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AMERICAN NAVY OF TO-DAY.

BY LIEUTENANT WILLIAM F. FULLAM, U. S. NAVY.

I.

ETWEEN the years 1865 and 1883 not a single ship of any power was added to the United States navy. The five doubleturretted monitors were begun in 1875, but were never completed. The appropriations made by Congress seldom permitted the building of new ships, comparatively large sums being devoted each year to repairing and patching the old wooden ships that had survived the war. About $65,000,000 spent in repairs could not furnish us with an efficient navy during the period of greatest improvement in naval material of all kinds. Patching will not produce a new or formidable cruiser, and it is not at all strange that such a shortsighted policy should have resulted in the steady decline of our naval strength, the small sum of $5,000,000 appropriated in eighteen years for new vessels only permitting us to add a few new wooden and two small iron ships to the list of obsolete war-veterans that comprised our cruising force, while their batteries were made up of old smooth-bore guns and a few converted rifles.

During all these years foreign nations pursued the opposite and truly economical course of building new ships with improvements which practically placed us at the mercy of many third-rate powers.

A new policy, however, was put in operation during the last administration by the passage of a bill forbidding repairs to old vessels when the expense of such repairs would exceed 20 per cent. of the original cost. The result of the application of this rule is, that in six years only four of the old cruisers will remain upon the navy list, while in nine years all will have been condemned to rotten row.

The building of new vessels being, therefore, an imperative necessity and demanded by the people and the press, Congress has responded since 1883 with appropriations providing for the completion of the five double-turretted monitors, and the building of two sea-going ironclads and fourteen unarmored steel ships of different sizes, all to be armed with new high-powered rifles and modern weapons.

While most of these ships are built after the models of the latest and most successful foreign cruisers, there is one small vessel among them, an American design, which embodies a principle as yet unheard of in naval warfare, a germ

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, by The American Magazine Publishing Co., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. All rights reserved.

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which may make the advent of the dynamite cruiser "Vesuvius" as important as was that of the monitor in 1862. Many conservative authorities are a little afraid to predict a great future for this cruiser and its gun; nevertheless it is probable that none of the wonderful inventions that have been developed during the present century gave better promise of success in the beginning.

to rifle these guns, as it would cause additional strain upon the gun and projectile, and increase, by friction, the heat and consequent danger. To keep the shell steady in its flight there is a tail tube with spiral vanes attached, which act much on the principle of the feather on an arrow. The shell is made of thindrawn brass tubing, and is 14 inches in diameter, and about seven feet long, exclusive of the tail tube. The operation of loading is very simple, as shown in the sketch.

The "Vesuvius" was launched at Cramp's shipyard April 28th, and is intended to demonstrate the practicability of using Captain Zalinski's dynamite The breech-section B of the gun barrel gun afloat in naval warfare. She is a is hinged at the lower end, and the upper small, mastless vessel of 725 tons dis- end may be lowered into the loading placement, long and arrow-like, drawing position by the hydraulic ram C. A ramonly nine feet of water, and with power- mer then pushes a shell from the loading ful twin-screw triple-expansion engines revolver case A into the breech-section designed to give a speed of twenty knots. B, which is then raised by the ram Cand Her length is two hundred and fifty-two joined to the gun barrel ready for firing. feet, and breadth twenty-six feet. A The cases A and A' work on the prinsmall central superstructure and a thinly- ciple of the case in an ordinary revolver, armored conning tower are built upon turning on a central spindle which sucthe upper deck, which is five feet above cessively brings the shells in line with the the water-line. The after part of the breech of the gun. As fast as the loadship is devoted to the quarters for the ing case A is emptied it is filled from the captain and officers, the middle com- reservoir case A'. Thirty shells are thus partments to the engines and boilers, stowed and handled with ease. It is and the forward compartments to the claimed that the gun may be fired twice crew and to the three 15-inch dynamite a minute, and its range will be more guns, which are built into the ship at a than a mile. Compressed air is the firing

DYNAMITE CRUISER "VESUVIUS."

fixed elevation of 18°, projecting above the upper deck near the bow, and extending down nearly to the keel. The angle of elevation has been recently increased from 16° to 18°, to diminish the chances of ricochet and thus ensure the torpedo action of the shell. The guns are side by side, and must be pointed by the helm, the steam steering-gear and twin screws contributing quick turning power. The guns are smooth-bores, fiftyfour feet long, made in sections of thin cast-iron. It is as yet thought best not

medium. A storage reservoir near the keel contains air at a pressure of 1,000 pounds a square inch. From the storage reservoir the air is admitted to the firing reservoir near the breech of the gun. A valve V admits the air from the firing reservoir to the gun barrel in the rear of the shell, and starts the latter on its journey. The man at the firing lever controls the valve V, so that it may be opened to any extent he may desire, thus regulating the amount of air that is to be admitted to the gun barrel. The greater the amount admitted, the greater will be the range of the projectile. Experiments will readily determine the size of the opening for any desired range, thus bringing the gun under the complete control of the operator.

