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Copyright 1919. by Public Ledger Co. By IRVING R. BACON ' , hull, and on this, amidships, heierected working eigbt'hours'each, in succession; •K^HAT appears to be the. culminating It was five o'clock in the afternoon ® casemate, with its walls inclined in the iron was kept hot from the day the b.v this time and the ebb-tide was be­ stage of the sixth period in the at an angle of 'about thirty-six de­ work began until January 30, 1862, ginning to set in. 1 The Merrimae, world's naval architecture was inaugu- grees,' according to one of her officers, when the hull was sent afloat in the fearing to ground, now withdrew, her' ' rated on April 30, when the giant super- and forty-five, according to another. waters of the East river,; under the commander. Commodore Buchanan, in­ "This casemate was two feet thick dreadnought Tennessee was launched at name of Monitor." tending to return the following day. and was made of twelve-inch timbers The Merrimac was finished first, and He did; but the Monitor, under com­ the New York Navy Yard, in' Brooklyn.- standing on end, covered with eight- on the morning of Friday, March 8, mand ot Captaii^'J. L. Worden, also 1 Simultaneously with the birth of thig inch timbers laid horizontally, which 1862, she steamed from her berth at appeared upon the scene. And then be­ latest of floating fortresses, three others were in turn covered with oak plank Norfolk, accompanied by two Confeder­ gan the most memorable naval fight' four inches thick. which, in their day, scarcely more than ate gunboats. She had come forth to over fought up to that time—the fight "On these were-laid iron plates two two decades ago, were considered the make a test, and material for this was which made it clear that nothing but inches thick and eight inches wide, close at hand. Half a dozen United heavy armor 'could thereafter avail to "last word" in fightirig machines—the IMyrtd placed horizontally with another layer States ships, including fbe sailing save ships from the guns of enemies, 'Indiana, Massachusetts and Iowa—were of the same dimensions over them, frigate Congress and the sailing sloop- and that nothing but guns capable of ,put out of commission by the navy de­ placed vertically. The side walls of this of-war Cumberland, were lying in piercing the hostile craft's armor could +*%*> partment as too antiquated for modern casemate projected down and out over Hampton Roads, between Fortress be decisive of battles. warfare. the sides of the hulk like the eaves of a Monroe and Newport News. As for the battle between the Merri­ "Sic transit gloria tnundi!" ("Thus country house to protect the water line, When the Merrimac had approached mac and Monitor, each side claimed passes the glory of tlfe world!") and the hull itself was plated with one- to withiiy three-quarters of a mile, the • the advantage after an all day's fight, j The Tennessee is 624 feet long; 97ya inch iron for two feet below the deck, Cumberland fe ten-inch pivot gun opened Historians, however, appear to regard • feet beam; has 32,600 tons displace­ although the design called for three- fire and was followed by a salvo from it as "a draw." ment. and its boilers will generate 28,- inch iron. the Congress. And the Merrimac re­ On Ha.v 10, 1862, hemmed la by 000 horsepower. She is calculated to Ericsson a:: ' His Ironclad sponded with broadside for broadside. Union forces and unable to escape, the - make twenty-one knots speed. And thus was begun the battle which Merrimac was blown up by the Con­ Her value, as she slid down the "The inclined sides were carried up forever swept away the old-style war­ federates when they were compelled to launching ways, was above $7,000,000. high enough to give seven feet, head ship and inaugurated the sixth period, evacuate Norfolk. The Monitor found- . By the time she, is completed, armed room inside, and then a heavy flat deck the period of the armor-plated fighting ered in a gale a few months later. and equipped she' will have cost above twenty feet wide with hatches in it' was ship which has just attained its cul­ The Six Tennessees $15,000,000. laid across. On the bow, two feet be­ minating point in the Tennessee. She is to have twelve fourteen-inch low the water line, was bolted a cast- The Merrimac had things her own The principle in naval warfare which guns, mounted in four triple turrets for iron wedge that projected two feet from way in that entire day's battle turmoil. they had established had come to stay; an elevation giving a range of eighteen the stem and was for use as a ram. Ihe shot that fell upon her from frigate, and both North and South now hastened miles; and her secondary battery will "The battery of the Merrimac con­ sloop and land batteries rebounded to turn every available vessel into an include fourteen five-inch guns, four tained six of the nine-inch Dalilgrens without as much as denting fier plate. ironclad. six-pounders, four three-inch anti-air­ found in the Norfolk navy yard and four She rammed the Cumberland and raked Lord Howard Douglas and other ' craft guns(and two submerged torpedo rifles designed by Brooke. Two of these her, fore and aft and sideway, with eminent British authorities had pooh- tubes. rifles were mounted as pivots at bow and shot and shell, killing 140 of her crew poohed the idea of an ironclad being as. Her personnel will consist of fifty - stern and two smaller ones were in the of .'