The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-12-19
CRUISERS AND
THEIR RECORDS

The Cincinnati and Raleigh are Sis
ter ships of 1918 tons displacement.
Launched in 1892, their original main
armament consisted of one-six inch
and ten 5-inch guns. They are what
are known as protected cruisers,
which have no side armor, but carry
a curved steel deck two and one-half
inches thick, over their engines. Their
speed is 10 knots.
During the Spanish war the Cincin-
natl was On blockade duty off the Gu
ban coast. On April 81, 1898, togeth-
er with the New York and the Puri-
tan she took part in the lombard
ment of MatanZas, the first engage
ment of the war. Later she conveyed
Gen. Miles and his transports to
Ponce, Porto Rico, on the famous oc-
casion when that city surrendered by
telephone to small American en-
sign.
| On the day that her sister ship was
Smelling the batteries of Matanzas, the
Raleigh left Mrs Bay with Dewey's.
squadron. She was commanded by.
Captain Joseph B. Coghlan, and Cap
, tain Rodman of the Iroquois was her
executive officer. On the memorable
first OF May she was third in the line
| of vessels that swept back and forth
before the Spanish ships and forts,
| and whose victory gave US the Philip
pines. In the fight Captain Rodman
personally sighted and fired her g.
inch gun, giving the ranges to the rest
of the ship In the blockade that fol-
lowed, the Raleigh was kept busy On
one occasion she was sent down the
coast to capture Spanish force. and
, found the German cruiser Irene an
chored in the way. Captain Coghlan
acted as if the Irene was not there,
and sent his shells screaming over her
bows in such a fashion that she did
not stop to raise her anchor, but slip
ping her cable. hastily got out of
range. The Raleigh ended her war
service with the capture of Manila on
August 18th.
Since the war, both the Cincinnati
and the Raleigh have been given new
engines and new guns. They now
carry eleven 5-inch guns each, of the
latest pattern.
The Albany and the New Orleans are
also sisters, and are the only cruisers
in the American navy not built in the
United States. They. were built in
England for the Brazilian navy, and
were bought by the United States at
the outbreak of the Spanish war. They
are the same type as the Cincinnati,
but are much better protected, having
a protective deck of three and one-haif
inch Harvey nickel armor. They each
carry six 6-inch and four 4.7-inch
guns, the latter an English size that
is to be replaced by 5-inch as in the
Cincinnati. The New Orleans made
II knots on trial and the Albany 20.5.
The Albany was not completed at
the outbreak of the war, so by the
rules of the alabama Award" she
was not allowed to leave England af-
ter the beginning of hostilities. The
New Orleans, however, was finished in
time, and had some curious expert
ences in joining the fleet. First she
was sighted by the tug Osceola while
conveying transport carrying Gu
ban soldiers. Judging from her I'M
familiar appearance that she was a
Spaniard, Lieut.. Purcell of the tug or
dered the transport to run, while he
stood out to fight the cruiser with his
one six FOUNDER and one machine gun.
Later, while the New Orleans was in
the Bahama Channel on the north
coast of Cuba, it is probable that she
and her consorts constituted the ia
nous "spook fleet" whose presence,
reported from two different sources,
, caused a weeks delay in the sailing
, of our tranports for Cuba
The New Orleans participated in the
two bombardments of the Santiago
forts, that of May 31st under Schley,
and that of June 9Th under Sampson.
incidentally, she gave the United
States sharp object lesson in the in
| Ierlorlty Of our guns and powder Not
only did she fire smokeless powder in
place of the brown powder, whose
smoke blinded our gunners, but her
splendid Armstrong 6-inch guns, fifty
callbers long, were far superior to
ours of the same size. and almost as
powerful as the S-inch guns of the Ore
gon. 1t was plainly evident that we
had fallen behind the European nations
In the quality of our guns, and after
the war this was one of the first
things to be remedied.
The New Orleans was one of the
fleet which covered the landing of
Skaters army in Cuba, and did
blockade and scout duty during the re-
mainder Of the war,
S. NJ. BALLOU.