Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1900-02-15
NAVAL LESSONS OF A WAR.
Results of the Santiago and Manila
Fights Upset Some Cherished The

rights Upset some therisheu Ihe-
ories.
New York, Feb. 10.-The Naval An
nual, just issued from the Office of the
| naval intelligence bureau, is of eXcep-
| tional interest. The leading feature
| is an article entitled Recent tenden-
| cies of foreign naval development and
| the effect thereon on the recent war
| with Spain," by Lieut.. Commander
| George II. Peters. This article pre-
| sents many of the lessons taught by
| the Spanish war and utilized by for
| eign nations.
Beginning with the statement that
| the most striking feature is the mark
| ed effort now being made by the inn
| portant maritime powers to increase
| their naval strength, the article points
| out that one result of the Spanish
war was to demonstrate beyond fur
| ther argument that battleships consti-
| tute the real fighting strength of a
| navy. Even in France, which has long
| clung to the armored cruiser, armor-
| ed coast defense vessels have been
| practically ignored in new construc-
| tion.
| While the war threw no new light
on the value of torpedo boats, atten-
tion was freshly directed to their vul-
nerabilitv and Germany has abandon
| ed the building of any more small
| boats.
Another war lesson was that the big
guns on board ship are secondary
hereafter and dependence must be
| placed upon primary battery of rap
| id fire guns of modern caliber. Al
ready the German navy has reduced
| the caliber of its heaviest guns to 9.45.
Armor must be widely distributed
and not restricted to the water line
and gun positions. Foreign navies
are securing the best armor regard
| less of cost. There is universal eff
| fort to eliminate wood and combusti-
bles from naval vessels. Canvas boats
are to be tested. Water tube boilers
are now beyond discussion for naval
use, and the only question open is
that of type. Torpedo nets have been
abandoned.
Tremendous efforts are making in
| foreign nayies to improve gun prac-
tice, and in Germany the ships go 10
sea every day for target practice, even
reserve ships, while the British navy
has largely increased its allowance OF
ammunition for prize firing. Foreign
opinion criticizes American gun point
! ers as showing much room for inn
provement, based on their perform
ance at Manila and Santiago. Com
mander Peters, however, comments
| that never before have fleets been so
utterly destroyed through gun fire.
4 comprehensive idea uf the tremen-
| dous naval programme of the German
empire is afforded by an article con
tributed by Lieut.. kittelle, entitled
"The creation and maintenance OF Il
| German battle fleet" He gives from
German authorities in great detail all
| of the argument which leads to the
| government demand that the navy be
| increased over and above the present
| building programme by 81 battleships,
| Il large cruisers and So small cruis-
| ers, to cost 1.7O0,000,000 marks. He
| quotes German technical papers as
| saying that the government has elm
| mated the continental powers in cal
cuIations based on the attitude of for
| eign countries toward the German in
! crease.
The discussion is said to have mar
rowed down to GSeat Britain, Japan
| and the United States, and one paper
holds that England and the United
| States will soon be checked in the in
| crease of their navies by the question
| of manning ships and Japan by the
| question of money, so that Germany
| will be in a position to cope with them
severally or collectively. Lieut.. Conn
mander William II. briggs furnishes
! an article on ordnance and armOr, in
| which he draws many useful cOnclu-
| sions from comparison of the Span
| ish and American ships during the
| late war. Contrary to some other
writer's, he insists that the Spanish
| commanders of the torpedo boat de-
stroyers lacked neither dash nor dis
| cretion. He holds that the boats fail
ed to do damage owing to their inabii-
! ity to run through the American gun
fire Commander briggs says that Il
| battleShip easily can take care of two
such boats on each beam in clear
| weather.
This officer attaches great value TO
| the automatic pistol which has been
adopted by Germany and Italy in the
army and navy, and he supplies II full
| description OF the details of the
weapon, which fires ten bullets by
one depression of the trigger. Tho
rite is said to have given the most
promising resu-,s of all the high eX-
DlOSiye already tested.