The record-union., 1898-10-17
LESSONS OF THE WAR.
Vital Importance Of Mechanical
SupremacY.

supremacy.
Hiram S. Maxim writes in the En-
gineering Magazine on .Engineering
Lessons from the Hispano- American
War. The main point emphasized in
Mr.. Maxim's article is the vital import
ance of mechanical supremacy as a
factor in modern naval success. The
Spaniards, lacking this supremacy, suf-
fered defeat. It was not that they
lacked ships or guns of the best modern
construction. 1t was in the ability to
make use of the ships and the guns
that, their fatal deficiency lay. On this
point Mr. Maxim says:
THE Spaniards We're able to purchase
some of the best cruisers in the world.
They were also able to provide them
selves with a considerable number Of
torpedo boats and topedo boat destroy
erS. Several of these were made in
England. The machinery in them was
of the highest order known to modern
steam engineers. The Spaniards were
also able to purchase excellent guns
and ammunition. The Americans on
the other hand, built their own ships
and made their own guns, and the very
fact that they were obliged to do this
gave them the necessary skill in their
management afterward Five or six
large cruisers which Spain had at the
beginning of the war were supposed
to make from twenty to twenty-one
knots an hour. Now, in order to make
this speed it was necessary that the
hulls should be clean and smooth, that
the boilers and CRATES should be clean,
that the coal should be of good quality,
nd hot thn oin
highest degree of efficiency. Had these
ships been in the hands of engineers
such as may be found in England. the
United States or Germany, they doubt
less would have developed a speed very
nearly equal to that claimed for them.
When, however, they were taken pos
session of by the Spanish engineers,
everything, apparently, was neglected.
The hulls We're allowed to become foul
and the boilers to get completely out
of order; the engines did not receive
the proper care; the stokers did not
possess sufficient skill to keep up the
steam pressure; hence, instead of twen-
ty to twenty-one knots they could make
but fourteen or fifteen
All Europe believed, at the outbreak
of the war, that the Spanish cruisers
could run away from the American bat
tleships and Outright the American
cruisers. 1t was thought that the Span
iards would surely have the advantage
for five or six months at least In Paris
there was much talk about the certain
annihilation of the American fleet and
the bombardment of New York and
Boston by the Spaniards.
When the test finally came at Santi-
ago. however, 1t was found that only
one Of the Spanish ships, the Colon, was
able to go faster than our battleships,
and, as Mr.. Maxim expresses it, the
cruisers Of Cervera's fleet very soon
found themselves paired off with Amer
lean ships fast enough to be able to
choose their own range. BY taking ad-
vantage of the superior skill of the
American gunners at long range, the
Americans We're able to annihilate the
Spanish fleet in short time, with prac-
tically no loss to themselves. But it
may be said that the American battle
ships were infinitely stronger than the
Spanish cruisers. This certainly can
not be said in regard to the triangular
fight between the two powerful Span
ish torpedo boat destroyers and the lit
tie American yacht Gloucester. Sidney
Low, writing in the Pail Mall Ga
zette," after speaking of the total de-
struction of the Spanish fleet with
practically no loss on the part Of the
Americans, points out that the determ-
lining factor is the man who fires the
gun, the man who wings the torpedo on
it's way, the man who pulls the lever in
the engine-room, the man who has the
nerve and skill to use the ram. If he
is not capable and resolute, all the rest
is nothing"
The Gloucester, as every one knows,
was a lightly built yacht, turned into
warship merely by the mounting of
few six-pounders and three Founders
on her decks, while the two destroyers
were supposed to represent the latest
results of modern naval architecture.
Built in English dockyards, they were
supposed to have a speed Of twenty
eight or thirty knots an hour. More
over, they werel heavily armed. Never
theless, the gun fire Of the Gloucester
soon drove them ashore in fiames-as
Mr.. Low puts it, "a most astonishing
triumph Of mind over matter