The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1917-12-06
Modern Warships

The frigate Constitution, fighter Of
thirty-nine battles and winner of every one
of them, today offers the student an ex-
ceptional opportunity to compare the naval
| fighting machine of hundred years ago
with the superdreadnaught of the hour.
Peacefully floating at wharf in the Charles
ton Mass navy yard. cold Ironsides'
speaks volumes to the thoughtful visitor
who has perhaps just few minutes before
stepped down the gangway of modern
ship.
i Aside from the vastly different methods
of placing the guns, perhaps the most strik-
ing contrast between the naval architecture
OF a century ago and that of today is seen
in the actual structure of the hull and super
structures. The warship of today has not
a piece of wood visible, with the possible
exception of the deck. which is wood over
a steel foundation. Stripped for action,
the modern fighting craft presents positive
ly naked appearance with every movable
object cast overheard or slowed away.
The Constitution on the other hand, pre-
sents bewildering array of rigging and
spa.s, and she is wholly constructed of
wood. A single modern she'll exploding
under her or on her deck would do as much
damage probably as an entire broadside
from a ship similar to the Guerrero. This
vast change in the design is, of course, due
in large measure to the introduction of
steam as means of propulsion. Follow
ing this The all steel hull was introduced.
The gum deck of the Constitution stirs
the Imagination perhaps still more than
does the spar deck. Topped by a low cell
i ing, which makes one want to stoop as he
walks, this deck savors of prison dungeon.
CHANGING at the row of long twenty-four
Founders, thirty in number, one can readi-
ly picture the smoke filled atmosphere the
terrible din, the sweating, half naked figures
straining to reload the clumsy pieces of
ordinance and ever and anon a shot crashing
through the futile wooden wall, sending
splinters in all directions.
Stepping from tie gun deck and the tur-
refs of the Rhode Island to this old time
chamber of horrors, the visitor cannot fail
to wonder how in her famous engagement
the Constitution suffered a loss of but seven
killed and seven wounded out of crew of
456 officers and men. Perhaps the answer
is found in the inaccuracy of the gunners.
More likely, however, it is due to the fact
that the explosive she'll had not then been
invented. Aside from the splinters,
twenty-four pound shot through the hull
stood little chance of doing really great
damage unless it struck mast, gunner or
the gun carriage itself.
The guns of the Constitutions day had
an effective range of possibly mile, al
though history tells US that the real execution
was done at ranges of from one to three
hundred yards. Think of the engagements
of modern warships, wherein naval duels
are fought at ten miles range and where
the opposing ships are actually out of sight
from the gun deck and barely visible from
the fighting tops! Think of the guns aim
marvellous strides science has made liz times
of peace and in the short space of hundred
years.
As an interesting comparison of the guns
of today with those of 1912 we may call
attention to the fact that, while the total
broadside discharge of the Constitutions
battery would amount to 684 pounds of
metal, single projectile from one of our
coast defense mortars weighs half ton.
Even more striking is the fact that the
projectile from modern fourteen inch piece
of ordnance such as that carried by the
superdreadnaughtsw weigh practically as much
as one of the big guns of the Constitution.
In other words, instead of hurting small
ball of iron at the enemy the modern fighter
Constitutions cannons itself at the opponent
were the cannon of suitable weight and
form.
! And, furthermore, the explosive charge
in the projectile would be greater by far in
power than the entire charge used to fire
the old cannon. This means that the mod
ern engine of destruction actually takes a
mass of steel equal in weight to the old gun
loaded with high explosive and lands this
entire mass on the deck or inside the huh
of the enemy's ship, where it explodes.
| Selected.
| Work = BLESSING