The San Francisco call., 1899-07-31
NEWS OF FOREIGN NAvIEs.

NEWS OF FOREIGN NAVIEs.
There are IS flag officers, 176o line and
staff officers and Al ,536 men in the french
navy.
In the German navy the personnel now
numbers 26. .651, against 24,9O6 last year. ne
line and staff officers number ooz' en-
gfneers 12S and cadets 321.
The keel of the third battleship OF the
Kaiser Frederick der Crosse type mas JUST
been laid at Wilhelmshafen. Inc new
ship will have sixteen inches more peam
than her prototype.
An order for 250 900 rounds of untitled
shells for Pinch and 1312-tnch guns - De
ing filled by contracts for the bIlIi'h
navy At the royal arsenal at WoolwlGn
1900 pounds of lydite is BENG useu 0'i1'
in the charging of shells.
Two Portuguese cruisers, San Gabriei anu
San Ramon, of 1900 tons, respectively nave
been completed by contract at HaFIe;
They have engines of French MAKE anu
water tube boilers of the Normand-Segan-
dy type, developing $500 horsepower un-
der natural draught and 1000 under forced
draught The San Gabriel made 1910
knots and 1913 knots under the above con-
ditions.
The terrible accident to the British tor
pedo-boat destroyer Bullfnch on July Il,
which resulted in the loss of nine lives
was duly telegraphed, but a somewhat
similar accident to another boat OF that
tvpe on July IL has been kept quiet. For
tunateIy no lives were lost, but eight were
more or less .scalded. The boat, named
Lee was on her trial trip when one OF
the cylinder heads blew out, throwing
a quantity of steam on the men IN the
engine room. Four of these had to De
sent ashore to an infirmary.
small cruiser named Baseir was re-
Gently built by Orlando Brothers, Leg
horn for the Sultan of Morocco 0he
was ostensibly intended for the suppress
sion of piracy, and clause In the CON
tract stipulated that the vessel should be
manned by not less than One-hat Euro
mean. When the Baseir was ready for sea
the Morocco authorities backed out from
the agreement as to composition OF the
crew and the Italian Government, appre-
hending that the mission OF the cruiser
was the encouragement of piracy rather
than its suppression, Cancelled the contract
and the vessel was sold to Venezuela.
The three Chinese torpedo boats polio
ing the West River to protect merchant
shipping against piracy have proved
worse than failure. A British steamer
was looted a short time ago by pirates,
who took out the cargo and robbed the
passengers of $1,000. One of the torpedo
boats passed the steamer while the latter
was being plundered and paid no atten-
ton to the flag of distress. The European
captains report that these torpedo boats
do nothing but tow junks up and down
from port TO port, and as they get the
coal from the Government for nothing
they make a good personal income. In
the evenings they anchor in the creeks
and become for the time being flower
boats, being crowded with singing girls
The highest efficiency in armor is
claimed for that made by the Krupps, it
being equal to 2.33 times that of wrought
iron. Thus a battleship with Krupp armor
twelve inches thick has a protection equal
to twenty-eight inches of wrought iron.
Since the Introduction of armored ships
thrty-nine years ago, when the Warrior
and Glofre were built. the rivalry between
gunmakers and arTnor manufacturer has
been carried on with varying success to
either party, but it would now seem as If
the armor has at last reached a point
which only a few of the very best guns
can attain. The penetration of the Brit
ish tweIve-inch wire-wound gun is not
quite thirty inches of wrought iron at 2000
wards and this gun is the most powerful
affoat at the present time. The Warrior S
armor of iron was only four and half
inches thick, and could be easily pene-
of the present time. The same weight-975
tons of Krupp armor would keep out the
proiectile of the American five-inch rife
at 2OO0 yards, or could be reduced to AIS
tons and maintain its former efficiency.
The heaviest armored ship in the British
navy is the InfieXible, with twenty-four-
inch plates, maximum thickness, the value
of which is only thirty inches of wrought
iron, and equal protection would be af-
forded by the new armor of only one-half
the thickness of the old. The result of
these progressive improvements in pro-
tective material has been a vast reduction
in weights, which has been applied to CIV
ing armor to other parts hitherto unpro-
tected. The battleships about to be built
for our navy will carry armor of twelve
inches maximum thickness, against
eighteen inches Of the oregon and her
class, but the protection will be only
slightly reduced by the reduction in thick