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| USS Monadnock (BM-3) |
OUR NAVY FAR IN THE REAR.
Estimated Life of the Present Fleet—What the New
Boats are Like and When They Will be Completed—the Guns to be Used.
WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept 26, 1886.—Chief Constructor
Wilson estimates the active life of the wooden warships of our present navy as
follows: The Tennessee, the only one classed as first rate, six months; the Trenton,
Omaha and Vandalia, second rates, and the Mohican third rate, ten years; the
Lancaster and Brooklyn, second rates, and the Adams, Alliance, Essex, Enterprise,
Nipsic, Tallaposa and Yantic, third rates, six years' the Harford, Richmond and
Pensacola, second rates, and the Juniata, Ossippe, Quinnebaugh, Swatara,
Galena, Marion, Iroquois and Kearsage, third rates, five years. These with the
iron ships Monocacy, Alert and Ranger, third rates, and the Michigan, Palos and
Pinta, fourth rates, constitute the available fighting force of the present
navy. The most powerful of their weapons are the converted guns, having a range
of perhaps two miles—excellent arms for operations against wooden ships and
ancient fortifications or for 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 a reliance for offense or defense in actual warfare. The list of
ironclads comprises more than a dozen monitors, but none of them are in a
condition for service.
With
this showing the United States is placed by her own authorities at the foot of
the list of naval powers in essential matters of ships and guns, there being three
South American, two Asiatic and fifteen or sixteen European powers which outrank
us.
That
portion of our prospective "new navy," the construction of which has
already been sanctioned by Congress, numbers eighteen ships of all classes to
cost an aggregate of something more than twenty million dollars and the last
barring accidents or the 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 fighting machines
has been or is to be omitted in their construction.
Their
armament throughout will be of modern high-powered guns, the largest weapons at
present contemplated being the twelve-inch breech loading rifle, carrying a
missile which weighs more than 800 pounds and requiring more than 400 pounds of
powder for each discharge. The theoretical range of such weapons is about twelve
miles, but difficulties in the matter of elevation and otherwise serve to reduce
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 the machinery, magazines and other vital parts of
the vessels. The others will be four steel cruisers, two gunboats, one
first-class torpedo boat, and the Dolphin, 1,500 tons displacement, is already completed
and receiving her armament. The Atlanta, 3,000 tons, is on her trial trip and
her armament is being tested, while the Boston, 3,000 tons, and the Chicago,
4,500 tons, are well advanced in construction. Five of the armored vessels are
of the double turret monitor class, each designed to carry four heavy,
high-powered guns, throwing 500 pound shells with a possible range of ten
miles. Though not designed for cruising, they can in emergencies be sent abroad.
The Miantonowh, 3,315 tons, will be ready for service this year; the Puritan,
6,000 tons, has her engines in place and is nearly ready for her armor, while
the Terror, Amphitrite and Monadnock, 3,815 tons each, are not receiving their
machinery.
The
other two armored ships have not yet entered upon their first stage of
existence, their construction having only been authorized by Congress at the
end of its last session. They are to be of 6,000 tons displacement, to have
double bottoms, engines designed to drive them at a speed of sixteen knots an
hour, and complete torpedo outfits and armaments of the most effective kind and
are to cost not more than $2,500,000 each. The dynamite gun cruiser will be a
novelty, comparable probably to nothing now in existence.
With
all these vessels afloat, the United States as a naval power will outrank Brazil,
Chile, the Argentine Republic, China, Japan, Greece, Norway, Portugal and Sweden,
and will be abreast of Turkey, Spain, Holland and Denmark. She will still be
outranked by England, France and Germany, Austria, Italy and Russia.
References:
1) U. S. Navy Active Ship Force Levels, 1886-present:
http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org9-4.htm
2) Amphitrite class warship: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphitrite-class_monitor
3) Theodore D. Wilson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_D._Wilson
3) Theodore D. Wilson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_D._Wilson
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