628 



NAVY, UNITED STATES. 



manoeuvring to escape near direct firing, and 

 so to prolong their existence and power of 

 aggression. The result in England has been 

 a suspension of opinion in reference to the 

 effectiveness of practicable iron armor, and 

 more than this, the questioning by some 

 authorities whether any effective armoring 

 is not in the nature of the case an impractica- 

 ble thing. In this country, the same degree 

 of distrust on this question has not arisen; 

 and the greater confidence existing must be 

 traced in no inconsiderable degree to the fact 

 of the general choice here of models for armor- 

 ed vessels, and plans of armoring that, for the 

 purposes intended and the tonnage and capa- 

 city given, have unquestionably, nay, demon- 

 strably, proved more decided successes and 

 steps of advance in practical naval warfare, 

 than have any or all the armored ships thus far 

 produced by France and England. There can 

 be little doubtAhat, for their tonnage, the Roan- 

 oke and Dunderberg will prove quite as for- 

 midable antagonists as any of the Royal Oak 

 and Prince Consort class of English (similar) 

 plated wooden ships ; nor that the Puritan and 

 Dictator, with their lOJ-inch armor and four 

 feet of oak, but practically backed also with 

 the entire remaining deck of 40 ft. breadth, its 

 own thickness of the sides only rising above 

 water, will be almost absolutely invulnerable ; 

 while it must, at the least, be admitted that, 

 when completed, these will be beyond com- 

 parison the most formidable war vessels in the 

 world. The enduring capacities of even the 

 smallest-size Monitors are proved abundantly 

 by the absolute freedom from penetration 

 and the slight actual damage with which 

 seven of them came out from the terrific 

 hail of projectiles poured upon them for more 

 than an hour in Charleston harbor ; and the 

 assurance is given that even this class can 

 be practically much further strengthened, to 

 meet future assaults. 



Still, these smaller vessels are valuable only 

 for their purposes, and within a certain sphere 

 of service. Mr. McKay jiutly urges that, while 

 they are well fitted for defending or operating 

 in harbors, they cannot command the high seas, 

 take the necessary part in great naval engage- 

 ments, break blockades on distant coasts, nor 

 protect our commerce in remote parts of the 

 world; and he anticipates that in a contest 

 with large iron-clad frigates, they would be 

 terribly handled, and would probably be run 

 down. He calls attention to the fact that the 

 French will soon have a fleet of 16 iron-cased 

 frigates fit for foreign service and an aggressive 

 warfare, the English 16 sucli frigates and 2 

 iron-cased corvettes, suitable for the like pur- 

 poses. It may still be answered that, if the 

 true policy of this country be anticipated to 

 continue a defensive one, then her war navy is 

 increasing in strength in the right direction. 

 But Mr. McKay argues that, to be compelled 

 to keep on the defensive is in itself a defeat ; 

 and yet, that for such purpose only, in case of 



a war with any of the great naval powers, it is 

 absolutely necessary that we have at least 20 

 large, powerful iron-cased frigates, that can be 

 used also as rams, of at least 12 knots speed, 

 capable of carrying ten days' coal, and in 

 draught not exceeeding 24 feet. These ships, 

 he thinks, should be of wood, and copper bot- 

 tomed, while, besides these, there would be 

 need of 20 to 30 armored shell-proof corvettes, 

 of high speed and light draught, and carrying 

 each 10 to 12 guns. 



Perhaps the practical conclusions following 

 from the whole subject, in reference to the 

 improvements now appearing desirable, both 

 in the line of ordnance and of armored vessels, 

 cannot better be expressed than in the lan- 

 guage of Mr. Holley, in the "Atlantic Monthly," 

 for January, 1863, in an article from which, 

 as well as from that by the same author in the 

 " National Almanac," for 1863, some of the 

 facts and deductions given in this paper, and 

 not separately credited, have been drawn 

 when he says : " The direction of immediate 

 improvement in ordnance for iron-clad warfare 

 appears to be in the abandonment of cast iron, 

 except as a barrel to be strengthened by steel ; 

 binding an inner tube with low-steel hoops, 

 having a successively increasing initial tension; 

 and the use of spherical shot at excessive velo- 

 cities by means of high charges of powder in 

 bores of moderate diameters [rather, it would 

 appear on this point, in bores of the largest 

 possible diameters for which the due strength 

 of metal to bear the proportional firing charge 

 can be secured]. The rifling of some guns is 

 important, not so much to secure range or ac- 

 curacy, as to fire elongated shells through 

 armor. The direction of improvement in 

 [large ?J iron-clad vessels, appears to be in the 

 concentration of armor," with shot-proof decks 

 and bulkheads, as already described; "high 

 speed without great increase of weight of the 

 driving parts, by means of improved engines 

 and boilers, and high pressure ; the production 

 of tenacious iron in large, thick, homogeneous 

 masses ; and the rapid manoeuvring of heavy 

 ordnance by machinery." 



Finally, even if it should not appear alto- 

 gether apposite to our subject, it is certainly 

 apposite to man, who is still greater in himself 

 than all the wonderful things he can do, and 

 more important to himself than all that he can 

 accomplish m his Titanic play with matter and 

 forces, to add from a moral point of view the 

 reflection that, to accept the struggle now 

 going on between the means of offensive and 

 of defensive warfare as an end, or as anything 

 indeed more than a passing disturbance or con- 

 vulsion running through the human mind and 

 over the face of society, would be to put a 

 wholly new interpretation henceforward upon 

 the meaning and intention of all scientific ad- 

 vancement, and upon that more authoritative 

 presage of nearly nineteen centuries since, con- 

 veyed in the words " On earth peace, good will 

 toward men." 



