Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1891 — ITALIAN WAR SHIPS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ITALIAN WAR SHIPS.

ffOW THEY COMPARE WITH OUR OWN. Hoolared —Uncle Yarn's Inefficient Navy— Our Coast Cities Would Be at the Mercy of a Well-Armed Foe.

ARS between nations -often arise from slight ; misunder standings,which occur just as the original quarrel seems settled, and both parties are beginning to congratulate themse'ves that peace will be maintained. Nations are like individuals; it is very hard to make.them upderstand each other. Each nation thinks that its understanding of the other is perfect; when, presto! it finds that it has been mistaken, it loses its temper, and

the cannons are thundering before the mass of the people have found out what it is all about. The stormy temper of the Italian Government seems to have softened and *n era of concessions has been opened. It is well, however, to know with what the United States would have had to deal had the ancient and famous kingdom with which we lately became involved in a dispute formally declared war upon us And let us remember that, where a collision is possible, it is not only dangerous but it is bad form to underestimate our antagonist. Italy is a maritime country and lias been since the bold Venetians, at a time when other mariners were afraid to venture out of sight of land and tied up their galleys at night, pushed northward through the fog as far as Iceland. It was the daring of the Italian mariners, culminating in the splendid enterprise of the Italian Columbus, which pierced the “Sea of Darkness” and idled tlio Atlantic with the argosies of conquest and commerce. The Sicilians and the Neapolitans are veritab e water dogs. Italy takes pride in everything pertaining to tiio sea. Her great naval establishments at Taranto, at Naples, at Uastellemare, at Venice, at Spezzia, are always crowded with workmen building new ships for commerce or for the protection of commerce. The very lifo and soul of the nation since it was unified in 1871 has been put into tho upbuilding of this navy. And why! Because its chief work, when the great European struggle, so long postponed, but so certain to come, begins, will be to grapple with the gigantic navy of France, and to keep that ag-

gressive nation from changing the political geography of the Mediterranean ■coast Italy's navy is essential to the reborn nation’s life, and the nation has made the most tremendous sacritices to maintain it This navy has been a kind ■of mystification for which wondered how Italy, with only just ordinary resources, could go on year’after year building huge ironclads like the Duilio and the Dandolo, carrying four muzzle-loading Armstrong guns, wearing armsr nearly, twp feet thick at tho water-line and 'eightiiert inches thick on : the' -turrets! 7 Those vast floating fortresses,': with their guns •worked by hydraulic mechanism, these •ships which cost more than *5,00!',000 ■each, are not intended, it is said, for any extensive cruises: but the Italians claim that even vessels like their Italia and Lcpanto, each 400 feet long, 72 feet wide, and with an extreme ■draught exceeding 30 feet, with engines ttwice as powerful as those of any other afinored ship in existence at tho time they were built, could patrol a foreign -cqast and remain absolute masters of •■the situation, sinking any ordinary lighting vessels within an hour. Now let us see how the naval force of Italy is at present divided. The kingdom has: Twelve first-class ironclad battleships, with 132 guns and 5,658 men. Three second-class ironclad battlo•ships, with 23 guns and 727 men. Ten second-class unarmored battlo*hips, with 88 guns and 2,588 men. Nineteen third-class battleships, with «9 guns and 1,927 men. Five transports of the first class, with 23 guns and 1,004 men. Seven second-class transports, with 16 guns and 411 men. Five third-class transports, with 8 guns .and 201 men. Six schoolships, with 40 guns and 1,456 men. Five ironclads, armored and unarm•ored, for coast defense, with 23 guns and 1,200 men. Forty-six ordinary fighting ships, with .Bl guns and 1,100 men. Seven torpedo sloops, with 20 guns. Fifty seagoing torpedo-boats, with 100 fguns and 856 men. Thirty-eight coast torpedo-boats, with 48 guns. T wenty-one second-class torpedo-boats, ■with 21 guns. This fleet, large enough to grapple with such great navies as those of France or England, is manned in time of war -by 1,903 officers and 01,007 men, of ■whom 2,000 are gunners. It must be remembered that Italy has, 4n some respects, a better navy than France or England, because she began building at a late date and profited by the latent discoveries, while England is. -atlli mourning over huge arks which acfen.ee has already left behind. Some -of Italy’s vessels carry the heaviest gunsj -over made —the Armstrong, breech-load-' ing rifle of 13 to 17 inches calibqr. ’ The Duilict and .the midable monftters, and play mis-t chief on the American coast if 'assisted ! by a little squadron of torpedo boats. ■The Dandolo is nearly 350 feet lohg and has sixty feet breadth of beam. She .has a displacement of 11,202 tons, and, : like tho Duilio, she. has four 17.72-inch -100-ton muzzle-loading titles. tftree 4.14ach breech-loading lilies, and fourteen

machine guns, as well as three Acted torpedo tubes. The Ironclad cuirasses of these vast ships are eighteen (inches thick. ' i - Now as to tho ability of the United

