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Show I BATTLE ON THE SEA WHAT NAVAL WARFARE MEANS TO-DAY. Ocean Conflicts Terrible to Contemplate Contem-plate Sine Modern Conditions Have Mad Them 8o Deadly Frightful Loss of Life Inevitable. ftpeclftl Correspondence.) row as are tho people who can Imagine a battlofleld on shore, they are vastly fower who can plcturo with any certainty the Bceno of a naval conflict. Tcrrlblo, too, as aro all scenes of warfare, there seems something akin to sacrilege, to desecration of God's own realm, in man daring to carry bloodthirsty, Destructive animosities nit upon tho stainless blue of tho pure sea. Yet hero, no matter how errlflo tho slaughter, how widespread tho destruction wrought by man upon Is fellow-man, tho merciful sea, 1m- poll.utable, reticent. Immediately ef- nces all traco thereof hldc3 man's misdoings from tho gazo of high heav- -m, nor allows the poor remains to 'le and fill the air with pestilence. And this of course, more so now Minn ever it has been beforo. In the days when Ilrltaln became tho sover-ilgn sover-ilgn power nt sea and her wooden vails wcro handled and fought 'h rough whole days In closest proximity prox-imity with their onomlos, It often befell be-fell that ships hulled through and through with shot drifted for many days, whilo tho handful of unwounded sutvlvors accomplished tasks such as mako the mind reel to think of. Thoy fought for llfo as fiercely as they had faced their human enemies; hacked and howed at tho wrockage around them so that tho sea might tako It away with its deadly danger to them; doggedly stuck to tho pumps, cleansed tho shambles of their ship for the avoidance of po3tllenco, and held at hay that senso of utter weariness weari-ness and hopelessness which was tho deadliest foo of all. And tho wide, clean sea around them waited impartially im-partially for whatever end was decreed de-creed thom, ready to cover up all traces of them if thoy failed to live, or bear them bravely on Its bosom Into port and safety. In the days of sail and wood there was somcthine romantic, in snlta of fleets In :ho fuluro. There will bo scarcely and such thing as tho lingering lin-gering agony, long drawn out. of the old days of sen fighting. Kor ono thing, modern Ircnclads and cruisers going Into action will choose tho lesser less-er of two evils confronting thom. He-cause He-cause of tho deadly peril of splinters and of flro. everything of wood In their fittings, oven to tho boats, will bo cast away at tho beginning of the light. Then, whon tho battlo Is Joined, tfea Bcnman must needs havo a heart of brass incased In triple steel, a mind that refuses to meditate upon the Immediate Im-mediate possibility of ono of those terrlblo twelve-Inch projectiles plunging plung-ing down upon his vessel's deck, and out, amid tho disintegration of all her ganglions of energy, through tho bottom, rendering her an easy target Hastening to Aid. to an uninjured foo, and her sinking a matter of minutes. And whon sho sinks, stonellko pumping being, if possible to a yot undamaged engine, a manifest absurdity absurd-ity in that rent fabric of steel with her must go all her crow. It may sound cruel and hard-hearted to spoak of their end being mercifully swift, but. In vlow of the horrors of the old wooden ships floating on, verlta-blo verlta-blo charnol houses, whon the battle was over, there was hardly any other term applicable. The modern man-of-war will not, at any rate, prolong tho agonies of her crow when sho Is scuttled. She will ko down aulck into tho nit in a halo of steam, a whirling vortex of waves, - -- j-' ?-- i- -13 an(J 'n flvo minutes from the com- lgS;g2i?gi moncoment of her downward plungo is there will bo no sign that sho has S5S ever beon, nnd only if other vessols Tho Deadly Torpedo Boat. Its horror, In tho maneuvering of those winged fleets upon tho open sea. Something solemn In the sight of two hostllo fleets eager to destroy ono nnothcr, held In tho bonds of unwilling pcaco by tho falling of the wind. The vast shining surface of the sea lying In placid beauty beneath the bright, bluo sky, and the two motionless motion-less groups of vessels, with Idle sails downhanglrg, Just gently moving to tho tonder heaving of the swell. Poace, as at tho beginning, over nature abovo; but in the rocessea of the ships, what seething passions, ambitions, ambi-tions, fears! In contrast most striking, think of two hostllo fleets endeavoring to get at each other In a galo. The awe-inspiring awe-inspiring war of tho elements seeming seem-ing to brook no Interference with their high controversy, and man, actuated by tho most dosperate and primitive of all Instincts, daring to disregard the cosmic quarrel of wind and wave. pS M, In Action. The puny voices of the cannon competing com-peting presumptuously with tho clangor clan-gor of tho tompost and tho thunders of heaven, tho tiny rod flashos from tho vossels' hoavlng Bldos hardly no-tlcoablo no-tlcoablo nmld tho dazzling splendors of tho lightning, und tho fceblo wall ings and gronnlngs of tho wounded almost unheard, oven in tho hiding placos of tho ships, by reason of tho sound of complaining tlmbcts and crashing down of spars. Hut modern soa wnrfaro has changed nearly all thot. Far more terrlblo, but mercifully far moro s.vlft. will bo tbo conflict between hostllo bo very near will there bo any possible possi-ble chanco of saving tho handful of stalwart swimmers whose superhuman superhu-man struggles havo wrenched thom clear of tho devouring, down-dragging eddies. More than a mere handful thero could not bo In any case, slnco another tremendous difference bo-twocn bo-twocn past and present sea fighting Is that the steel-clad monsters go Into battlo with hardly a man vlslblo, almost al-most all of them hidden behind mas-eivo mas-eivo walls, shut In from the devastating devastat-ing Impact of large projectiles, as woll as tho horrible hail of Hotchklss and Maxim bullets. The pomp and pageantry of sea warfare war-fare in Nelson's day, with Its stripped crowds of men swarming about the Incumbered decks, and streaming flags from every mast, have gone with tho towering ranges of sails and nimble nim-ble 8llors who leapt about aloft handling han-dling them during tho height of battle. bat-tle. The now man-of-war goes Into the fight grim, unadorned, and apparently appar-ently proceeding by hor own volition, llko somo unthinkable marine monster mon-ster begotten of tho elder slime. To a landsman, and even to a merchant mer-chant seaman, thoro Ib something peculiarly pe-culiarly terrifying In tho notion of a sea fight In a fog. It 1b a tlmo of terror ovon In peaceful navigation, slnco tho great sea broadths scum to havo contracted, and one's faculties aro lcopt at their utmost tension In caso of running aerobe another ship. Fog Is the only elemental condition that succeeds In making tho great, wldo sea look a llttlo placo, whore not merely navies havo no room to float, but It seems Impossible to avoid colliding col-liding with tho only other Bhlp that was In sight beforo thoso fleecy walls of mystery closed In upon tho seafarers. seafar-ers. Yot tho modern sea warrior among us Is trained to welcome that condition of things, to dash nt utmost spcod through tho thickness, and burst upon his cnomy with tho sudden sud-den unoxpectodnoss of tho lightning stroke And to add to all these torrlblo conditions con-ditions of modem sea warfaro, wo havo now tho submarine Not coatent with tho mighty arenn of conflict nf-forded nf-forded by tho opon Btirfaco of tho sea, In galo, or fog, or calm, the soa fighter fight-er must now descend Into darkness and silence, the realm of tho utterly unknown, In ordor that ho may haply hurl, at ono fell blow as fiom a bursting burst-ing volcano, Into blazing, boiling ruin and death 800 llvns and tho rovenuo of a principality. For man has oven extended tho battleground uf the sea. |
