The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1898-06-14
Old |RONS|DES IN ACTION
"REMINISCENCES OF A FAMOUS
BNTTLESIIIP
Went Through Forty Engagements
Without Losing a Man-ENperiences
of Major II. \. Bartlett now Here.

When the news Of the victory at
Manila was published and it became
| known that the Americans had not
lost single man killed, there was Il
general feeling of surprise all over the
world. Such advances in the destruc-
| tiveness of naval armament have been
made in the past years. that there was
general feeling that an engagement
between modern vessels must necessa-
| rily result in great loss of life. The
Fact that there was no loss of life on
the American side was looked on as
unusual and exceptional.
But the record of the famous old
battleship of the war of the Rebel
lion, "Old Ironsides." beats the rec
DRY of Dewey's feet at Manila in this
respect. Major H. A. Bartlett who
has recently come to Honolulu to
live, saw service on "Old Ironsides. -
during the greater part of her active
career He was with her during for
ty engagements. in not one of which
was there a single life lost. And this
happened Notwithstanding she was
the most heavily armed vessel the
United States has ever had, and in ac-
ton was called on to bear the brunt
of the enemy's fire and to do the hea-
w bombarding for the Union.
Her armament consisted of fourteen
thirteen inch guns. and two $50 Par
rot guns, equivalent in calibre practi-
cally to thirteen inch guns. When it
is remembered that thirteen inch
guns are the largest in use on any of
Uncle Sans present ships and that
none of them. not even the Monterey,
carries anything like fourteen of
| them. the terrific armament "Old Ir-
onsides" carried may be appreciated.
1t is true that these old thirteen
inch guns We're smooth bore and had
nothing like either the precision or
range of the modern gun of that
size. But within their range they
We're destructive.
"The PARROT guns" says Major
Bartlett, ''were the first of the 'ifed
ordnance to be used. Methods of con-
struction had not reached the stage
of excellence then that they lave
now, and these guns were not thought
much of then. We seldom used them.
Our smooth bore thirteen inch guns
had a range of from a mile to nile
and a half. though we usually fou Eht
at a range of from 200 to ZOO wards.
old Ironsides' was armored with a
shield of heavily rolled iron, bevei ed
from the center horizontal line of the
! ship both ways. SO if she was struck
| above this center line the shot would
glance up and off, and if struck below
it would glance down and off vt
least that was the theory The guns
in action were pointed out through
ports in the bulwarks which when
| the guns were drawn back to reload,
were protected by heavy iron shutters.
! To open these ports, the shutters we're
triced up. AS a matter of fact we
soon got tired of changing these shut
! ters every Tine 0e fred a shot ana
kept them triced up all the time IN
action. We had no less than five of
them shot away.
"One thing we learned early in our
experience. and that was that whis-
key is a poor thing to fight on. NJ
ter a hard days engagement, when
the men were so tired that they simp-
| ~ lay down where they were on the
deck, the call TO splice the main
brace which, meant at that time that
whskey was to be distributed. none
but the old soaks as a rule, would re-
| spond. But when coffee was distri-
buted every man would get up. COT
fee was what they wanted in their ia
| tigue and not whiskey"