The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 26, 1896, Page 19

T 19 WENTY-TWO years ago the keel the iron, low-freeboard coast- defense monitor Monadnock was laid at Mare Island Navy-yard. Twenty-two years in the process of building is a8 very long time. One would imagine that in a couple of decades the Government works at the door of Vallejo ought to have turned out a dozen breadth is 55 feet 6 inches. Her mean draft is 14 feet 6 inches, and she has a dis- placement ot 3990 tons. She is supplied | with a twin-screw horizontal triple expan- | November, but transfers of men rendered sion engine, and her maximum indicated | the navy-yard shorthanded, and hence 1horsepower is 3000. It is calculated that |the continuance. Captain Sumner will she will have a speed of 14.5 knots per | have command and will arrive from the hour. Her normal coal supply is 250 tons, | East some time in February. and this also is the capacity of her bunk-| The newly completed Monadnock, of same time the last turret armor arrived at Mare Island. It was expected that the I essel would have been ready for sea last | was placed in her successor, the Monad- nock of to-day. Under command of Lieutenant-Com- mander Francis M. Bunce, at present rear- admiral, the old Monadnock sailed from Hampton Roads, Virginia, November 2, 1865, in company with the Vanderbilt and Powhattan, paddle-wheel steamers, and the Tuscarora, a screw-ship. Arrived jat 8t. Thomas, in the West Indies, Novem- ber 11, her ability to go anywhere on the sea was already established, and from that port to her Western destination only the Vanderbilt accompanied her. She stopped at Rio Janeiro and was visited and ad- mired by Dom Pedro II, the emperor. “The passage through the Straits of Magellan and Sarmiento Channel to the Gulf of Penar.’ writes her commander, “presented no difficulties which were not easily overcome. I feared, in passing through the narrow bplaces and abrupt turnings, the length of the ship woula give trouble, but in practice found none whatever.”” s, On April 25, 1866, the Monadnock ar- rived at Callao, Peru, and on May 13 at Panama, and after one stop in Mexico, ar- rived in San Francisco on June 22. The reports of officers with reference to the trip of the old Monadnock are valuable as showing that vessels of this type are capable of doing even cruiser service. It must be noted, too, tbat the Monadnock’s successor and namesake 1s an incompar- able improvement on theold craft in every particular and, tberefore, whatever was said in commendation of the old monitor’s THE COAST DEFENSE MONITOR MONADNCCK READY [From a sketch made by a “Call” artist.] FOR SERVICE. monitors complete. But the cause of the delay w ot local, and if the controversy over the Venezuelan question had not as- sumed a portentous aspect it is quite pos- sible that the new Monadnock would be receiving its finishing touches toward she tailend of the year, instead of being made | ready to go into commission during the early part of March. 1i the appearance of a war cloud on the | Nation’s usunally clear and peaceful sky shall result in the extension or material strengthening of our coast defenses and | the speedy upbuilding of our navy, 1t will be a blessing that the ominous shadow arose. Thus the safeguards of the future will be in a measure the offspring of the grim warnings of to-day. While not taking any exception to the old proverb about the dangers of delay, g interesting in the ob- servation that delays have been decidedly beneficial to the Monadnock. In fact de- F ited improvement; delays »portunities for more numer- us of even the minutest de- have been the means of on new and valu- vs have permitted to be made, impor- tant changes to be introduced and desir- able alterations to be effected. The not- able benefit is that the sleeping compart- ments are better arranged gnd more com- fortabl (the ventilation being more ¢ perfect) than in any other naval t that afloats. Besides airshafts she six steam blowers and one elec- the Monadnock goes into com- on and steams out to pay her com- 1ts 1o the great white squadron, the men who walk her decks may proudly boast that she is the neatest and com- plete ssel of her size and kind that ever ed the water. On Friday the last of her big guns was placed in position in the after turret. Inside of a month, if the weather permits, she will be in readiness for her captain and crew. She is now being painted and | polished and will shortly be furnished. | The Monadnock is, in every way, a model boat of the monitor type. She has two | barbette turrets and one military mast. The drawings presented in THEe CALL to- day are the first to be published and afford | an excellent idea of the general dimen- | sions and appointments of the new boat. The length of the Monadnock’s water- ers. Her maximum draft aft at the lowest point of the keel, when tha ship is ready | for sea and her bunkers full, is 14 feet 74 | inches. course, is not the first of her name, but the successor of the 1ronclad of that name, | which was the first vessel of her class to | make the passage from the Atlantic into | The batteries of the Monadnock are very | the Pacific. formidable. Complete, she Las four of the | Monitors were never designed for cruis- very latest and most approved 10-inch |ing purposes, but for harbor defense