St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1901-01-30
OUR UP TO DATE NAVY.
copyright, 1900. by C. L. Kilmer.l

heroic ships in the French war. But the
new republic was too poor to have an
! ambition to cope with European nations
! in the matter of sea power, and the navy
was not deemed able to meet the British
! squadrons afloat in 1912 When the
war crisis came, the strongest powers at
! Washington proposes to lay up and dis.
mantle the fl ct to save it from capture.
Luckily there were two sailors at the
capital whose forte was fighting, not
talking, and they opposed the humili-
ating scheme. These officers, Captain
Charles Stewart and Captain William
cambridge, spoke for the navy at large
when they said: "What are our ships
for if not to attack and fight the enc
my when the country goes to war? If
when war comes they are all to be
laid up, it would be better to give up
altogether this pretense of navy,
which seems to be only used in peace
to do. No doubt if one of our frigates
falls in with the enemy's squadron it
will be captured, but the English frig
ates do not always sail in squadrOnS
any more than our own, and if one of
us meets one Of them alone at sea we
shall be able to give good account of
ourselves. Let the frigates go to sea
to show what they can do. At worst
they can only be captured, and the
country will be no worse off than if
they were laid up to rot in idleness."
The words were brave, but the out
look for the navy was far from encour-
aging. There were but IA ocean ships
to make good the promise. OF these IA
six were frigates and the rest sloops,
briggs and schooners. The British, then,
as ever, boasting that Britannia rules
the wave, had afloat go line of bat
tie ships, carrying 60 to 100 guns each,
with about 600 vessels of smaller rank.
The war Of 1912 was not fought out
on the sea, but Perry and Marlborough
on the lakes and Bainbridge Lawrence,
Hull, Decatur and Stewart on the
ocean gave to the Yankee sailors the
proudest traditions of the navy. The
Constitution, the Chesapeake, the Hor-
net and the President saved the honor
of the nation if they did not save the
state.
Up to the middle of the century, or
until 1910 to 1850 the warships of the
had been for at least 200 years-that is,
sailing vessels with cumbrous masts
and spars. First came the steam pad
die wheel as an improvement, and this
was closely followed by the screw pro-
peller. Guns used in broadside were
adapted to firing shells and afterward
rifled, and the ram was added as new
weapon driven by the force of steam.
Among the first screw frigates built
in 1855 was the famous Merrimac
which later became the Confederate
ram. These frigates were heavily arm
ed and in an ocean fight would have
justified their cost, but in the civil war
they were useless for service on river
and coast waters. The screw sloops of
war, however. built in 1858 gave and
took heavy blows in the fighting squad
rons of the east and the west. Among
these were the Hartford and Brooklyn,
which fought on CALAMITY after the
ironclads came into play.
In 1861 the government had but about
80 effective war steamers. But three
times that number would have barely
sufficed to blockade the ports of the
Confederacy, to say nothing Of protect
ing national commerce from the raid
ing ships flying the enemy's flag. A
navy had to be created. and it was
slowly created to suit the emergencies
of the times. The result was that the
United States went far ahead of all
other nations in improved vessels and
armament and gave the world the
types which prevail at the end of the
century. Not alone vessels and guns,
but methods of fighting, are American
or the outgrowth of American expert
ence and teaching in the course of the
civil war. The value of sea power to
a nation is not the least of these les
sons, for it was seen that with an ade-
quate force atloat the government
could have subdued the Confederacy
in six months.
The variety of vessels constructed by
the United States during the war
showed the incomplete ideas prevailing
among naval men the world over at
that time. Plated vessels had been
used in the Crimean war in 1855, but
the naval authorities at Washington
After long deliberation a board APP
pointed to investigate the subject of
ironclads reported that opinions differ
ed among naval and scientific men as
to the feasibility of ironclad ships of
war 1t was held that they would be
formidable adjuncts TO land fortified
tons, but unable to cope with properly
constructed Notifications of masonry.
However, this board selected three
plans which had been submitted by
builders who had been wiser than the
government in studying the matter of
ironclads. Out of the three came the
the monitor type, and naval warfare
was revoutionized by the Yankee, who
had previously counted not much more
than a guerrilla on the ocean.
The chief new features Of the Moni-
tor were the revolving turret, the low
freeboard and the projecting overhang.