The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1898-08-24
INTERVIEW WITH SAMPSON.
Many Practical Ideas Have Been Evol.
ycd By the War

| N'u W INV W
BOSTON. Mass. August IA Boston
Journal reporter interviewed Rear Admit
rai Sampson on the train Tor Washington.
Admiral Sampson was reminded that
Admiral Coiomb. tho English naval au-
thorlty had said that this war bad taught
no lessons In naval architecture Tor naval
strategy.
"If he said that !" Mas tho comment
''hc does not know what he Il talking
about. for the war has taught great
many things For ono thing. II has
shown the necessity ~ making ships Of
war nrc proof II won't suffice merely
10 make the wood rrc proof. IN my opin-
ton. Tor thcrc are objections to the process
as ~ involves unnecessary expense.
ships ought to be built practically with
on, woodwork AZ all and there ls no good
reason Why Il cannot Dc done After the
way In whl,h the woodWork Of the Span
lsh ships caught nrc. causing the destruc-
ton u the ships. there can be no ques-
ton about the imp2r,Hncc Of this change
The trouble with colomb may be that
he has always been an advocate OF torpe-
30 boats We are not likely TO hear 20
much about torpedo boats as We used
to near before the war" It was sug-
gcstcd.
Probably not A, tho same time, II
mus, bo remembered that torpedo boats
have never had q really fair test They
have always been faulty In construction.
necessary qualities having been sacrificed
to speed. Tncre Is no good reason why
a torlcdo boat should have a speed Of
more than q or Is miles an hour but II
nas been thought 80 important TO have
them speedy that they have been made
too light. and In some instances they are
A,tlc better than cgg shells The torpedo I
boat has H. uses. but It ought TO be built
according to the righ, ideas,
1T won't do. either 10 draw too hasly
a con luslon from the way In which The
Gloucester which was converted yacht
l.- up the Furor and the rIui's. IS
Gloucester was hastily transformed into
a torpedo boat destroyer. 1, Is go.
II Is no, small boa, By my -';...
"Iiow about the bug uns7 -.s .-..--
and the rapid hrc guns seem to h'ra !
done most OF the execution. both at Ma.
nlla and az Santiago, and great many |
people seem to think the guns OF higher
calibre are not so much account in bat
te.
THE big guns will always be needed,
There Is work which they can do and I
which ls out Of the question for the !
smaller caibres, II happened at Santiago |
that the S-nch guns and the rapid hrc |
guns did great execution. bur this was /
because they could strike the Spanish
below the bolt as It were, That is, the
lightly armored portions OF the Spanish /
ships were exposed to their fire, At Ma
Mia, the Spanish ships were not heavily /
ormorcd at all,
when 1t comes TO piercing heavy ar
NOR the high cal,brc guns must be
brought into action, The armor-pIcrclng
capacity OF a gun Is almost exactly pro-
oortoned to It's calibre For instance,
an S-lnch gun can pierce S-lnch armor; II
l2.Inch gun can pierce ls-lnch armor and
so on, Yes the big guns are needed.
Then, there is the question OF smoke
less powder, our ships ought to be sup
piled with smoke,ess powder for several
reasons First tho most Important Is
the great advantage In velocity, With
ordinary powder the velocity Is some
thing like 2lOO; with smokeess powder
" ~ utNllN soVu' nIlpS uSlHk ulNNh puN
der are Nt disadvantage, too from
the fact that when one gun has been dis
charged, the gun next to It must wait
until the smoke has cleared before the
target can be sighted, These are among
the reasons why smokeless powder is to
be preferred to any other"
Admiral Sampson expressed doubt as
to whether II would be advisable to raise
the Crlstobal Colon, He was afraid it
was now too late to accomplish anything
IN that direction and he described the pc
euliar position In which the ship l6y,
making 1t seemingly impossible to handle
her, although she was practically unin-
jured by our fire. He commented upon
the excellent physical condition of the
men aboard the fleet and the astonishing
exempuon from disease as well as
wounds. He has just been informed that
out of 1900 men on the feet there have