Defending America with Torpedoplanes 



Battleships can be torpedoed from the air. 

 Torpedo-carrying aeroplanes can protect us 



By Rear Admiral Bradley A. Fiske, U. S. Navy 



THE most startling interjection into 

 warfare of a newly invented thing 

 was the Ericsson "Monitor," Com- 

 paratively few of the people living now re- 

 member the tumultuous joy that ran 

 through the northern states, when the 

 news was flashed that the "Monitor" had 

 defeated the "Mer- 

 near 

 a m p t o n 

 o a d s , on 

 March 9, 

 1862; and 

 even 

 those of 

 us who 

 are old 



enough to remember that fact, fail to 

 realize what a tremendous menace the 

 iron-clad "Merrimac" was. Leaving the 

 Norfolk Navy Yard on Saturday morning, 

 March 8th, she rammed and sunk the 

 United States ship "Cumberland," which 

 carried more men and guns than she did, 

 and, in a few hours afterward, destroyed 

 the United States ship "Congress," also 

 carrying more men and guns than she did. 

 Had the "Merrimac" continued her career 

 as successfully as she began it, she would 

 have destroyed the navy of the northern 

 states, and brought about the success of the 

 Confederacy. In other words, the "Moni- 

 tor" saved the United States. 



The reason why the "Merrimac" and 



Rear Admiral Bradley A. i ; i: ij. S. N., inventor of the torpedoplane, is shown in the oval 

 above. In the event of an attack by an enemy fleet a swarm of torpedoplanes, each carrying the 



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