and | guns. Each of these gunsis 23 feet long | operations upon the coast of the United and each of them weighs 28 tons, a ton of | States. Owing to the foundering of the steel to every linear foot. Two of these | original Monitor off Cape Hatteras and guns are placed in each of the revolving | another of these vessels in the blockade off turrets, and these guns can hurl missiles | Charleston, an impression prevailed that of destruction nine miles. they could not be sent with safety outside | ONE OF THE 28-TON GUNsS READY TO BE PUT ON BOARD. [From a photograph made for “The Call.”] The auxiliary guns consist of two 6- | the barbors in which pounder rim-fires, two 3-pounder rim- |structed. To dispel this false impres- fires, two 37-millimetre Hotchkiss re- | sion the Secretary of the Navy de- volving cannon and two Gatling guns. | cided, among other things, to send the As to the armor, the side plates of the | Mcnadnock, via the Straits of Magellan, to vessel vary from 9to5 inches, turrets 714 | California. i inches, barbettes 113 incbes, and her pro- | The Monadnock, after navigating the tective deck has a layer of 13{ inches of | Atlantic and Pacific, reached this port in steel. safety, and was then placed in ordinary at Her complement will consist of twen- | Mare Island, Her wooden hull decayed ty-six officers and 145 men. and hardly ten years had passed from the they were con- line is 259 feet 6 inches and her extreme The last closing plate of the side armor i time she left the East when she was was received in May, 1895, and about the ' stripped, and the best of her machinery 2 (1] B 1 RO ROOM STORES] Eges qualities may be averred with manifold meaning of the new vessel. The following appears in the report of Commodore Rodgers of June 28, 1866: “I have the honor to announce the safe arrival of the Vanderbilt and the Monad- nock at the navy-yard, Mare Island. The Monadnock found no weather on her voyage from Philadelphia to San Fran- cisco which seemed to touch the Iimit of’ her sea-going qualiti: The engines have performed as satisfuctorily as the hull and have arrived in complete order. The suc- cess of the voyage amply vindicated the judgment of the department in undertak- ing it, and the hopes of the most sanguine of monitor people are fulfilled in this crucial experiment.” Captain Bunce, in his report, said: “During the passage of this ship from Philadelphia to San Francisco the Monad- nock has run by log 15385 knots. Her average speed has been 6.32 knots. The engines have been run about sixty revolu- tions per minute, that being the point judged to be the most economical in fuel | and in wear and tear of machinery. Kot a single piece of the spare machinery has been used, and the engines are all now in good working order. They nave been able to perform all the work demanded of them. “In her present condition she is as per- fectly safe and trustworthy for sruising in in any part of the world as a vessel can be relying on steam alone for-its motive power, and twice as safe as most steamers, for she has two independent pairs of steam engines, either of which is sufficient to keep the ship under control 1n any weather, and to propel her in ordinary conditions of wind and sea five knots an hour. At sea she has never needed or re ceived assistance of any kind whatever from other vessels, and therefore I regard her or any vessel of her class as a thor- oughly competent, independent cruiser.”” And such was the successiul voyage of the first turreted vessel from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. To-day in one of the machine-shops at the Mare Island Navy-yard there is hung up asa momento of the original Monad- nock a catamaran that was kept when the old vessel was torn to pieces. The sailors have quite a veneration for the old raft. It speaks to them of times that are.grow- ing dim to the memories of the old tars who carry under their caps some history of experiencein the war that shook the foundations of the Republic. It seems to ¥ | it becomes still clearer why Kentueky, | throws into the broadest relief the special HE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 1896. PLACIN G A GUN IN rom a photograph taken for “ The “Call.” THE AFTER TURRET. good old Monadnock, but I shall own some little part of whatever fame shall be achieved by the iron boat, with her match- less guns, that sits more gracefully than the monitor whose name she bears, in the waters that saw me dragged from the old Monadnock ere she gave name and place to the vessel that is destined to be the island’s glory and pride.” NAMES OF OUR SHIPS. How Christening Honors Are Scattered Among the States and Towns. The selection of the name Kentucky by Secretary Herbert for the Kearsarge's mate is admitted to be admirable, even by those whose States were candidates for the honor of this naval christening. It hasa double value, indeed, for it also secures ke explanatory alliteration which is some- times aimed at in other navies for sister ships, as for example, in the British “M" class. But its chief merit is that it awards | the honor to a State that did not have any | representation in the nomenclature of our | new fleet. Maine and Texas, under the happy choice of Secretary Whitney of the two | outermost States on our Atlantic coast line, led off with the new