The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-24
He Says the Late War Taught Many
Lessons. the Most Important Being
that Ships Should BE Fireproof.
BIG GUNS ALSO NECESSARY
AND ALL OUR VESSELS SHOULD USE
SMOkELEss POWDER.
Torpedo Boats Not Fairly Tested
Auxiliaries to BE Disposed Os.

BOSTON, Aug GA Boston Journal re-
porter interview ed Rear Admiral Sampson
on the train for Washington. Admiral
Sampson was reminded that Admiral CO.
lomb, the English naval authority. had said
that this war had taught no lessons in naval
architecture or naval strategy. IF he said
that, was the comment. "he does not know
what he is talking about. for the war has
taught great many things. For one thing
1t has shown the necessity of making ships
of war hreproof- 1t won't suffice morally
to make the; woodwork fireproof, in my
opinion, for there are objections to the pro-
cess, and it involves unnecessary expenses.
Ships ought to be built practically without
woodwork at all. and there is no good rea-
son why this cannot be done. After the
woodwork of the Spanish ships caught fire.
causing the destruction of the ships. there
can be no question about the Importance of
this change"
THE trouble with Colomb may be that he
has always been an advocate of torpedo
boats. We are not likely to hear so much
about torpedo boats as we used to hear be-
fore the war;" it was suggested.
Probably not" said the admiral "at the
same time it must be remembered that tor
pedo boats have never had really fair test.
They have always been faulty in construc-
ton; necessary qualities have been sacri-
feed to speed. There is no good reason why
a torpedo boat should have sped of more
than twenty-four or twenty-five knots an
hour, but it has been thought so important
to have them speedy that they have been
made too light, and in some instances they
are little better than eggshells. The tor
pedo boat has it's uses, but it ought to be
built according to the right ideas. 1t will
not do to draw conclusions from the way
in which the Gloucester which was a con-
verted yacht, did up the Furor and the Plu-
ton The Gloucester was hastily trans
formed into a torpedo boat destroyer it is
true, but it is not a small boat by any
means"
How about the big guns? The eght-inch
and rapid-fire guns seem to have done most
of the execution, both at Manila and at
Santiago, and a great many people seem 10
think the guns of higher caliber. the twelve
inch and the thirteen-inch. are not of SO
much account in the battle"
THE big guns" said the admiral. will
always be needed There is work which they
can do which is out of the question for the
smaller calibers. 1t happened at Santiago
tat the eight-inch guns and the rapid-flre
guns did great execution, but this was be-
cause they could strike the Spaniards below
the belt as it We're; that is. the lightly ar
mored portions of the Spanish ships were
exposed to their fire. AT Manila the Span
ish ships were not heavily armored at all.
When it comes to piercing heavy armor the
high-caliber guns must be brought into ac-
ton The armor-piercing capacity of gun
is almost exactly proportional TO its caliber.
For instance an eight-inch gun can pierce
eight-inch armor, twelve-inch gun twelve
inch armor and so on. Yes. the big guns
Then there is the question of smokeless
powder. Our ships ought to be supplied
with smokeless powder for several reasons.
ITtrcf ar16 mos MI a nj q IL
vantage in velocity. With ordinary pow
Ger the velocity is something like 2lOO feet
to the pound, and INC with smokeess powder asr
powder are at a disadvantage too, from
the fact that when one gun has been dis
charged the gun next to 1t must wait until
the smoke has cleared away before the
target can be sighted. These are the main
reasons why snokeless powder is to be pre-
ferred to any other.
to whether it would be feasible to raise the
Cristobal Colon. He was afraid 1t was
now too late to accomplish anything In that
direction, and he described the peculiar po-
sition in which the ship lay, making II
seemingly impossible to handle her, al
though she was practically uninJured py
our fire.
The admiral commented on the. excellent
physical condition of the men aboard the
fleet and their astonishing exemption from
disease as we'll as wounds. He had just
been informed that out of twelve thousand
men on the fleet there had been only twenty
casualties through the war But he re-
marked simply. 1--WE know how to take care
of our men in the navy. You see, we are
always on a war footing. That is, to-day
we handle ourselves in time of peace with
as much exactness and discipline as in
time of war. Our target practice in time
Of peace is carried out with as much care
and precision as If we had the enemy con-
stantly in sight, and so on. In the same
way we are so accustomed to the distribu-
ton of supplies and the care of the sick from
long training in peace that when war comes
we are ready for anything. The men on
six months without going ashore until they
reached New York, Saturday, ana they
have borne up under the strain OF mo-
notonous existence on shipboard and OF a
hot climate wonderfully we'll.