor
pedoeS were to be projected through the
air to drop on the deck of a ship, and
destroy it. Electricity was to be their
prCpelling as well as their guiding
force. Now. what of all this has been
realized? What have we learned of
oy16 A oil hot
is practical, as the lesson from the
mines III Santiago and Guantanamo
harbors. of which the one on our deck
is specimen, is that submarine mines
ought to be taken UP and inspected at
least once month to Keep them effic-
lent. Otherwise. in tropical climates
at least, mines will be so injured by
general fouling and the contact pins
so oVergrown with barnacleS that the
whole thing will be useless and HARM
less. Not a torpedo has been exploded
in the course of the war, and the at
tempts of the Spanish torpedo boats to
get near our vessels were so quickly
frustrated by the use of the search
lights that this arm of naval warfare
for which So much was Drophesied,
may be pronounced practically barren
of results.
ut is in the operation of the search
light, by the way, that electricity
seems to have been of the greatest
practical benefit. In blockading work,
such as has principally occupied the
American squadron off Cuba, the use
fulness of the searchlight in guarding
harbor entrances and sweeping the
shallow inshore waters where light
draught vessels may otherwise slip by
unobserved, has proved of the greatest
value. When Admiral Cervera was
bottled up in Santiago harbor, the
Texas and the Brooklyn, or some other
of the fleet, kept their searchlights
playing on the narrow harbor entrance
every night, and it would have been
an impossibility for the Spanish COM
mander to sneak out under cover of
darkness, as some of his critics have
suggested that he should have done.
''The electric searchlight may be put
down on the list as one of the modern
improvements which have really a
practical value in war. One of the
Brooklyn's turrets has been operated
by electricity instead of by steam or
hydraulic power, as the turrets of The
Texas are, but we have not yet heard
any report as to whether this motive
power was found to possess any adj
vantage or not.
GUNS FIRED IN THE OLD WAY.
TT is a striking fact that the care
fully contrived range finders and other
delicately poised appliances for i'm
proving the accuracy of a ships fire
seem to have been forgotten in the
heat of the conflict. SO far as 1 have
heard, the guns of the Oregon were
sighted and fired in the old-fashioned
way. I know that those of the Texas
were, for the simple reason that our
guns were not fitted with range finders
We used the standimeter to determine
the range and sighted the rapid-frers
just as used to be done with the old
style gun. And yet 1 think that for
accuracy of fire., the work of the Texas
gunners left little to be desired. This,
of course, is not saying that the range
finder is not a most useful instrument,
especially for long-distance work, but
merely that it was not brought into
play in the Santiago fight. nor in the
battle of Manila, which was fought at
even shorter range.
LAS to armament, the 13-inch rife
has proved to be the most desirable be-
cause the most destructive weapon, and
next to it, I think, comes the rapidfire
six-pounders. There can be no doubt
that 13-inch gun is preferable to a
Pinch, such as the Texas is armed
with, when it is remembered that a
13-inch fires with equal velocity and
penetrating power projectile weigh
weighs only $50. So far as the results
of the naval fighting have come to
hand, it seems to me that the middle
calibre guns, such as the eight and ten
inch, might we'll be dispensed with. The
most efficient armament, so far as our
experience goes, is found in a main bat
terry of say four 13-inch rifles and a
large number of small rapid-fire guns.
This principle has already been adopted
IN. uaxKv battIaShjnS which are now
building
MILITARY BALLOONS.
'.Of what value are military balloons
for observation purposes on ship
bcard?"
so fa- as I know, the project of
sending up d balloon from the ships
deck for observation purposes was not
tried. 1t is true that the fleet carried
one or two of these balloons, but l do
not think they were ever tested by act
ual observation. The idea does not seem
to me to be practical. From what 1
have heard from the stationary bal
Icons used on shore, about all it did was
to draw the enemy's fire and to con-
centrate it where it did considerable
harm.
LITTLE WOODWORK.
Zone great positive lesson of the war
is the danger of having too much wood
work about a fighting ship. That was
They were ablaZe almost as soon as
the fighting began, and it didn't take
long for the flames to draw the men
flCm the guns. OF course wood is
bound to enter in some extent into the
construction of a ship. The deck OF
the Texas on which we were standing
is of wood. with thin covering of STEEL