Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1892 — Rams in Naval Warfare. [ARTICLE]

Rams in Naval Warfare.

Naval authorities assert that rams will be the most effective weapons in the naval conflicts of the future. In the building of every battleship nowadays much attention is givep to making,the stem as powerful as possible, in order that she may ram an adversary eff ctively. Methods of conflict on the sea are reverting, curiously enough, to those practiced 2,000 years ago, when Rome was mistress of the waves. Then vessels of war were propelled by two or three banks of oars; now they arc driven by two or three screws. Then, as now, the most deadly blow was struck with the ram. Then, as now, the commanding officer stood in a “conning tower,” directing the movements of the ship, issuing orders for the launching of missiles against the enemy, and at the critical moment “giving the stem” to an opposing craft. In order to conceive the power of the modern ram, imagine a ship weighing 5,000 tons driven at a speed of fifteen miles an hour against a floating antagonist.