| Show THE UNITED STATES NAVY I As ll i alu as it Wl11 Bc four Years Hence WASHINGTON Sept 21Chief Constructor I Wilson estimates the active life of wooden war ships of our present navy as follows I lie Tennessee the only one classed as first rite I six months Trenton Omaha and Van diha second rates and Mohican third rite ten years Lancaster and Brooklyn i second rates and Adams Alliance Essex Enterprise Lipsic Tallapoosa and Yantic third rates six years Hartford Richmond and Pensacola second rates and Jnniata Ossipec Quinnabaugh Swatara Marion iroquois and Kearsage third rates five years These together with the iron ships Atonocacy Alert and Ranger third rates and Michigan Palos and Pinta fourth rates constitute the available fighting force if tae present navy The most powerful of their weapons are converted guns having a iran i-ran e perhaps of two miles excellent arms I for operations against wooden ships and ancient fortifications or shelling towns but inefficient against modern armor The very best of these ships is held by our naval authorities to be far behind the times as reliance re-liance for offense or defense in actual warfare war-fare The list of ironclads comprise more than a dozen monitors but none of them I I I are in condition for service at this time t I With this showing the United States is i placed by her own authorities at the foot of I r the list of naval powers in the essential I matter of ships and guns there being three j I South American two Asiatic and fifteen I or sixteen European powers which 1 I I outrank us That portion of our prospective new navy whose construction has already be sanctioned by Congress numbers num-bers eighteen ships of all classes to cost an aggregate of something more than twenty million dollars and most of which barring accidents or failure of appropriations is expected to be afloat four years hence They are required to be built entirely of metal and no device known and approved at the date of their planning to secure efficiency as I fighting machines has been or is to be I omitted in their construction Their armament arma-ment throughout will be of modern high powered guns the largest weapons at present I contemplated being twelveinch breech loading load-ing rifles carrying a missile which weighs more than eight hundred pounds and requiring re-quiring more than four hundred pounds of powder for each discharge The theoretical range of such weapons is about twelve miles difficulties in the matter of elevation and otherwise serve toreduce this somewhat in practice Seven of these ships are to be armored the heaviest probably carrying sixteen inches of steel as a protection Three will be protected cruisers that is vessels whose thick lower decks of steel dip their edges below the water line and serve as a protection to machinery magazines and other vital parts of the vessels The others will be four steel cruisers two gunboats gun-boats one firstclass torpedo boat and one dynamite cruiser of steel The cruiser Dolphin Dol-phin 1533 i tons displacement is already completed and receiving her armament The Atlanta 3C33 tons is on her trial trip and armament is being tested while the Boston Bos-ton 3000 tons and Chicago 4500 are well advanced in place and are nearly ready for their armor while the Terror Amphrite and 1 Monadnock 3815 tons each are now receiving receiv-ing their machinery The other two armored ships have not entered on their first stage of existence their construction having only been authorized by Congress at the end of its last session They were to be of 6000 tons displacement of the best bottoms the engines designed to drive them at a speed of sixteen knots per hour and complete torpedo outfits and armaments of the most effective kind are to cost not more than 2rXX009 each In the mere matter of displacement dis-placement these ships will exceed nearly by onefourth the best and largest of our present pre-sent naval vessels while in speed and effectiveness ef-fectiveness they are depended upon to compare com-pare favorably with the better class of I European cruising war ships The dynamite dyna-mite gun cruiser will be a novelty comparable com-parable probably to nothing now in existence ex-istence The Secretary of the Navy is required re-quired to make a contract with its inventors J for its construction and the department will have little or nothing to do with the work beyond 5sing judgment upon the plans in ad and the result at its completion com-pletion > onditions imposed by the act of Congtes template the construction of a vessel 13u 2et 0ng proportionately very narrow and of very light draft with exceedingly ex-ceedingly powerful engines guaranteed to be capable of producing a speed of twenty knots In brief the plans of this craft are understood to look to the of placing machinery ma-chinery and other ordinary appliances of the ship towards the bow and stern leaving the region amidships for the magazine and pneuma puns the latter being fixed in positioi A r1 having a high elevation The dynamite uasszle will be thrown like bombs from an ordinary mortar With all these vessels afloat the United States as a naval power will outrank Brazil Chili the Argen tine Bepuuho China Japan Greece Norway Nor-way Portugal and Sweden and will be > > abreast of Turkey Spain Holland and Denmark Sb wilt still be outranked bv England and Russia France Germany Austria Italy |
