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Our Navy and the Kinds of Vessels That Are Fighting for Us

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Our Navy and the Kinds of Vessels That Are Fighting for Us THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 15, 1898. 19 OUR NAVY AND THE KINDS OF VESSELS THAT ARE FIGHTING FOR US. READ THIS AND YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THE DIFFER- ENCES BETWEEN BATTLE-SHIPS, CRUISERS, MONITORS AND THE "UNTRIED WON- DERS" OF THE SEA. warships, are is a in spite fam- battle-ship rarely displaces less than tion of somewhat flexible. question, of the We may find a battle-ship like 12,- iliarityof the public with the tech- 10,000 tons, and in some foreign navies the the displacement runs up to nearly 16,- 320-ton Yashima (Japanese), with a nical phraseology of the warship, understood by trial speed of 19*4 knots. On the other average 000 tons. This will be view, hand, whether the reader has a reference to the perspective we see cruisers like the Viscaya very accurate idea of the distinc- the armored portions of the ship (Spanish), with a 12-inch belt and car- IT where shading, rying heavy guns of tions between the various of are by fulllines and 11-inch caliber. classes indicated battle-ship ships and between the various ele- the ordinary shell plating being dotted. The and the cruiser of a A battle-ship, as we have already- home port; and, finally, she must be draught gunboats authorized in 1893. shown, is essentially a fighting ma- armed with a powerful battery of me- The ship was specially designed for chine, and when the designer haa given dium caliber guns, to enable her to service on the rivers of China, and was her sufficient structural and armored fight ships of her own class. originally intended for the Asiatic sta- protection to enable her to take her The earlier ships of our navy were tion. With a beam of 40 feet she place in the first line of battle, his next entirely of the cruiser class, and at draws only 9 feet of water. Sha is object is to arm her with as many ar- the present time these ships consti- driven by twin-screw engines of 1988 mor-piercing and rapid-fire guns as the tute the most numerous portion of our indicated horsepower and her twin limits of her displacement will allow. fleets. screws, coupled with her large rudder Judged by this double standard, the In- The monitors of our navy form a area, give her excellent turning power, diana is without a rival; for it is a fact early and a valuable feature in river work. connecting link between the was being which has never been disputed that she systems warship con- While the boat planned a later of armored Japanese happened to see carries the heaviest armament of any struction. They embody in the original officer the ship afloat to-day. This preponderance design the lessons which had been designs, and he suggested the utility of power is due to the eight 8-inch guns learned in the naval operations of the of a conning tower of sufficient eleva- which are carried in four turrets flank- War, and, their name implies, tion to overlook the banks of the Yel- Civil as low China, Yang-tse- ing the two turrets of the 13-inch guns. they are modeled after the plan of River of the They are an entirely novel feature in Ericsson's famous Monitor. The chief Kiang. These banks are so high that battle-ship design, may be called they exclude the view of the country and characteristics of this style of ship are ordinary ship's the chief distinctive feature of this moderate speed, low freeboard, from those on an deck. ship. accepted type battle-ship mak- The Navy Department acted on tho The of ing them a difficult object to hit, thick carries usually a main battery of four hint. guns turrets, armor, and an armament of a few ex- heavy disposed in two ceptionally heavy guns. Sitting low in One of the earliest successful at- fore and aft, supplemented by a broad- tempts to make use of the torpedo- the water, they are not suited for work in naval side secondary battery- of 5 or 6 inch high seas, their sphere boat warfare occurred in tho guns, the first being capable of piercing on the and of Civil War, when the Housatonic was armor and the latter being used against operations lies within sheltered wat- sunk by a rebel craft, which paid for ers, such as are found in our bays and its own the lightly armored or unarmored por- sphere its daring with destruction, be- tions of the enemy. harbors. This is their proper ing sucked into the -hastly hole which action, to to man- Thus the Camperdown of the British of and enable them it had torn in the