Show DEFENCES OF AMERICAN COASTS Astounding Statements Made by Colonel Robert CHIEF OF TH ENGINEERS V 1S HAVE XEITHEIt GUNS NOt PORTS TO SIM3AK OF Colonel Robert Says New YorUs Dc fences Could IJc TnUen In Twenty Minuicn of Real IVtival Warfare nnd That Other Atlantic Iorts Atantc Are in Even Worse Condition We Must Have Forts nail Guns For There Are Xot Enough Snips in thc World to Defend Our Coasts NEW YORK Ja 4No one in the rnle States is better qualified to sppak with authority regarding our coast deienses as they really are than Colonel Henry M Robert president of the board of engineers and head of the corps charge with carrying out the 1lans for defense of New York narbor His statements in response to inquiries as to the length of time New York the cnief port of the Atlantic coast and tile one sure to be most in danger in cape of a war with England are less satisfactory than those of any others iiho have been interviewed In effect he says I would not take a fleet of modern warship than twenty minutes to I reduce the outer defense of New York I harbor in their present condition In twentyfour our after this reduction I It would be possible to clear the harbor of every sort of submarine defense be j twn the Narrows and the Battery For a number of years there has been I a 6eneral impression that active steps I were being taken by the government to fortify the approaches to eastern praports especially New York so as to render them secure against the aggres sns of a hostile fleet From time to i time reports have been published and I articles printed describing the trials of Hook which have big guns at Sandy whch been counted upon to do wonderful I things for the national security should the time of need ever come And so they would i they were only enough of them but there are not We are a great nation a rich nation and a brave nation but we could not with all the resources now at our disposal defend New York city for fortyeight hours against a number of British ironclads stationed in the lower bay And if New York is thus defenseless much more so 3X the other eastern seaports since th work of fortification along their approaches has been even more nes looted than in the vicinity of Manhattan Manhat-tan island ONLY THREE EFFECTIVE GUNS ONTHEEASTERN COAST I am sorry to say said Colonel Robert in a conversation with me that a far a our coast defenses go ue are utterly unprepared for war with England At the present moment New York city is defended by only three I guns regarded by military authorities a rege doing efficient service against the great modern ironclads Of those three one is of the smallest pat t rn suitable for this service that is an eightinch gun and it is not yet rnunted the gun and its carriage haying hay-ing only been delivered at Fort Wads womh within the last few days So it is practically true that the safety of the greatest city in the United States depends upon two twelveInch guns at an3y Hook As for the other cities on thO Atlantic coast from Portland to Charleston they have not between thorn one single large gun capable of offering the slightest opposition to an English warship bent on their destruction tioI is of importance to consider in detail de-tail what would prdbably happen should several English ironclads suc ifd as they might easily do in getting get-ting past American warships all too irach occupied with a thousand miles i o coast line to guard and should find themselves free to advance upon New York city The facts in the following statement are given on the authority cf Colonel Robert I the British chose to come through Long Island sound there would be not a single large gun to prevent them from steaming straight on t the Brooklyn bridge They might Htop of their own accord to bombard or lay under tribute the helpless cities of Fall River Providence Bridgeport I and a Haven in all probability they would waste no time with these lesser places but would hasten to concentrate their attack upon the metropolis In vain would tttie battery of mortar on David island off New Rochelle attempt to worry the invaders But small reliance re-liance can be placed upon mortars when their uncertain aim is directed against noving ships There are no big guns on David island and even the mortar battery is Incomplete and yet incredible incred-ible a i may seem David island holds the only pretence at ooast defense that has been established along the approach ap-proach to New York city through the sound And the English warships would have almost as easy a task in coming up to the very wharves of the city If they chose t steam past Sandy Hook brave with its two big guns in tIme of peace but puny in wartime to stop the ene mys advance True the channel passing pass-ing as it does very close to the Hook would compel the ironclads to steam almost under the muzzles of these two gun each ready to hurl forth 1000 pound shot as fast as he gunners could reload them and i is possibe that some of the British ships would suffer some of them might IIP sunk It is certain however that some of them would fight their way past and steam on up the lower bay i is impossible im-possible that a strong naval attack by an