States to combat with such a power as 'Ahis the defense would bo simply a question of guns mounted on the land, for wo have not ships enough to hold at bay a foreign fleet. The matter of our plac-

ing gii'nls in position to resist a naval attack is 1 not, however, quite so simple as it seems. Although tho efficiency of a gun on the land may be ten times greater than that of one on a mobilo baso such as a ship, the United States still labors under disadvantages. We have not got the heavy guns. We could not build them in sufficient number under a twelvemonth, and when a yeaF is stated as the limit of time necessary for tho construction of a heavy pie< e of ordnance, our ingenuity and mechanical abilities may bo vaunted beyond their capacity of execution. Tho fighting power of a navy constitutes its strength, and in that we are now and will be for years to come, under the most favorable auspices, lamentably deficient Even in men we have not enough now authored by law to man the ships already built. Wo have tho test guns and thd ability to build the b,e.st shi| s; but, as a matter of fact, are to day more Doorly prepared, so far as our naval strength goes, than we were fifty years ago, whon twelve line-of-battle ships could have been equipped in sixty days. A navy cannot be improvised or built at will againsj; an enemy that has a navy already constructed. And modern men-of-war, such as wo must have if we have any, are complicated machines, requiring years to build. We cannot light against brass knuckles with kid gloves, and the ability to run away is not the best safeguard for national honor.

The American navy to-day is in a state of transition. It has “shaken oil the old” and is only beginning to “put on the new.” Our twelve remaining wooden ships would be of no benefit in a contest with any naval power. As elements of a fighting force, either for defenso or offense, they could render no service. Of the new steel ships, sixteen have been commissioned. Of these, the Miantonomah is an iron doubio turreted monitor, and the only armored ship we have afloat. are small gunboats. Eight are protected cruisers. One is known as a dynamite cruiser, and is still an experiment. One is- a torpedo-boat, as yet unarmed because the department has not found a torpedo satisfying all requirements; and the remaining ship is a dispatch-boat, indispensable as an adjunct to a fleet, but not a serviceable addition to the actual fighting force. Thus our present naval strength resolves itself into one armored monitor for harbor defense, eight cruisers, and four gunboats. The Mianitonomah is practically the only fighting ship we have; that is, the only one that would be,able to attack an armored adversary as well as to success-fully-defend itself against attick. She is oi£ jonly reliance to-protect our coasts, ovfi; (interests, our rights, and our propei;||,jand is«f 4,000 tons displacement, 260 fepfi ;in length, 55.10 in breadth, and draWs 14.6 feet of water. ' She is of the monitor type —low free-board, two turrets, with a superstructure between for her secondary battery, an assumed speed of ten knots; seven inches of compound armpr on h&r sides, 11% on her turrets, ■fafid an armament consisting of four 10inch 27-ton guns, two iu i ach turret,

four rapid-lire guiifl. two Hotchkiss revolving cannon, and two gatllngs. Five of the eight cruisers, tho Baltimore, Philadelphia, Charlestpn^S»n Francisco and NewarV- are excellent vessels of their class. They have speed armament, and protection against tbe fire of secondary batteries, equal to that of any cruisers, of.aqy nation, of equivalent displacement. They asp armed, and with guns believed to be equal jf not superior to those on any similar vessel yet launched. They constitute the true nucleus of any navy; are the skirmishers, the scouts, the cavalry of the fleet; but their offensive power is only int' nded for use as against an eqepiy’s. commerce or his unarmored cruisers. They are built to maneuver quickly and to run away successfully from armored ; vessels and fighting ships. The three remaining cruisers, the Chicago, Boston and Atlanta, b?long to the same class and are constructed for the same purpose as those just described. They ara also effectively armed. The four gunboats, Yorktowu, Concord, Bennington and Petrel, find their field in war time in rivers and in shhlldw waters, going where armored vessels cannot venture. Of vessels authorized and in process of construction, two are gunboats of 1,050 tons, or 600 tons smaller than the Yorktown class; seven are unarmored cruisers, three of 2,000 tons, two of 3,183 tons, one of 5,500 tons, anu one of 7,400 tons; two are armored steel cruisers of

I 8,150 and 6,648 tons respectively; one Is an armored steel battle-ship of 6,300 tons; three are coast-line battle-ships of 10,200 tons; one is a coast-defense vessel of the monitor typo, with barbettes instead of turrets; one is a steel harbordefense ram, and four are double-tur-

reted monitors similar to the Miantonomah in general characteristics, but one of them, the Puritan, is of nearly double the tonnage, and improved so much as to

rank with coast-defense vessels; making a total of twenty-one ships that will be added to our naval force in about two years, of which twelve are fighting ships, six of them sea-going, and three of these

equal in armor, armament, coal endurance and efficiency to any similar ships of any naval power. Mauris Hariuxgtox.

SPAR DECK OF THE IRION-CLAD "DUILIO." [It is said this mighty-war vessel could anchor at Sandy Hook and bombard New York City.]

UNITED STATES CRUISER “PHILADELPHIA.”

U. S. CRUISER “CHARLESTON.”

U. S. GUNBOAT “YORKTOWN.”