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The shell will contain 600 pounds of explosive gelatine and dynamite, equivalent in power to 850 pounds of pure dynamite, or 940 pounds of gun cotton. This charge is about four times as powerful as that carried by the largest of the White

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get. They claimed that "at a distance of one mile we will destroy any vessel now in the U. S. Navy, and with larger guns which we can construct we will destroy any vessel that is or can be built." It is by no means certain that this is an exaggerated claim. A distinguished officer of the Royal Engineers, who has had much experience in the matter of high explosives and submarine mines, has recently declared to Captain Zalinski his belief that the im

LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF DYNAMITE CRUISER VESUVIUS, SHOWING POSITION
OF DYNAMITE GUN.

A=Loading Revolver Case containing Shell.
A'Reservoir Revolver Case containing Shell.

B-Breech Section of Barrel lowered to Loading Position.
C Ram for operating B.
V Valve.

head torpedoes, and eight times as heavy
as the charges contained in any of the
torpedoes now in use in European navies,
the idea being to produce an explosive
effect sufficient to destroy several water-
tight compartments and thus sink an iron-
clad with a single shell notwithstanding
the minute subdivision of the hulls of
modern ships.

The shell is provided with two fuses, one to explode on impact with the hull of a vessel above water, and the other to allow the shell to sink a few feet before exploding in case it strikes the water before it hits the ship, thus causing it to act as an ordinary torpedo. This arrangement of the fuses constitutes an essential feature of the system since it gives the shell a double field of action--the underwater hull as well as the part above water.

The destruction of the schooner

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mense charges carried by these dynamite shells will be effective against the underwater hulls of formidable ships at much greater distances than is now expected. It is probable that 600 pounds of gelatine and dynamite-ten times the charge that destroyed the "Silliman "-will be fatal against any ship's bottom at a horizontal distance of twenty feet. The gun is, therefore, more destructive than any of the present submarine torpedoes like the Whitehead, and much more reliable in its action. The upward effect of the explosion on the "Silliman" is shown by the fact that the large iron water-tank in the hold was lifted and forced through the decks above, as shown in the photograph taken after the explosion.

SHELL USED IN DYNAMITE GUN.

"Silliman" at a distance of more than a mile by a charge of only 55 lbs. was sufficient to demonstrate the wonderful accuracy of the gun when fired at a fixed target from a fixed platform. The fact that the "Silliman was a wooden craft should not be urged against the gun, since, being light and unballasted, she would rise like a cork from the application of force from below. The manufacturers were anxious to demonstrate the power of their weapon to the satisfaction of the most incredulous, and asked that one of the old monitors be braced and rendered as unsinkable as possible for a tar

Against vertical armor the effect of such a charge has yet to be determined. Comparatively small charges of dynamite have been exploded in contact with vertical plates, by Commander Folger of the Navy, with no serious damage-only a bulging in of the plates; but it has been estimated that 600 pounds would break through 16 inches of armor. break through half that thickness it is a powerful weapon, and it is held by officers of experience that men behind armor which is not broken through will be prostrated or stunned by the concussion of such an immense charge. The

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moral effect cannot, therefore, be over- tributed to the failure of the attack. estimated.

A twenty-five pound charge of gun cotton was found sufficient to break through a two-inch steel deck in the experiments by Commander Folger. It is certain, therefore, that 600 pounds will blow a hole through the heaviest armored deck afloat and produce great havoc below. Against unarmored ships there can be no doubt of the result-the sides will be blown in by one of these shells. Few of the most powerful ships in the world are completely armored; their ends are frequently unarmored, they have light unprotected superstructures, and many

Admiral Porter says of this instance: "Being unable to pass the obstructions the monitors were obliged to turn, which threw the line into confusion." The dynamite shell, with its water fuse, which delays the explosion until it sinks to the desired depth, would, at the distance of a mile, destroy all such obstructions, whether booms, sunken ships, or torpedoes, and thus clear a safe passage for ships. While doing this work the cruiser could, if necessary, lie behind a heavily armored ship for protection against the guns of the enemy. This use of the dynamite gun would alone

render it valuable as a naval

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parts will be quite vulnerable to the dynamite shell, which will blow down masts, smoke-pipes, destroy boats and superstructures, disable machine guns and place their crews hors de combat.

The gun has still another important use in naval warfare. Farragut was compelled to remove at night a heavy chain and other obstructions across the Mississippi before he could pass the forts at New Orleans. At Mobile one of his monitors was sunk, and some delay resulted from sunken mines or torpedoes. In the attack of the monitors on Charleston, under Dupont, obstructions and torpedoes hampered their action and con

of sunken emplacements, against which mortar fire will alone be effective, since rifled high-powered guns will throw their shel's horizontally over the top of such forts. Rifled mortars firing ordinary shells charged with powder and gun cotton will be used of course, but charges as heavy as 600 pounds of gelatine will not be fired except by the dynamite gun, and such projectiles landed inside a fort will produce great damage.

It is by no means improbable that short dynamite guns may be built into the bows of iron-clads for use at close range when ramming, as proposed by Captain Zalinski. The idea merits

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