English fleet could be held in check by the Sandy Hook defenses which in addition t the two guns with their admirable gunlift include only a battery bat-tery of mortars valuable aids when it comes t firing upon ships at anchor but otherwise Jittle t be trusted Once past sandy Hook the British warship would steam on cautiously j I toward the Narrows keeping a keen i i I lookout for torpedoes and at night sweeping the waters with their searchlights search-lights Much confidence has been placed in the torpedoes or submarine mines which would be laid thickly no doubt through the Narrows and in the waters leading to them Very admirable is the system that has been devisod by the American engineer corps for distributing I distribut-ing these torpedoes and for exploding them with such precision that the < shock will come at the exact moment when a hostile ship is passing over them And the officers and electricians who control these engines of destruction and who sit in darkened rooms on shore where a miniature picture of the bay shows these miniature ships creeping on to I the points of danger are able to press the electric buttons at the very moment electic butons ver I met when the exploding torpedoes will I do direst work But in vain will be all their preparation and consummate skill unless they are protected in their work by forts and guns able to prevent the near approach of the English battleships battle-ships And all the forts and guns on both sides of the Narrows Fort Wads worth Fort Hamilton and the others could no more cope with these great ironclads than a child could with a locomotive lo-comotive COULD DO THE WORK IN TWENTY MINUTES Colonel Robert estimates that twenty minutes would suffice for the Englishmen English-men to destroy or hopelessly cripple all the pre = < nt defenses of the arrows and with these destroyed it would be only a question of hours for the ene I mys small boats and torpedo destroyers destroy-ers to blow up or haul up or otherwise render harmless all the mines and torpedoes tor-pedoes that had been laid One heavy charge of dynamite sunk in the Narrows Nar-rows and discharged from a safe distance dis-tance by the enemy would probably explode more than half of the hidden charges I is safe to say that twenty four hours work upon the mines and torpedoes in the Narrows would remove re-move all danger for the attacking vessels I ves-sels and allow them to pass through unharmed into the upper bay And once there in half an hour the big I guns of England would be thundering T < e 4 L A DISAPPEARING GUX AT SANDY HOOK off the Battery dropping tons of iron and dynamite into the heart of the citj citjColonel Colonel Robert says that the country has gone mad over the navy or rather has been spending money freely for warships while neglecting its coast de fences I Sandy Hook and the Nar rows were properly fortified with batteries bat-teries of 10inch 12inch or 16inch guns on disappearing carriages it would be practically impossible for attacking at-tacking warships to get near enough to New York to do serious damage I would not be practicably impossible for them to do so for of course if England Eng-land chose to concentrate her whole naval strength before New York she could pass any batteries but that is something England would not find it propriations at the present meagre I rate I would take a century or two to property fortify our Atlantic seaboard I sea-board Vhe lowest amount that is regarded I re-garded by experts a in any way sufficient suf-ficient for the establishment of proper coat defences is 150000000 which is perhaps not onethird of the sum England En-gland would demand as a ransom for New York city alone were her menacing menac-ing warships once anchored in the East river And that is not counting the heavy indemnity she would make Philadelphia pay and Boston and Charleston and Portland for sparing I them from the fury of her guns TWO YEARS NEEDED Even should congress make appropriation appro-priation without limit for coast de fences i would take two years to make the necessary guns and to mount them properly Of the great 16inch guns that are needed for coast defence all along the Atlantic and are indeed at present in the specifications but not elsewhere not even the original model has been manufactured indeed there is no machinery in the country suitable suita-ble for its manufacture Such machinery ma-chinery must first be made and then will come the long process of building carriages turrets casemates and the other elaborate appurtenances of mounting before the guns will have any practical value As to their ultimate mate value there can be no question for naval authorities are all agreed that as between guns of equal size mounted on shore and on vessels the former show twice the efficiency of the latter In the Crimean war this was clearly demonstrated it being a matter mat-ter of history that the English and French menofwar never engaged at close quarters with the land batteries at Sebastopol and Cronstadt I may be maintained by those who put all their trust in a navy that it matters little whether our coast de fences are strong or weak so long as we have ships of war lying