Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1898-06-30


fare has. as a rule, kept pace with i'm
provements in the arts. With respect
to size and strength, the navies Of the
world have generally taken rank ac-
cording as their necessities required
and the enforcement of their claims,
meritorious or otherwise, demanded.
England. with a territory upon all
of which the sun never sets at one
time, has the most formidable navy In
the world. and the rest of the world
agrees that she needs ii. America.
whose acres are contiguous and whose
foreign policy has been preservatlve
rather than aggressive, has hereto
fore been satisfied with the fifth navy
of the world, trusting to her noninter-
ference and the great bodies of salt
water to her east and west as de-
Tense. The apparent incompatability
between the great commercial inter-
ests of the United States and the pow
erty of her national dcfenses has long
been the marvel OF Europe. and great
many thinking people Of our own col1n-
try have doubted the policy of trusting
too implicitly in natural resources and
natural defenses,
Comparisons are not always odiona,
but they are usually diff ult 70 com
pare the Eavy of colonial times with
the navy of today is like comparing
tallow candles with arc lights. stage
coaches with modern railway Palaces
and Fanucil hall with The Chicago
Auditorium or Masonic Temple; it IS
comparing wood with Steel. sail ng
tackle with tWin-screw motors and
primitive gun powder with brown
prismatic," dynamite and n.trogl ;cCrin.
Ships of a Past Century.
1t might be noted that in October,
1I1G, the colonies owned twenty six yes
sells, manning J3G guns; that the fligate
of the revolution was generally forty
feet long, propelled by oars and sails,
carrying two small guns and supply
of small ordnance; that in 119S the
navy department was formally organ
lied; that In 1SoG Congress authorized
the construction of 2J7 wooden war
vessels, but finding the scheme too cx-
penSive and the first vessels too I'M
Wieldly abandoned the enterprise; that
the Bon Honme Richard, commanded
Ky Paul Jones, carried twcnty-cight
Founders on her gun deck four
teen nine-poundcrs on her quarter deck
and foreCastle and total armament of
forty-two guns, but these facts and fig
ures give little insight into the real sit
uation of the early days and afford no
criterion whatever for comparison with
Rear Admiral SIMPSONS fleet in the
West Indies.
a review of the early history of the
American navy does not require, there
fore, that the student 20 back farther
than the beginning of the present cen
fury, when steam was first applied to
the propulsion of vessels. Passing bv
the discussion as to whether Fulton
was in fact the first man who applied
steam as a motor for ships, suffice it to
say that in 1874 he proposed to build a
floating battery" for the defense of
New York harDor, vessel to be pro-
PEELED by steam, with central paddle
wheel to carry twenty guns, with a
speed of four knots an hour. Accord
ing to this plan the vessel was to carry
two submarine guns, one at each bow,
so as to strike the enemy below the
water line. Provision was also made
for throwing large quantity OF water
on the enemy ut close quarters.
The ship was launched, as proposed,
In November, 1914, and in June of the
following year the machinery was in
place. She was called the Dcmologos
and after the death of her inventor was
rechristened the Fulton. The Fulton