The Boys of '98

by James Otis

The next step in reducing armament and increasing speed, produced the protected cruiser, which carries no armour belt, but retains the protective deck, upon the sloping sides of which is stored the coal. The turrets disappear altogether, and there is usually only one 8-inch gun, the battery being principally made up of 4-inch rapid-fire guns and 6, 4, and 1-pounders. As this class of vessel is not able to cope with the armoured cruiser, it must be faster, for the general principle holds good that the weaker the vessel becomes in point of offensive weapons or defensive [pg 374]armour, the greater the necessity that she should be able to run away. The best types of the protected cruiser in the navy may be found in the Columbia and Minneapolis, which have a speed of about twenty-seven miles an hour.

The weakest class of all is composed of the unprotected cruisers, which have neither armour-belt nor protective deck, and carry only light batteries of rapid-fire guns. When these vessels are slow, like the Detroit, they are intended for long voyages and for duty in foreign countries, and are of little use in a sea fight. The very fast unprotected cruiser, like the American line steamers, St. Paul and St. Louis, attach little importance to their armament, and rely for protection upon stowing the coal behind the place occupied by the armour belt in other vessels. All the beautiful wood-work, which was so much admired in these vessels, was ripped out to make room for these coal-bunkers, which are sufficient to protect them from anything but the heaviest guns. On account of their extreme weakness as fighters, these cruisers are necessarily the fastest of all the large vessels, and can run away from anything. For this reason no concern was felt for the Paris by those who knew the principles which govern the safety of modern vessels.

The various types of cruisers are not expected to fight with any but vessels of their own class, which they may encounter in the discharge of similar duties, such as scouring the seas as the advance guard of the slower line of battle-ships, preying upon or escorting merchant vessels, blockading ports, and acting as convoys for troop-ships. Gunboats are simply light-draught cruisers, and are intended for use in shallow waters and rivers.

Torpedo-boats, as their name implies, depend entirely upon the torpedo as the weapon of attack, and they carry no guns except a very few light-calibre rapid-fires to keep off small boats. Their success depends on their ability [pg 375]to approach a vessel very rapidly, launch their torpedo, and retreat before they are detected and sunk. Speed is their great requisite, and a torpedo-boat like the Porter can speed thirty-two miles an hour. Naval experts consider their bark worse than their bite, because, with the modern system of lookouts and search-lights, and the accuracy and rapidity of the secondary batteries, it is impossible for a torpedo-boat to get within range without exposing itself to instant destruction, and after a torpedo-fleet has once met with a serious repulse, it is believed that it would be almost impossible to get the crews to go into action again.

The torpedo-boat destroyer, contrary to general belief, does not carry any heavy guns, but depends on its great speed and its ability to cripple a torpedo-boat with its 6-pounders while keeping out of range of the enemy’s tubes. All torpedo-boat destroyers carry torpedo tubes themselves, so that they can be used against the enemy’s battle-ships or cruisers if the occasion offers. The fastest boat in the United States navy is the destroyer Bailey, which can steam thirty-four miles an hour.

In a naval battle the success or failure of a fleet may depend on keeping open communication between the different vessels of the squadron engaged. Owing to the fact that the surface of the sea would often be obscured by the smoke of battle, the difficulty of this is apparent, and naval experts have been kept busy devising some method by which the flag-ship can communicate with the other vessels of the squadron at all times and under all conditions. So far nothing has been put in general service which meets this demand, but lately there have been experiments with the telephone, which, it is said, can be used without wires, by which signals can be projected by a vibrator on one vessel against a receiver on another. The Navy Department is [pg 376]keeping the details of this new system carefully to itself, as it desires to have the invention for the exclusive use of our own ships of battle.

The present method of communication is by the use of flags representing numerals which are displayed in the rigging; by the use of the Ardois system of lights for night work; by the Myer code of wigwag signals, and by the use of the heliograph. As it is of the utmost importance that the enemy should not read the message, the signal books on board a vessel are protected with the greatest care, and are destroyed along with the cipher code whenever it is seen that capture is inevitable. The semaphore system in use in the British navy was tried for a time aboard some of our vessels, but it never became popular, and has been abandoned.

In signalling by the navy code, the sentence to be sent is looked up in the code-book and its corresponding number is obtained. This number is never more than four figures, on account of the necessity of setting the signal with the least delay. The number having been obtained, the quartermaster in charge of the signal-chest proceeds to bend the flags representing the numerals to the signal halliards, so as to read from the top down. These flags represent the numerals from one to nine and cipher, and there is a triangular pennant termed a repeater, which is used in a combination where one or more numerals recur. The numbers refer to those found in the general signal-book, in which are printed all the words, phrases, and sentences necessary to frame an order, make an inquiry, indicate a geographical position, or signal a compass course. Answering, interrogatory, preparatory, and geographical pennants form part of this code; also telegraph, danger, despatch, and quarantine flags.

The signal, having been prepared, is hoisted and left flying until the vessel to which the message has been sent signifies that it is understood by hoisting what is called the [pg 377]answering pennant. If the number hoisted by the flag-ship is a preparatory order for a fleet movement, it is left flying until all the vessels of the fleet have answered, and then is pulled down, the act of pulling the signal down being understood as the command for the execution of the movement just communicated.

It is often necessary for a man-of-war to communicate with a merchant vessel, or with some other war-ship belonging to a foreign country. For this purpose the international code is also carried in the signal-chest. These signals are those in general use by all the merchant navies of the world for communication by day at sea. There are eighteen flags and a code pennant, corresponding to the consonants of the alphabet, omitting x and z. The code pennant is also used with these signals.