outside to keep the enemy Way Doubtless this would he true i we had ships of war in sufficient numbers that we might at any moment bring before any one of our exposed cities a gathering of them equal to the entire naval force I that England might suddenly concentrate concen-trate at any point of attack But that would mean the possession of more ships of war than there are in the whole world and it is quite plain that however excellent the American navy may be i would be unequal to such a prodigious task And this is especially espec-ially true in vkw of the fact already stated that with the exception of the three guns that guard New York there is not a single city on the Atlantic Atlan-tic seaboard that is protected by even so much as one big gun I is furthermore quite certain that i England is well aware of our weakness I in coast defences for the representatives representa-tives of foreign powers in this country coun-try spare no pains to secure the most accurate information in regard to these matters Colonel Robert assured me that the board of engineers have to take the most extreme precautions and shroud all their acts in the greatest great-est secrecy to keep European spies from learning of each new measure for defence and from obtaining maps of harbor batteries charts showing the location of submarine mines and j of statistics regarding the number of torpedoes in readiness at Willets Point where the central storehouse is located locat-ed at the Narrows and at other strategic strat-egic points egc THE U S ENGINEER CORPS While there is reason for concern or alarm in this lack of heavy guns for our coast defence it is gratifying to know that the organization of the military itar engineers charged with the service ser-vice of torpedoes and submarine mines is most satisfactory The officers and men included in this engineer corps receive the most thorough and practical tical training in the schools at Willets Point and elsewhere in l the details of torpedo warfare in the planting of mines and the operating of them by various electrical contrivances on the shore They are thoroughly drilled in all the secrets of the loading they learn how to charge the shells with a 7 I st I ii 5QlY C d I I O I r NP jJ 014p T If F LO i fli I uitjwi Jj s i AN O 1 1 < > 0 0t j IA SHOWING FORTIFIED APPROACHES TO NEW YORK HARBOR expedient to do At present however she could get past with only a few ships and by putting forth only a slight effort While many millions have been appropriated ap-propriated in the past six years for the extension and strengthening of the navy congress has voted in that same period less than 4000000 for coast defences The inadequacy of this ap yropviation becomes at once apparent when one considers that a single nail of 12inch runs cost for manufacfur fng and mounting 600000 With ap k hundred pounds or more of hIgh explosive ex-plosive how to put in the detonating caps and make the electric connection so that there wH be no flaw in the insulation in-sulation how to locate instantly any leak in the submarine cable and how to use the switches and circuit breakers I break-ers when they std In the operating room with hands on the levers waiting I the word to fire A busy scene there is in this operat I ing room when the torpedo corps are busy with their experiments usually carried on in the summer monthi Voltaic batteries are quickly set ui drums of cable are submerged and fuses switches and circuit regulators are issued to the loading room where another detail of men are working like beavers charging the torpedoes Meanwhile Mean-while the men in the boat service detail de-tail liava prepared the planting tug for action A sergeant on board within with-in specially rigged telegraph apparatus working through one core of the cable communicates with an operator in the casement and reports each step in the work One by one the charged cases are lowered and the submarine mines are planted each one being connected electrically with the discharging button but-ton on the shore The proper way to lay torpedoes the various systems of grouping and connecting them and the endless details to be observed so as to effect the discharge with most deadly results all these form in themselves them-selves a special branch of military knowledge to which many engineers devote their entire energy In these practice drills loaded mines are frequently fired so aS to give the men opportunity to study the height of the jet the effect of the concussion attending on neighboring mines and other tending phenomena from which important import-ant conclusions may be drawn Then niprhtdrills are held with the aid of searchlights to illustrate the opera tion of torpedo defence against a hostile hos-tile vessel attempting to pass over submarine mines under cover of darkness dark-ness All this is admirable and would be more so had we the assurance that the operations of this finely equipped engineer corps would be protected in time of need by big guns on shore capable ca-pable of repelling the advance on the enemys warships Without big guns torpedoes are a vain defence for our harfoors And unfortunately big guns axe wantingCLEVELAND I CLEVELAND MOFFET |