The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-18
THE MORNING NEWS: SATURDAY, JUNE 49, 1898.

carry an armament OF rapid-fre guns with
which to meet the attack of torpedo boats,
to sweep the open ports. and TO enhlade
the unprotected gun stations OF an enemy.
With gattl,ng guns pouring on a veritabie
rain of bullets at the rate Of 200 a min
uate, and with other heavier automatic
guns capable of hurting a hundred or more
one pound shells In the same time, the
modern military top is something to be
considered where the hand-grenades, the
stink balls, and the rocks of the past might
be dismissed with shrug.
There is but little doubt that the French
have set the pace for the modern fighting
top, and so luxuriantly have their vessels
developed these growths that it was no
wonder We soon heard of wanting stability
In their ships Their most recent designs
are decidedly moderated, but still bear the
hallmark of great freedom. With the
French the idea has been to cover entirely
the positions Of the guns and the men in
the tops, 10 give the navigator chance to
guide his ship in action from point well
above the smoke of the guns, and, too. to
rear aloft the searchlights. Wherever a
closed-in top is found on ships of other ma
tons 1t is of French Inspiration.
The British have almost exclusively held
to an open or uncovered top--the only real
protection 10 either guns or men being the
shields carried on the weapons themselves.
The purpose of this Is two-fold. 1t is out
OF the question 10 place armOr in sufficient
quantity for protection up on the masts
weight and the stability of the vessel pro-
hibltlng and where not possible to have
arInor thick enough to keep out shell, even
the thinnest plating win cause them to ex-
plode then and there; where, unobstructed,
they might pass by harmlessly. The sin
gle shell that might hit and kill one man in
the top of British ship or in the open tops
of our own ships-without exploding
would burst on hitting even the thin plat
ing OF the French tops and kill perhaps
every man therein. AS a means of suggest
ed shelter to tiTnid man. the French top
is superior, but the lessons of the Yalu and
the lessons of this struggle of ours Will
show that no armOr is better than plating
just thick enough to burst by impact the
modern sensitive shell of small caliber
Setting aside the covered tops of the
French, their big masts have the advan-
tage OF requiring greater number of
shots TO bring them down. The small shot
that might seriously imperil the smaller
mast would do but little damage to the
widespread affairs we have on the Indi-
ana, the Oregon, the Massachusetts or the
Iowa, and, besides, they offer convenient
covered way for passage up and down, and
for the carriage of ammunition to the tops
With us the gunboats Wilmington and
the Helena represent the greatest develop
ment of the military mast In all 1t means
for lighting and signal purposes for con-
ning the SHIP and for the carriage of that
great shining eye that Is to look far into
the night. The coming tower so to speak
is Just below the lower top and is reached
through the body of the mast proper. Just
because of this curious type of mast one
of the enemy's large auxiliary cruisers
took one of these boats for a battleship the
other day, and lost no time in hustling for
the distant horizon.
The national tendencies of the various
navies are marked by the military masts
their recent vessels bear, and whether they
seek their inspiration from Great Britain
or France it Is easy enough to tell. The
Russians are unsettled, Austria is equally
divided, Germany leans toward the
French, while the Japanese and the Ital-
ians follow the English.
What the coming masts are likely to be
Will depend principally upon what the
means of signaling will require; but there
is good reason to believe that simpliflca-
ton will prevail. The latest of our mill
tary masts are in part great ventilators
but that Is really more strictly an acciden-
tai adaptation, and could we find some re-
liable means Of signaling other than we
nave now, carried high in the air, the high
est or our military tops would be separate
structures built scarcely higher than half
| the hight of the vessels smokestack.