Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-08-16
VESUVIuS HAS NEW JOB.
Freak Dynamite Thrower of Navy to
Become Official rs. o. S." Boat.

| The old U. IS. S. Vesuvius, onetime
| dynamite ship, has just completed fit
| ting at the Charlestown Navy Yard to
answer wireless calls received from
! vessels in distress sending the IS. O.
s. signal for help to the powerful
wireless station at Newport.
One of the interesting features in the
| metamorphosis of what has been term
ed the worlds strangest fighting craft
of all time is her new coat of gray,
which now replaces the green formerly
worn by Uncle Sans smaller fighting
craft.
Since 1905 the VesuVius has been
doing torpedo work, and has been
called by naval men the torpedo ex-
perimental vessel The summer before
last she discharged 9S6 torpedos and
last summer $50 torpedos. this being
practically as many as were discharged
in either season by all the rest of the
entire American Navy. Heretofore
most of the officers have gone for in
structions to the II. S. S. Montgomery.
says the Boston Globe.
The Vesuvius has been at Newport
most of the time since 1905. In that
year she ceased to be a dynamite ship,
becoming a torpedo-boat destroyer. 1t
was kcld that she had failed to make
good in her only real test of usefulness
at Santiago which proved of doubtful
value. and in peace she had proved the
terror of the American feet because of
| the unstable explosive aboard her.
Her construction marked the height
of a feeling that dynamite, the most
powerful explosive then developed.
would prove the end of all war. Her
building was authorized in 1886. She
was the offering of lay minds to the
navy and forced upon official circles by
a freak of public feeling.
"Of what use" asked the layman,
''to build battle ships that will take
, years to complete at d great expense
and when completed can be destroyed
with single dynamite shell? Buile
any little craft that win hold a dyna'
mite gun and send her out. She car
destroy the combined navies of the
world.
More recently along the same line oi
argument. it has been urged that the
naval architects confine themselves Il
| the designing of torpedo boats, beeaus'
some batre ships near Port Arthu
were destroyed by these little fighters
| At the time referred TO no dynamite
| gun had destroyed anything; but ;
! band of South American revolutionisti
We're said to have fitted up a battered
| old ocean liner with a dynamite gun
and sent her to destroy the navy of a
! South American government. SIN
never so much as went into action.
One fault which was found with th'
row of three guns which projected iron
| the deck of the Vesuvius in her ole
| days was that they We're stationary
! making it necessary to move the who'll
ship to aim her guns. Dynamite wa.
then the most powerful explosive de
| veloPed. 1t was such an unstable com
| pound, however, that it was impossible
to propel a charge of dynamite will
| powder. Consequently compressed al
had to be used as the propeling ener
gy, giving the guns a possible range o.
| mile and half
The Nesivius as built was of $50 ton
| displacement, of steel. with 1896 horse
power engines. 1t was not believed
that 1t would be safe to fire the thre'
small guns of the secondary batter.
when the Vesuvius had her dynamit
4 aboard, and it was conceded that if III
enemy's shell ever hit her there woul,
probably remain but few pieces o
her to mark the spot where she ha,