River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1901-06-27
THE AMERICAN NAVY
A History of Its Victories to Be
Published Very Soon.
IN One Day Yankee Ingenuity RevO-
lutiOnized Naval Warfare--MO-
mentOus Results of the
Duel in Hampton Roads.
Especial washington Letter.I


TN the Army and Navy club one
evening recently veteran naval
officer quoted Admiral Jouett as
having said: "All of the navies Of
Great Britain, France, Spain, Russia,
in fact of every nation on earth, were
driven from the seas in one day by
Yankee ingenuity and fighting All
of them, every battleship, man-of-war
and cruiser, fell into helplessness in
one day, and the Yankee nation ruled
the seas"
The veteran then explained that he
referred to the battles of March s and
Q, 1862, when the ironclad Merrimac
and the turreted Monitor fought at
Hampton Roads, Va, and he added:
''But for the fact that the Yankee ma
ton was then divided into two hos
tile camps we could have swept the
high seas and defed the world. When
the Merrimac hammered and rammed
the best men-of-war in the American
navy the officers of foreign nayies who
witnessed the feat agreed in saying:
eve have not a real warship in our
navies. The wooden ship is no longer
a warship.'
These remarks have been verified in
every respect. The British navy,
which had cost hundreds of millions
of dollars, was as effectually de-
stroyed on that fateful Sth of March
as when the noble old Cumberland was
sunk to her topsail yards by the Mer-
rnac's ram. The 9th of March but
emphasized the value and Importance
Of iron-plated vessels, and illustrated
two great principles in the construc-
tion of warships which must last for
all time, the DETECTING and turreted
armors. The Monitor reached Hamp-
ton Roads on the night of the Sth, and
the next day she and the Merrimac
pounded each other, at a few yards
distance, with the heaviest guns then
known, from eight a. m. until one p.
m, when they retired from the con-
flict, neither materially damaged, and
each claiming to have gotten a lit
tie the best of it. Either of these
vessels, with sufficient ammunition,
could have destroyed the English,
French and Spanish fleets combined
in the greatest naval battle of former
history, that of Trafalgar.
Another weapon developed by the
war and destined to play a wonderful
part in future naval conflicts was the
torpedo. The confederates by the use
of this terrible weapon destroyed
more than so United States men-of-
war. Although in its infancy, the de-
structiveness of the torpedo was as
sured, and its application almost in.
finite. Its improvements have about
kept pace with those of guns and
ships, neither of which would likely
be understood or even recognized by
an ante-bellum officer.
When the war with Spain was de-
clared, Admiral Jouett, quoted above,
said to the writer: eve will have no
trouble with the Spanish navy. Give
me the monitor Puritan and / will
go out to meet any fleet that Spain
can send over here. They could not
see me and locate me with their range
finders until they were within two or
three miles of me. l could see them
seven miles off, and, with my big guns
down close to the waters edge, /
could sink them before they realized
that the most powerful fighting ma
chine on any water was doing the
deadly work" The old veteran of the
civil war also said: George Dewey
has a fleet which can take care of the
business which he has in hand, if he