Show IDEA OF ARMORED VESSELS IN 1861 naval off officials quick to see possibilities ono of those interesting minor notes on naval history was supplied in a lowell lecture at boston when professor baxter of harvard traced from et a reexamination examination re of the original documents the development of the navys ironclad pr program at the be ginning of oc the civil war a program of which the monitor was merely tile the most celebrated product mr baxter according to the bos ton transcript has annihilated tile the charge of obstructive traditionalism sometimes leveled at the navy department part ment to in connection with the monitor capt viddell harts dictum that war var offices always alays begin b eg 11 a war at a point sonie somewhat what behind that which they had ren readied clied fit at the end of the preceding one apparently did not apply to the navy in 1801 even before the fall of sumter the navy was considering the first of a flood of proposals for the construe construction of ironclad men of war and the chief of the bureau of construction and repair was soon to advocate riot not one but a whole fleet of these radical innovations many blany people donnld donald mckay the creator of the great clipper ships was one were vere advocating armored vessels and the idea of turret mountings for the guns had already been advanced by a british naval officer the year sear before the hie navy department part ment went vent to wurl work in a method leal ical fashion suggestive of world war days it convened a board which studied the proposals and by september was able to recommend three different types for experimental con st ruction one of them was the especially ally radical monitor she had the luck first to meet the test of battle and to pass it magnificently and after that the construction of the large fleet turreted monitors went on rapidly tile the navy was able to take the very latest ideas available study them adopt and test models and then go into quantity tr production for tile winning of ali the war the story Is not without its modern up application it Is an earlier cailler instance of the tinie time I 1 lag ag es essential in the development of any new weapon for war service a phenomenon recently pointed out by a british writ er cr victor lefebure Lere huic as ti a pos sille indans for arriving at scientific disarmament systems another point la Is the fact that the nay navy even with tills this prompt and intelligent handling of the situation got what aliat was ac bailly rather a poor weapon as the result of the basics of working under war pressure the monitors victory in her ono one battle was to influence our naval construction down to spanish war days actually however hoc ver the raft idea which was essential contribution was not a sound one the turret stayed staged but the raft was not copied in other navies and finally di ed in our own but mistakes are unavoidable nallen a new type tipe has to be built in large numbers all at once new york herald tribune |