U.S. RAM “KATAHDIN.”
The Chicago was the largest of these vessels; the other three were the Boston, Atlanta and Dolphin. They were built of American materials, and were the first vessels of the modern American navy. The Chicago, besides being a twin-screw vessel, had engines which recalled the type installed in the famous Stevens battery. The advocates of the old order adopted with alacrity the role of Job’s comforters, and predicted with as much cheerfulness as the role would allow, the absolute failure of the new vessels. The Chicago’s designed displacement was 4,500 tons, her engines, gave her a sea-speed of fourteen knots, and she was armed with four 8-inch, eight 6-inch, and two 5-inch breech-loading rifled guns. The Atlanta and Boston, each of 3,000 tons displacement and speed of thirteen knots, carried two 8-inch and six 6-inch guns. The Dolphin, of 1,500 tons and fifteen knots, the despatch boat, was given one 6-inch gun. All four vessels had secondary batteries of smaller guns. The three cruisers at their trials attained sixteen knots or over.
Europe, which had treated the American fleets with derision, began to take a tolerant and amused interest in American naval construction when it became known that the new navy had been decided upon. The European powers only mustered eight 16-knot vessels among them, and when three American ships of that speed appeared, Europe became profoundly interested. These ships and the Yorktown, built later, constituted the White Squadron which visited Europe about 1891, and showed the Old World what the New World could do.
The Charleston, the designs for which were purchased abroad, was provided with machinery and boilers supposed to embody the best features of the boilers and machinery of various foreign cruisers, but they had to be altered considerably before she was considered to meet American requirements. She was the first vessel of the new navy to be employed on a warlike service. The supposed filibustering steamer Itata, at the time of the Chilian insurrection in 1891, escaped from the custody of the U.S. marshal at San Diego, and the Charleston was successful in the mission of overtaking her, which she did at Iquique, after steaming 6,000 miles. The Charleston was wrecked off Luzon in 1900.
In 1886 the United States made another extraordinary advance by authorising the construction of the second-class battleship Texas, the armoured cruiser Maine, the protected cruiser Baltimore, the dynamite cruiser Vesuvius, and the torpedo boat Cushing. The Texas and the Maine were the first modern armoured cruising ships constructed in the United States. They were decided upon as the result of the knocking to pieces in half an hour of China’s wooden fleet by the French in the Min River, in August, 1884.
The Cushing, besides being the first American steel torpedo boat, was the first American warship driven by quadruple expansion engines. She was named to commemorate the officer who commanded the launch which rammed and broke a protecting boom, and blew up the Albemarle in the Civil War. The Vesuvius should be included rather in the category of freaks or comparative failures, for though her three pneumatic dynamite guns of 10½-inch calibre, designed by Lieut. Zalinski, could each hurl shells containing 200 lb. of dynamite or other high explosive at least a mile, they were soon outclassed by other artillery. These projectiles were thrown by compressed air, and not by explosions of dynamite. The Vesuvius was employed at the blockade of Santiago de Cuba in 1898, where she frightened the Spaniards with her dynamite shells, but did very little actual damage. Her three pneumatic guns projected abreast through the forward part of the deck, some distance aft of the bow, and sloped at an angle of about 45 degrees. The breech of each gun was in the hold, and the supports of the weapons were so connected with the ship itself as to be practically built into it. The guns were therefore fixtures; their elevation was unalterable and when it was desired to discharge them to right or left or to alter the range the whole position of the ship had to be moved. The Texas and Baltimore were also built on designs purchased abroad. With the exception of three vessels acquired just before the war with Spain, all the American ships are entirely the products of American naval science. The first triple-screw warships were the Columbia—a very handsome ship, sometimes called the Gem of the Ocean—and her sister, the Minneapolis. Up to the attack upon the Spaniards in Cuba, the United States had retained a number of monitors, but the experiences of 1898 convinced the naval department that vessels of that class were out of date and unsuitable for modern warfare.
THE U.S. DYNAMITE-GUN BOAT “VESUVIUS.”