battle-ships; Indiana, Massachusetts, Oregon and Iowa | followed. New Hampshire, Vermont and | Minnesota are still represented by receiv- | ing or naval reserve ships, and the Mich- | igan is on the lakes, while Tennessee and Ohio were only a few years ago on the list. | Again, many States are to some extent favored by having the names of noted | cities chosen for cruisers and gunboats, Thus the Empire S tate has the New York | and the Brooklyn, California the San Fran- | cisco and the Monterey. Massachusgtts the Boston, the Marblehead and the Concord, besides the old monitors Nahant and Nan- tucket; Vermont the Bennington, Georgia the Atlanta, Illinois the Chicago, New Jersey the Newark, Connecticut the Hart- ford, Maryland the Baltimore, Washing- ton the Olympia, North Carolina the Ra- leigh, South Carolina the Charleston, Pennsylvania the Philadelphia, Ohio the Cincinnati, Alabama the Montgomery, Minnesota the Minneapolis, Michigan the Detroit, Virginia the Yorktown, Tennessee the Nashville, Maine the Machias and the Castine, Montana the Helena, Delaware the Wilmington. From this point of view which has no town of hers thus honored, should give her name to a battle-ship. There is no doubt that the statute, dat- ing back many years, which prescribed that first rates in the navy should be named after States and smalier ones after rivers, cities and towns and so on, was sound in principle. It originated as far back 251319, and when it was amended in 1858 its essential basis was maintained. Only a few weeks ago an English service aper, noting the interest shown by Amer- lcan cities in vessels named after them, suggested that the practice might well be adopted in that country in order to stimu- late naval interest in the great inland towns. The fidelity with which our rule has been followed in respect to the States honor done to the fumous old Kearsarge | by perpetuating her name on a battle-ship | through the special action of Congress, | Probably this is the only- exception, too, | that wll{be made, since the only other ves- sels that would be likely to share such honors, the Hartford and the Constitution, are still in existence, and the sad fate of the Kearsarge will probably cause the greatest care to be taken that any practi- | cal use of them may be subordinated to safety. For this reason the project of fit- ting up the Constitution for sea service, with a modern battery, at an expense which would furnish a first-class new steel gunboat, may never be carried out. Very soon other States and towns will be candidates again for naming vessels. There are six gunboats now building, and Congress is likely to authorize two, if not three or four, new battle-ships at the pres- say to them: “Iam all thatis left of the ent session. The battle-ships, at least, are | B LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF THE MONADNOCK. [From the Plan of the Ohief of Construction.] L1 likely enough to have their names se- | lected, as in the case of the Kearsage and | the Kentucky, not long after the contracts | for them are awarded.—New York Sun. IMPORTANOE OF BOAT DRILL. Bad Results of Neglecting an Old Naval Exercise. The disaster to H. M. S. Acorn on the southeast coast of America, following so | soon after the still more distressing acci- dent to the boat of the Edgar off the coast of Korea, induces us to call attention to | the comparative absence of boat drillsin | the navy nowadays. In barbors and road- steads steam launches and pinnaces do so | much of the work that it is seldom one | hears the boatswain’s calls, “Away first | cutter,” “Away second cutter.” The' captain’s gig is the one rowing or sailing boat thatis kept pretty frequently going. So, after the “young gentlemen’’ | leave the Britannia, they have little enough opportunity of handling boats under sail, and there is so much to be done | in mechanical work aboard that boat that | drill for the crews are, though not a thing | of the past by any means, but far less | usual than it was ere steam suverseded | sails. This is a pity, for more reasonsthan one. The command of a boat was a fine way of bringing out any smartness a budding officer had. As Lord Charles Beresford used to say, it accustoms the youngster to command and to take responsibility, for | when his boat is once clear of the ship he | is as much her captain as the officer whose | vennant flies from the truck is his cap- | tain. Then again boat exercise tends to | keep u{u in the crews that peculiar handi- ness which used to_give bluejackets their | unequaled versatility. In floating batteries or factories such as are most of our ships at the present day there is little opportunity of becoming a | handy-man. Indeed, a sailor map need | not know very much more than a marine, and the reason for keeping sailors and marines as classes apart seems to be dim- inishing yearly. We hope the Admiralty, spurred by the two sad accidents we have referred to, will insist on more attention being given to boat drill, especially under sail.