*76. Nevertheless the old order of dangerous to an eneqiy as it would eight officers and 1024 men. broadside." things died game. ' necessarily have to be to its qwn crew. The sister-ship of the Tennessee, the It was not until August 3, ,1861, that W hen called upon to surrender, the They proved it with mathematical pre- •, California, is under construction at the government at Washington began Cumberland's acting commander. Lieu­ vision; and, no doubt, not they, but Mare island, and three other super- to think seriously of an ironclad as an tenant George U. Morris, replied: mathematics, were to blame for the un- ' dreadnoughts will soon be on the ways, offset to the one the Confederates were "Never! I'll sink alongside." expectedly wonderful results of the first .- and to these are to be assigned the action of the ironclads. And ever since building. On that day Congress made Death of the Cumberland names of the three which have just beeb an appropriation; but it was not until then England has been foremost among ' And his gun crews kicked off their retired. October 4 that the contract with the nations in multiplying armored ships shoes, as the ship was settling and the What a lesson in "the survival of famous inventor, John Ericsson, for the of war. rising water made it hard for them to the fittest" the Indiana, Massachusetts construction of the vessel was signed. To return to the Tennessee, then a lid Iowa affords! hold their footing, and they stripped have been six ships of that name in "This was a needless delay," says to the waist. A fourth one, the Oregon, sister-ship Mr. Spears in the book already quoted, the United States navy. And, as the Cumberland was prepar­ of the Indiana and Massachusetts, will "and this fact is worth emphasizing be­ The first Tennesseee was a sidewhed ing for her final lurch, her one gun, be spared, at least for- the present. cause it is not unlikely that similar de- efteamer carrying five guns. She had which could still be worked, was fired. There are sentimental and, perhaps, gotten into the possession of the Con­ days will be experienced whenever the The smoke from this parting shot was state reasons for this. The sentimental nation is again unexpectedly plunged federates and was captured by Farragut • still hovering over the water when the reason is the historically sensational into war." at the taking of New Orleans, April 25. • role the Oregon played during the Span - gallant ship sank, with her flag flying. 1862. n When it is considered that the book Lieutenant Morris was among those ish war, when she steamed around The second Tennessee was a big Con- - was published in 1899, these words saved and he and the other survivors South America from her North Pacific seem singularly prophetic. federate ironclad, captured by this fed- r station and rcached the Atlantic flm were honored and feted everywhere. "But if the authorities• were dila­ eral forces when Memphis was taken, in ^ime to take part in the battle against The Congress was not more fortunate tory," the author continues comment­ about the same time. Admiral Cervera's fleet. ' j. than the Cumberland had been. She ing, "the mechanics were not. The keel was so badly mauled that Lieutenant The third was the still more power­ -In Ihe Days of the Iowa. , - was stretched in that part of the Brook - Joseph B. Smith, her commanding of­ ful Confederate armored ram and re­ quired the concentrated efforts of virtu­ The Indiana during the battle was l.vn water front called Greenpoint before ficer, surrendered. But, in the confu­ 'Will III ally the entire fleet of Farragut to com­ in command of Captain Taylor, her k the end of the month, although working sion which followed, the Merrimac former commander,' "Fighting Bob'' plans had to be laid in the mold loft poured broadside after broadside of red - pel its surrender at the battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864. Evans, having succeeded to the com­ and contracts for materials made. heated shot in the surrendered vessel, mand of the newer and more powerful "Three gangs of men were employed, setting her afire. The fourth Tennessee was built at the Iowa. It was Captaiii Phillips who New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn in 'shouted the words which arc probably1 1865 and received the name of Mada- the most humane dues ever uttered in ff I waska. She was unsatisfactory at first, ' - but was remodeled into £fst-rate . behalf of an enemy by a commander in "S.. battle. wooden frigate of 4840 tons ^displace- m ment and renamed Tennessee. After­ tt "Don't cheer, boys; they're drown­ % ward she was converted into a full- * ing!" •M When (lie Iowa was placed in com­ rigged ship. Under steam she was able mission at the League Island Navy to make fourteen knots. In September, Yard. June 10, 1897. a year before the 1887, she was sold for $34,500, although Spanish War, the newspapers devoted her cost to the government up to that many columns--to describe her great­ time has been nearly $2,000,000. ness. Here are some of the headlines HI The fifth Tennessee was an armored cruiser launched in 1904. She was re- . of an article devoted to her in the New u York World on the day following thai named Memphis in May, 1916, when event: . authorization was granted for the con­ "Our Biggest Battleship." : struction of the sixth Tennessee, the "Old Glory Has a Great De- • superdreadnought just launched. fender in the Ponderous Iowa." The Memphis was wrecked on the "She's a Navy in Herself." coral reefs off Santo ' Domingo in "Able to Throw a Storm of Iron August, 1916, a tidal wave having torn Many Miles, and Capable of Butting an Island." And now? .. . The scrap heap,! g Compared ivitli the Tennessee, the Iowa is. indeed, almost pathetically puny. She is 360 feet long, 172 feet 2 Ms inches beam and in Ker balmiest days carried foul" twelve-inch, eight eight-inch and some