New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-20
1.-THE NEW NAVY

Department and Congress, appropriations
were made for the first four ships Of the new
! Navy. These vessels, which were later part
Of the famous white Squadron" were the
Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and Dolphin, built
of steel by Roach, launched in 1885 and COM
pleted about 1887 OF these the Dolphin was an
deliberately fitted out, single screw dispatch
boat, useless as war vessel. The Atlanta
and Boston were sister ships, OF about 5000
tons displacement. They had single screws,
two tunnels, and were brig rugged and had
ram bsws and no bowsprits, and the usual
ship stern We followed in these ships Eng
lish models; for regular type Of cruiser had
come into being, with rather low forward and
after ends, on which a single gun was
mounted Cthey were VIII-inch guns on our
two new ships), while in a raised central
structure were number of with us Nl-inch)
guns On our ships, at the corners Of the
superstructures, were small, towcr-like ex-
crescences for Hotchkiss machine guns, the
predecessors of the later rapd-fre guns.
The Chicago, of $500 tons, was very hand
some three-masted vessel, bark-rigged, and
with a bowsprit, with two tunnels and twin
screws. These latter were operated by a
curious species Of beam-engne. This ships
battery was quite heavy, as she carried four
/ VIII-inch guns on her spar-deck in sponsors
/ "a layman would call them bow vindows-a
method of mounting guns that prevailed for
! long time and main deck battery of smaller
guns.
The internal arrangements on these three
/ cruisers were substantially as on the old
! fashioned ships, but the steel construction
increased the space great deal by reducing
the size of the ribs and beams and doing
away entirely with the immense oaken knees
of the wooden ships. No change, in fact, was
made in the arrangements of quarter deck,
| forecastle, ward room, etc, etc, until the
| Dreadnoughts were constructed, so firmly
were the ancient customs inbred in sailors.
A New Naval Era
By the construction Of these ships, built OF
steel, and armed with modern, breechloading,
built-up guns of the finest quality, we
stepped into an entirely new era in our Navy.
The day of the wooden ship was over, and
had the naval officers been left free to act on
their own initiative we would have gone ahead
even faster than we did in improvements.
The Navy had become scientific profession
Those who know about it cannot help re-
! calling with pride the work our naval officers
accomplished in these early days. There was
erected at the Washington Navy Yard a gun
! factory. which from the very beginning was
wonderful success. | believe my readers
will agree with me that man educated to
particular business knows that business bet
ter than the politician does; and, luckily for
the Navy, the politicians kept their fingers
! off of those gun-shops. There our Navy built
many Of its guns, and it is fact that the
Navy. for some reason, outdid the Army at
/ first in this matter of building artillery. Be-
ginning with nothing, gun factory was de-
veloped which called forth the highest praise
! from all who knew about the work, and many
distinguished naval officer has worked in
/ those shops.
! Politics Interferes
! Less successful at first was the development
of our Navy yards but here politics inter
, fered on many an occasion. Docks were eX-
perimented with; some were built OF wood;
some were successful; others were failures.
But even in the yards order was finally
though slowly brought out of ruin and chaos.
The waterfront Of the New York Yard, for
example, was gradually improved, old ship
houses were taken down, Cob Dock was re-
modelled, coaling machinery, derricks, rail-
road tracks, electric lights, machine shops
with all the vast complication Of machinery
/ needed in a Navy yard were erected, until
the yard became a modern, up-to-date place,
in which many a fine ship has been con-
structed. the first being the famous Maine.
And so il was with those of the other Navy
yards whose usefulness was recognized. 1t
is not necessary to go into details OF the
failures here and there; no great new work
was ever completed without some failures.
There was much money wasted without ex-
cuse, as at Port Royal; but let us go on to
more interesting matters.
: Gradually our new Navy grew in size and
importance and our new ships carried our
flag all over the world. Valparaiso saw it
when Evans was there, and matters looked
dark when a feet of our new ships was
planned to 90 to the Pacific. European ports
saw our new squadron, and admired it from
its white paint to the very evident ehclency
of its personnel.
| do not intend to give a complete history
of the growth of our new Navy, and shall
avoid technical details as much as possible.
II would be far beyond the limits Of the
space allotted to give even the briefest ac-
count of our best known ships, but | must
refer to few. Between 1885 and 1898, the
year of the Spsnish-Amercan War, We laid
down upward of fifty cruisers, large and
small, and bstteships and a considerable
number OF torpedo boats. OF these vessels
the best known among the cruisers are the
OLYMPIA 5000 tons, laid down 1890. Dewey's
flagship, and the New York 5000 tons, 1890,
SIMPSONS flagship, both fine ships, the
Olympia being still in commission. Then
there were the noted fas. triplescrew ships,
the Columbia 1880 and Minneapolis (lSsD,
built solely for speed and particularly hand
some in appearance, especially the Colum-
bia. with her four tunnels. Then there were
the Brooklyn, the Baltimore, the San Fran
cisco (nov a mine-layer), the Philadelphia,
the Yorktown, the Msrblehesd and many
others, down to the little Bancroft, built