Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1891 — TO DEFEND NEW YORK. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TO DEFEND NEW YORK.

IMMENSE FORTIFICATIONS TO BE BUILT. One of the Standing Jokes on Uncle Sam to Be Terminated—Mortar Batteries ot Vast Destructive Power Will Be Mounted Behind an Improvable Fortress. • Coney ’lsland Cannon. The engineering department of the United States army has perfected the last details of the p ans for a work of vast importance, as it will complete the defenses of New York harbor against any known power of war These plans are for a great fort of modern mortar batteries, to bo constructed facing the ocean and defending the broad gateway of the harbor. The land on which this fort will stand lies at the east end of Coney Island and has been purchased by the Government for 490,000. For manv years tho engineers of the War Department have been casting solicitous glan es at the most dangerous omission in the lino of de enses about the ocean entran e to New York harbor, rendered every year more dangerous by tho improvements in carrying capacity and destructiveness of the guns placed on ships of war 'I his danger is a secret from no fore gn power. The Coast Survey charts in currency all over the world show it at a glaive and in graphic figures, resides the two or three narrow channels that are navigable through the entrance to New York harbor, in the waters between Coney Island and Sandy Hook, there is a pocket of deep water approaching the Long Island shore from the ocean, some miles cast of these channels, that is navigable

to any vessel, whatever may be her draught. By means of this deep pocket a man-of-war could arrive at a safe anchorage in Rockaway inlet. Less than six miles away from this anchorage are the outlying wards of Brooklyn, two miies further is the East River, and another mile beyond is the heart of New York City. From this inlet a hostile ironclad could bombard Brooklyn and New York with a destruction unparalleled in the history of bombardment, and there could be no effective reply to this attack. Fort Hamilton and Fort Wadsworth, guarding the narrows between the upper and lower bays, would be nine miles away from the disturber, safely anchored in Rockaway inlet, and ' these forts have no armament that could throw shcl s such a distance. In 1883 Gen. John Newton and a body 'of engineers from the army made a critical examination of this pocket with a view to perfecting the defenses of the .great twin cities. They found that this -deep water cou’d be brought under ■effective fire in a circle having Plumb Island in the center with a radius of Six unties. They recommended the aequisi<ion of Plumb Island bv the Government and the immediate construction of

fortifications there. Since that time several schemes have begn proposed for guarding the entranceto New York harbor th^t•“'kould include the do.onse of thtn decp water approach to the shore of Long Island. Soon after the act of 1 Congress approved Aug. 18, 1 90, to purchase lands for: defensive purposes. Col, G. L. GHlepie, constructing engineer of the fortifications at the f ort of New York ( was lnstructeg'by the War Department to examine into the feasibility of building defenses on Plumb bland. He raperted favorably on the scheme, and proposed the acquisition of fifty acres ot the island to be covered by mortar batteries. The land was owned bv the estate of William Engeman, represented by Thomas E. Pearsall/ of Biook.yn. The Government offered 850,000 for the fifty acres, for which the Engemans wanted 8150,000. The question of the value of the land was argued before a confcmission appointed by the United Stales District i. ourt By the decis on of this tribunal the Engemans received

♦1,500 an acre for their land and $15,00i ■for the damages that the erection of the fort would do their adjacent p:opPlpmh Ig’and Is partly in the rear of thd,low bar of sand forming the eastern ■end of toney island known as Point Breese. The island has a low. slanting ’beach backed by a few sahd-hills and da* meadow land extends back for many ♦uaared acres The highest spot on the is . not, fifteen feet above mean *» " * ' ’** 1 ■

high, tide During tho heavy seas of early spring a large part of the island is under water. Its on y buildings are three fishermen’s shanties, now uninhabited. No drearier srot exists on the ocean shore than this isle of a hundred acres, whose air is polluted by the stenches from the fertilizer factories at Harren Island, just across the narrow inlet to Jamaica Bay. The importance of the work on this desolate little slip of sea sand can not be overstated. It includes the entire outlying ocean defense of the greatest of

America’s harbors and tho protection from bombardment of its greatest cities. A glance at the map accompanying this article will show the location and strategic Importance of the new mortar batteries. They will command not only the deepwater pocket that would a low an ironclad to approach the shore from the ocean, but in the longest ranges of its guns <an defend the channels of the A arrows against the entrance of the foreign hostile fleet to the New York harbor. In case a fleet of warships succeeded in entering the lower bay it could join in the g.and conflict that would arise when they met the guns of tho forts that stand at the entrance to the upper bay. The Plumb Island n ortar batteries are to be arranged in two fortifications of earthworks standing side by side and facing the ocean at a southwest angle. Each fort is to be 600x400 feet, according to Gen. Henry C. Abbott, president of tho 1 card of engineers, in whose office the plans have been prepaiod. Tho ramparts of the forts are to be thirtyfive feet above ebb tide, and the guns will rest on a body of cement raised ten feet above the low water. The interior of each fort is to be divided into four pits, each containing four of those, terrible engines of destruction, 12-inch howitzers. The guns will be fired out of a great well, as the earthwalls of the fort wi'l rise twenty-five feet above the level on which tho cannons are operated. The mortars will thus be entirely invisible from the ocean. In the deep pits tho guns will bo perfectly protected from the impact of tho shot thrown by the enemy, as tho mounds cf eartli forming the ramparts are to bo of a thickness impenetrable by any known projectile Within each pit is to be a storage magazine for powder, protected by masonry and earth, and there are to bo extensive magazines for high explosives, located at some distance from the batteries. The powder magazines for each battery, will hold 100 tons. In tho rear two forts will not bo parquetted, but will be loft open. Tho thirty-two great guns for the two Plumb Island batteries are to be of tho new pattern of twe ve-inch mortars known as howitzers, of which successful tests have been made within tho last ten days at Sandy Hook. They are breechloading. and constructed on the built up plan, steel lined, rii.e borod, and stoolhooped. It is much longer than the old pattern of mortars and is capable of extreme accuracy in firing. The pro ectiles for one of those monster cannons, which, dropped on the deck of tho best armored Ironclad in existence, would pierce the entire ship, is of solid bulk of steel three feet long, weighing 625 pounds and costing .*3OO. Eighty pounds of powder will drive this largo project!.o eight miles. Tho gun will also throw shells containing high explosives. By this moans it can drop enough nitro glycerine on a ship's deck to scatter an ironclad into 10,000 pieces. it is one of the new twelve-inch howitzers whose detonation during its test firing shattered windows six mi os awayand wh ch with a single shot has destroyed 53,00 J worth of armor plating.

DEFENSES OF NEW YORK HARBOR.

THE MORTAR BATTERIES.

THE MORTARS.

LOCATION OF PLUMB ISLAND.