five-inch guns. When men first fougbt on water, they •4 employed rafts—trees fastened together I with willow twigs. It probably took ages before they entered upon the sec­ ond period, when rowboats were em­ btanaing on her bow the U. S. S. Tennessee would luwer nearly a nunared reet higher than the Wash­ ployed for this purpose. * ington Monument, or about three-fourths the w«y ta the top of the Woolworth Building The biremes. triremes, quadriremes, ' according- as they had two. three or Augustus) at Actium, in the battle for first class, eight of the second class Ihe plans which he drew, the frigate the mastery of Rome, were but an four banks of oars, supplemented by and five of the tliifd class.' Merrimac was raised and utilized as the expansion of the same period type. sails, constituted the third period of Among the frigates was* the Merri - basis for his superstructure. ASB0~ . Vessels propelled exclusively by sails naval, fighting. It was with .nearly mac, which at the outbreak of the war ciated in this work with Lieutenant fill the history of the fourth period of 1000 of these that Julius Caesar made was set afire and sunk at Norfolk. Brooke was Constructor J. L. Porter. naval* warfnre_ until shortly before our his descent upon the British coast, On June 10, 1861, Lieutenant John The following descriptioi of the manner own Civil War when, for the first time, fifty years before the Christian era. M., Brooke, of the^ Confederate navy, in which they wrought, is taken from steamships were employed. And the huge, unwieldy galleys with who had been in the American navy, John R. Spears's "History / of Our Beginning in 1844 the United States was commissioned by the Confederate Navy." volume IV, page 187: ten banks of oars in (the fleet of Marc navy began building steamships, and Navy Department to design an iron­ "Porter,v having got the hull in the Antony and Cleopatra which were de­ by the tiqae the internecine fight be­ stroyed by the lightly moving biremes clad sufficiently strong to gain control drydock. cut' it down to where the gan in 1861, we had seven - screw of Octavius (afterward the Emperor of, the navigable waters in and about berth deck had been. ,Then he laid frigates, six screw sloops:of-war of the the Chesapeake Bay. As a result of a heavy timber deck over, the entire

to the prominence then given to the question , the one hand, and on the other the states against the attempts, of restless people of Europe.'* of religious wars, which were in vogue, ft',-- ambition of the Austrian house', which and ambitious neighbors.' 1 in the. early seventeenth century. It was in 1603 that -Henry IV, as- - had been pursuing witji perseverance for "The king and his associates wet* to Catholics and Protestants waged war listed by his able minister, Sully, pro­ more than a half century its projects work lo make imp6ssible the quarrels on each other, and both fought the "un­ posed the foundation, "on a gigantic and of universal domination." « ' which pip to that time had armed Chris­ speakable 5urk." almost incomprehensible scale, of a "Religious intolerance" has vanished tie states one against another,' by. ^ "Henry's ideas embraced both the Christian republic, composed of fifteen and the Prussian has been substituted establishing for each of them clearly 'religious state and the political state . states equal in power, which would for tlfe Austrian house (in the present defined borders and frontiers, and by of Europe," wrote Poirson. "In what- ' establish perpetual peace in Europe." discussion, v Beyond these minor differ­ settling with fairness their debated ever related to the religious state, he'; It was called "Le Grand Dessein" (the ences, the plans of Henry TV sound as rights fnd tlieir conflicting claims. : proposed to junite with the sovereigns great scheme). : though they might* have been formed by? "The king was to try, by Bis example !of the states already his allies or dis- The times and conditions were similar President Wilson or Sir Robert Cecil. and advice, to lead the other princes . posed to become so in seeking suitable ; to those today. VNo century," to "Regarding the general political state Jp 'a movement toward giving, to their 'means'to establish the three dominating quote, from Auguste. Poirson's life of of Europe," to again translate from. peopli an interior government suffl,- cults — Catholicism, Lutherism rand'' Henry IV, "had ever been so cruelly Poirson, "Henry IV wished to have ciently' moderate and wife to prevent Calvinism—on such conditions of Hb- I tried as the sixteenth century by wars, associated as "many sovereigns fcs, pos­ revolts against the sovereign in the 'fu­ erty and force that *11 those who pro- * civil and foreign, political and religious, sible in the plan he had formed, on the ture, and /to destroy the .cause of civil fessed them might henceforth follow, extending to all the nations of Europe, /, one hand to reduce the territorial pos­ .wtrs. • i . ' untroubled, that any of the three" teeming at the1 ramie time with horrors , sessions and the sources, of'revenue of ; . •'He would try, furthermore, to have cults might not in the. future oppress which were revolting an;T with disasters ( Austria in such a manner that that ; the dHfc-^nt state* . which form tie the other two. and thaV the principle which made one shudder. The• moat •i- power wouVf ^ease to be eternally hos­ Christianity of Europe convene to form of religious war might thutf be de- noble minds and the most generous na- tile and threatening to the other state*, a council where all would be represented Looking * : strtyed." i-y •' -v .v'-* • v ^ launohlnii ^ •• .. ' S -i • ' .v.-'-' :•*< fa a *if, iife