The age-herald., 1898-08-16

l MOnliO1S...... ..1U ~ St l Torpedo-boats and destroyers. .12 14 51 | Gunboats.... III IT lo l While the Americans are proud of the | United States navy as it exists today, the magnificent new navy will be an invincible 1 sea force. Naval authorities say that for
 its size 1t will be the finest in the world l and the equal of European navies with a
 far greater gross tonnage. What will be l lacking in the number of vessels will be
 more than made up by the superior ability
 of the American officers who direct them | in action and the superb markmanship of
 the men behind the guns"
 l The navy of today has five battleshps, l four of them of the heavily armored and l heavily armed class, with a total of sixty | six guns in their main batteries To these will be added soon five big battleships of
 the same class, with an aggregate of
 ninety-eight guns in the main batteries.
 The present war has fully demonstrated 1 the true worth of these monster ironclads. | The performance of the Oregon in giving | chase to the fleet Spanish cruiser Colon, of | Cervera's fleet, shows their capacity for l speed, their fearful destructive power at l very long range and the irresistible power
 of their secondary batteries at long range. l The United States has now the Oregon, l Iowa, Indiana and Massachusetts as its only first-class battleships, carrying guns ranging as large as 13-inch. There are un- l der construction the Kearsarge, Illinois, ] Alabama Kentucky and Wisconsin, five 1 battleships of the first class, embodying all
 the improvements designed by naval archi- |
 and those of it's class now in service. These | five are regarded as still better than those | which have been used during the present | war The Texas, although a battleship Of l the second class, is most formidable war l ship, and gave a good account of herself
 fighting alongside of the first-class battle | ships. Her value is not to be underesti- l ted Thus the United States can soon
 array in the front line of battle ten battle
 ships manned by crews composed of the l best and most efficient men the world can
 produce
 The government has gone still further in
 the building of a magnificent new navy by
 providing for the construction of three more l battleships of the first class Special atten- ton will be given to these and all the sug- | SeStlODS or lu0 pIGSGul war VIII pc NdiO- | fully noted and incorporated in their con- l struction The value of speed, as shown 1 by the Oregon's chase after the cruiser l Colon, has impressed upon the naval ex- | perts the need of higher rate of speed in | these fighting monsters and they will be provided with greater driving power The armor and armament will be of the heaviest 1 that can be prepared, and it is expected that | they will excel all now in the water un- der construction.
 While the battleships now in sight will | enable the United tSates to line up thirteen | for offensive purposes, when arrayed upon | the defensive they could be supplemented | by the big new monitors of the navy, of which there are at present six-Puritan,
 Monterey, Miantonomeh, Amphtrite, Mo- l nadnock and Terror. The first named is of the first rate, the others of the second rate. l They are designed for coast defense pur- poses and are serviceable in home waters. Their guns are of the large calibre and their fire terrific, hile they present no target for l the enemy to shoot at owing to their low l freeboard Four more of this class are to 1 be constructed at once-the Arkansas, Con- | necticut, Florida and Wyoming-making a | total of ten of the first class. Those now
 in commission have a total of thirty guns 1 The new ones will be far superior and will l be constructed on improved lines. Thirteen 1 battleships and ten monitors in battle line l along our seacoast would cause foreign | powers to hesitate before declaring war | against this nation. There are fourteen l monitors of. the type evolved before the aixr | harbor-defense purposes.
 | But the full strength of the navy does not l lie in the battleships and monitors The | two armored cruisers New York and Brook l lyn have demonstrated their capacity as l fighting ships. With their S-inch rapid-fire l guns and their high speed they can do ef- | fective service. If the wreckers are suc- cessful two of -Spain's magnificent cruisers the Cristobal Colon and Maria Teresa | that were beached by Sampson's fleet off l the Cuban coast will be recovered and added to the American navy, giving four armored cruisers-a formidable fleet in themselves. Added to these are the cruisers with which Admiral Dewey smashed Mont l ojo's fleet in Manila bay. Only one of his vessels, the Olympia. was of the first rate, | the others being of the second rate. They | are the Baltimore, Newark, Raleigh and | Boston. Of this same type of protected | cruisers are the CnarieSt0n, Pnllddeipnla, l Cincinnati Atlanta, Chicago, San Fran | cisco, New Orleans and Albany. This fleet | of protected cruisers carries an aggregate | of IA guns in their main batteries. Their value may be judged by the battle at Ma nila, in which four of them poured such l a deadly fire from their main batteries and 1 their smaller guns as to completely smother | the fire of the enemy and destroy their ships.
 There are three unprotected cruisers of the third rate, the Detroit, Marblehead and Montgomery which, with the fleet of gum boats and light-draught vessels of the smaller type, have proved smost effective in maintaining a blockade
 In the near future the United States will have a formidable array of torpedo-boats and torpedo-boat destroyers. total of thirty torpedo-boats are now provided for,
 and contracts will be entered upon at an
 early date for sixteen destroyers, of which type the present navy has none.
 The navy has a number of vessels for special purposes. In the protected cruisers Minneapolis and Columbia the government L-x 1N-f