—London Chronicle. ———— FEW GENERALS LEFT, The Next War Must Come Soon for Them to Be Available. The action of the Senate in removing the disabilities of ex-Confederates to serve in the army of the United States was right and not too hasty. The time, however, is passed when the action of Congress can add to the strength of the army to any- thing like the extent that it would have done had there been occasion for the sery- ices of ex-Confederates years ago. The man who was 21 at the outbreak of the war 18 now 56 years of age. The rank and file are generally made up of young men or those of earlier middle age. ‘With officers the case is different, and especially so with those of high rank. Many of the best officersare well advanced in life, and the policy of retiring our | generals at 64 years of age is far from com- manding general assent. At all events, there ‘are eight years of activity between 56 und 64, " and | and in the event of war the law could | easily be modified if necessary. The pass- age of the bill to remove disabilities, there- fore, might restore to the service some of the generals who wore the gray during the rebellion. But alas! how depleted are their ranks! Lee has been dead for a quarter of a cen- tary, and, if living, would be a very old man. Joe Johnston is also gone, though not until recently. Kirby Smith also has | population we have men enough who are capable of leading armies and winning victories. But it does not follow that we shall discover at once the proper men for the chief command or for the most re- sponsible subordinate positions. Itnotun- frequently happens in war that the discov- ery of the proper men to lead armiesis only made by the disagreeable process of passing through a series of disastrous de- feats. This was particularly noticeable in the East during the Civil War, three- fourths of which was over before a com- mander was found that could lead the Union forces to_ victory. General after general had previously been put in com- mand of that army, had entered upon the | task assigned amid the acclamations of the press and people and had disastrously failed. It does not follow that this un- pleasant experience would be repaated in the event of another war, but, of course, it might be. There is at least comfort in the reflection that England is more nearly destitute of skillful generals than we are. et The Vikings were Northmen, who in- fested the European seas wn the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries. They were generally the sons of Northern Kings, who betook themselves to piracy as a means of becoming distinguished and of obtaining an independent command. i NEW TO-DAY. [mpAR Winter Clearance Sale BEFORE STOCK-TAKING. CLOAKS! Great Reductions in Jackets and Capes to close out our winter stock. JACKETS Redueed to.. JACKETS Reduced to.: $£6.00 $4.00 recently gone over to the majority, and the same may be said of Beauregard and | others, who at one time held impornm! commands. | There are still half a dozen or more | lieutenant-generals of the Confederacy | left, including General Buckner of Ken- | tucky, General Gordon and General Long- | street of Georgia and General Wheeler of Alabama, and the number ‘of major-gen- erals and brigadier-generals left is very considerable. = Undoubtedly there are among these many whose learning and ex- perience would be of great service to the country and toere are some who are yet within the age of 64 years. It is to be noted that all of the most con- spicuous figures on the Union side are also gone. Grant and Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, Hancock, Meade, Logan and many more are gone. There are left of course many generals that rendered valu- able and even distinguished service, but the great leaders on either side are no longer with us. Most of the best-known survivors are old and unlikely to hold any important commands—at least for any length of time after the outbreak of hos- tilities. ‘What, then, should we do for generals in the event of the outbreak of war? The probebility is that the men for the occa- sion would speedily be developed. There are scores of obscure men throughout the country that a war would render famous, and some of them illustrious. In 1861, who supposed that the tieroof the war was idling away his time at Galena, [1.?. Who could imagine that one of the foremost champions of that ‘which proved the losing side was teaching a military school in Vir- ginia? 1n point of fact, the generals of the war for the most part served in a sub- ordinate capacity during the war with Mexico, entered the army after that war, or came from civil life. Only thirteen Yenrs elapsed between the peace of Guada- loupe Hidalgo and the Civil War, and yet our general officers in the latter were nearly all new to that rank. Thirty years and more have elapsed since the close of the civil war, and nearly thirty-one classes have been graduated at West Point, It is hard to estimate the possibilities among these men, but there ought to be some military genius among them. Few people will doubt that among our JACKETS Reduced to.. $7.50 JACKETS Reduced to..$ 1 0.00 JACKETS Reduced i0..$ | 2.00 CAPES Reduced 10... $6.50 CAPES Reduced to... $8.50 CAPES Reduced to-.. $9.00 CAPES Reduced to...$ 1 0.00 These garments were sold previous to sale $12 to $30, Also, large Reductions in FUR CAPES, - SE HABLA ESPANOL. G. VERDIER & CO., SE. Cor. Geary and Grant Ave. VILLE DE PARIS. BRANCH HOUSE, LOS ANGELES. o e P H% %, 0 B7 The most certain and safe Pain Remedy. Instantly relieves and soon cures all Colds, Hoarseness, Sore Throat, Bronchitis, Congestions and Inflammas tlons. 50c per bottle. Sold by Druggista.