Evening star., 1898-06-11

grenade, the stink balls, and the rocks of
the past might be dismissed with a shrug
In other Navies.
There is but little doubt that the French
have set the pace for the modern fighting
top, and so iuxuriantly 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, to give the navigator q chance to
guide his ship in action from a point well
above the smoke of the guns, and, too, to
rear aioft the searchights. Wherever q
closed-in top is found on ships of other
nations it is of French nspira ton.
The British have almost exclusively held
TO an open or uncovered top-the only real
protection TO 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 TO place armor in sufficient
quantity for protection up on the mass
weight and the stability of the vessel pro-
hlblting, and where not possible to have
armor thick enough to keep out she'll even
the thinnest plating will cause them to ex-
piode then and there, where, unobStructed
they might pass by harmlessly. The single
shell that might hit and kill one man in
the top of British ship or in the open
tops or our own ships-without exploding
ing of the French tops and kill perhaps
every man therein. AS a means of sug-
sested shelter to a timid man, the French
top is superior, but the lessons of the YaIu
ana the lessons of this struggle of ours
will show that no armor is better than
plating just thick enough to burst by i'm
pact the modern sensitive shell of small
caliber.
Some Advantages.
Setting aside the covered tops of the
French
of requiring a greater number of shots to
bring them down. The small shot that
might seriously imperl the smaller mast
would do but little damage to the wide
spread affairs we have on the Indiana. the
oregon, the Massachusetts or the Iowa
and, besides, they offer a convenient COW
cred way for passage up and down, and
Tor the carriage of ammunition to tie tops
With us the gunboats Wilmington and
the Helena represent the greatest deyelop-
ment of the military mast, in all it means
for lighting and signal purposes for con-
hihg the snip 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. lust
because of this curious type of mast, one
or the ehemy's large auxiliary cruisers
took one of these boats for battle ship
the other day, and lost nc time in hus;ling
Tor the distant horizon.
National Tendencies
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 Italians follow
the English.
What the coming masts are likely to he
will depend principally upon what the
means of signaling will require; but there
is good reason to believe that simplifica-
tion will prevail. The latest of our mill