America has contributed to modern warfare many of its most valuable inventions. In the decade of 1850-60 the steam frigates of the Merrimac class revolutionized the naval constructions of the world, and became the models for the war-ships of the great maritime powers. In the same period our coast defences reached the high-water mark of modern development, and, soon to be crystallized, there were seething in the brains of American inventors ideas of guns, ships, and projectiles which made history. Though to-day our created contributions to quick peace through arrested or irresistible war are meagre, still many of the theories which make possible modern ordnance and ships are the fruits of American genius and industry.
Is the future to be as fertile in thought and deed? Are the destroyers of Ericsson, the dynamite safety shells of Hayes, the guns of Zalinski, the torpedoes of Howell, Sims, or Berdan, the turrets of Timby, the submarine monitors of Tuck, the gun-carriages of King or Buffington, the ordnance of Sicard, Benét—are these to prove that Yankee brain and brawn are potent yet for the mastery of the problem?
The country has no plainer duty than to foster by every care American ideas working in national ways of thought. It is rich, public sentiment is ripe and responsive, and Congress should encourage in peace the experiments which may make war impossible. In the question of ship armament and sea-coast fortifications notably, the value of torpedoes is now so generally recognized that the definite selection of some type has attained an importance which demands most careful consideration. All experts agree that they are vital, but there is not that consensus of opinion which within limits affirms exactly what should be done.
The Fortification Board in their report say: “It is not generally considered possible to bar the progress of an armored fleet by the mere fire of a battery; some obstructions sufficient to arrest the ships within effective range of the guns is necessary. The kind of obstruction now relied upon is the torpedo, in the form of a submarine mine, and, except in special cases, exploded by electric currents which are so managed that the operator on shore can either ignite the mine under the ship’s bottom, or allow the ship to explode it by contact. In deep channels the submarine mines are buoyant; in comparatively shallow waters they are placed upon the bottom—the object in both cases being to touch or nearly approach the hull of the vessel. Submarine mines are not accessaries to defence, but are essential features wherever they can be applied.”
The Senate Committee on Ordnance and War-ships reported: “Concerning another class of torpedoes, ‘fixed’ or ‘anchored’ or ‘planted,’ technically known as submarine mines, there is a great popular misapprehension. Their value is greatly overestimated. They require picked and trained men for their management, electrical apparatus for their discharge and for lighting up the approaches, stations on shore secure against sudden assault, a flanking fire of canister and case shot and of machine guns (themselves protected), light draught picket-boats, and the overshadowing protection of armored forts and heavy guns. None of these things can be extemporized. The submarine mine alone is of little use, and it must accompany, not precede, more costly and less easily prepared means of defence.”
There is, however, a more definite agreement as to the value of torpedo-boats. The Fortification Board declare: “Among the most important means of conducting an active defence of the coast is the torpedo-boat, which, although recently developed, has received the sanction of the nations of Europe, each one of which now possesses a large number of these vessels. Their use will be quite general. First, in disturbing blockades, and preventing these from being made close, as no fleet would like to lie overnight within striking distance of a station of these boats; secondly, in attacking an enemy’s ship enveloped in fog or smoke; thirdly, in relieving a vessel pursued by the enemy; and fourthly, in defending the mines by night and by day against attempts at counter-mining, and in many other ways not necessary to recapitulate.” Impressed with the utility of this mode of defence, the Board recommended the construction of one hundred and fifty of these boats, and the organization of a special corps of officers and men from the navy trained to their use.
In England, Commander Gallwey does not hesitate to say that the torpedo-boat is for harbor defence so superior to the submarine mine that he would not be surprised if before long it superseded the latter altogether. In France, Charmes insists that an armored vessel will run the most serious risk if a torpedo-boat is allowed to approach unobserved to within one thousand to fifteen hundred feet; that the torpedo will surely triumph over the iron-clad, and that armor has been vanquished, not by the gun, but by the torpedo.
A NAVAL RESERVE.