man-of-war. This euver in shoal waters they have as lit- was one the lessuns of navy, a ship of the same size as the In- draught possible. of the Civil diana, tle as War which "was laid to heart by tha and less effectively protected, Strictly speaking, they floating guns are European nations, and out of this and carries four 67-ton of about the batteries, and as they are in- same power as the heavy guns of the such later successful tests of the torpedo secondary tended to co-operate with the land has sprung that vast fleet of miniature American ship and a battery batteries of our But of six 6-inch guns. Against this the In- In defense coasts. craft which forms such a formidable though the monitor is designed especi- feature of the equipment of the navies diana carries in addition to her main defense, secondary eight B- ally for harbor it would be of the world. The earlier boats wero ENGINE and batteries the quite taking INDIANA, SAID TO BE THE FINEST FIGHTING OFLOOT inch armor-piercing guns above men- capable of part in a fleet what is known as spar torpedo-boats, FORWARD TURRET OF THE BATTLE-SHIP — action off the coast in ordinary from the fact that the torpedo was car- «;• «»»»>• a preponderance power navy same mutual re- OQUS. XT. nets great uucusivc pu»> tioned of ments from the combination of which the ship lying below the water line is modern hold the which should give her the victory in a weather. ried at the end of a long spar whicti of steel lation as the three-decker and the swift equally great powers of resistance. By most unique ship in our these ships derive their distinctive shut in by a continuous roof : only one great naval naval duel. far the projected forward from the bow of tho which is three inches in thickness for- frigate in the days of the Bailing ship. There has been navy, and, indeed, the only craft of its boat, the torpedo exnloding by con- ciass characteristics. set days fight warships— the The cruisers are the light cavalry of Over When a fleet sail in the olden between modern world, \u25a0 a bat- ward and aft of the bulkheads. Yalu, Japanese navy. As name implies, kind in the is the armored ram tact. He is told that the Indiana is the central armored citadel it is two to find the enemy and bring him to bat- battle of the —-between the their Katahdin. The ram as a weapon of Then came the automobile Whitehead tle-ship, the Brooklyn an armored Allthe tle upon the high seas, the heavy and and Chinese fleets and the :most, by their duty is to cruise the seas, keep- and three-quarter inches thick. ships far the most, important fact developed ing enemy's naval warfare is one of the most an- torpedo, with its ability when once dis- cruiser, the Columbia a protected plating indicated by dotted lines might somewhat slow line-of-battle in touch with the fleets cient of which we have any recorded charged to run (JOO or 800 yards of its away kept together in a methodical forma- by that engagement was the correct- and acting as the "eyes" of the llne- cruiser, and the Puritan a monitor. be shot without the 'vitals" suf- upon which history. It was used with deadly ef- own accord. The size and speed of the only a fering injury or the ship being sunk. tion, while the fr'~ates cruised at a dis- ness of the theories mod- cf-battle ships. They are also intend- naval fights of Greece torpedo boat were rapidly increased, But it is probable that he has miles, where they ern battle-ships are designed.. The ed duty of attacking fect in the and vague what qualities it is The reader will see that it is its loftier tance of several could for the double an Rome, and in later times, as at Lissa especially the latter, and the impor- idea as to report the first appearance of the en- brunt of the Japanese attack fell upon enemy's commerce and defending distinction, or why sides and the extra deck and freeboard battle-ships, that and during our own Civil War, it tance of this method of attack that mark the the provide which constitute emy and signal to the main fleet his two somewhat antiquated of the country whose flag they carry- instantly recognized. exist at all. which they Yuen, and for proved a terrible engine of destruction. was The torpedo distinction should need to practically the difference between a position and maneuvers. When the the Ting Yuen and Chen Fleets of merchant vessels or of trans- ram as to boat of twenty-five years ago with its diagrams a perspective main brought within several hours the swift Japanese ;-cruis- port ships will "convoyed" by The value of the attached These and battle-ship and a monitor.
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