The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 7, 1899, Page 22

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 7, 1899. gentlemen—one more throw of the dice!” of soldiers was gathered in one of the rough ers near _the. trenches of Bristol. smail heed to the sounds pauses following on the iry rattle of the dice struck h out vonder; the men clus Ightier m; v them. The broad, wa m them st of i fr ¢ and half courtly k out ruby t m k out meaning glints of steel they used as a table. watch. Thae elder of n sad rnished by was much the same. but cklessness and the hard hunger im and his garb, yet he down acros§ his bandoleer. t more than once with the flick suggested t d to mor worked night— s like a man. > you may have ' muttered Then, ad- a for to- to the lad began anew Armstrong broke quickly in oung to be of wardship. and drink for « 1—s0 thinks sted before save with * blustered the young captain the third g or, for all a m¢ e of good hrow 1 stake of vour stake. our last t then; but have be s es.” Ma e, then throw.” 1 which even the mut tering Then Thornton lifted A an instant he falt and threw d, T »ending So it is."” sal My chance now—Venus be mine aid! 1s rning 1 ght with me out of Oxford. So—by mine ho f pointed to the double sixes. put up a hand to wipe the swea all the fair wide meadow: with ceremonious courtesy, “the home hoy and with the calmness the lands thereto. of a which the elf ke this time,” rejoined Armstrong cheerfull d for an instant staring. his face obbing moan. he dropped_to his with a ringing sound. Nn one ut his arms upon the table and v his movement. and the wine d his hand in its lace ruffle and was an ugly mimicry in that red, but fl was ov stre There ed hair ' sald the gray- ed cavalier, looking down, be- the lad's bowed head. 1d say” retoried Armstrong carelessly he and the ing—when we chance to He se he table as he spoke and of wine. “'W this was not spilled: a rare flavor, 1t a wench to And he bej sing to hims The ancients erred, though they were w Which fef n Zod of wine; s a laughing lass to fill the glass Joth make the drink divine. “Let be.” sald the man sharply. “Mock not the lad’s desp ark e ur wit, T think you have most like decei hath no power to dice down the home of his ontent vou m safe there” answered the lleutenant “I am no stoop at an empty lure,” n, it is a good night's work for you, as you sald. 1 trust 1in the fight to-morrow.” to his feet and fronted the speaker; the mocking ess was gone from his face, and he spoke.with a deepened voice, “You have no cause to say it. None have ever linked coward with my name. por dare hint that I fafled in my work since first I charged at Powic e. though 1 am still but lieutenant. while our vall nt and dis- friend here 1s captain before striking & blow beranae Hioron 0 can win O'Nell's ear. But what I gain not o’ one way I take ed himself, his momentary anger gone, slow, grave shake of the head. = words were true enough. All men A fortunate fighter. He was known by gave many opportunities to waste life and e most of all. Once only It was rumored that he had fafled. 1o at lay within his reach—a chance of winning great honor fn the great battle, at the trifing cost of wronging a wounded comrade. No more of the story was known: in truth, that much had been dropned b Armstrong himself in a mood of confidence, or a mood. some satd. oF hencr. ing and lving. He claimed to have held his hand, whereupon his fellaw soldier had made no better use of his triumph than to die that night oy the fleld. After which Armstrong had cursed the irony of fortuns ana Yowed to use his next chance to his own advantage. He would most likely done go. such good reolutions being of the kind which are Kept hag a moment recurred. As it was, If he had, despite his best endeavers B+t 44444444444+ 4444444444440 44444 creet & co f while the other turned knew him for a reck- other exploits as well: to risk it. and he had such By JOHN B. ROACH of the Great Philadelph Special to the Sunday Call. N the twenty-seven years I've been ship building on the Delaware, the first steel warship, the n sailing ship and the first steel steam- ghip in the Unlted S > been Dullt In our yarde. ang the fir: compound marine engine ever erected in this country ‘was also con- structed here. It seems hard to realize that such a thing as a steel ship was unknown a quarter of a century ago; whereas wooden ships plated with iron were attempted as long ago as 1685 by the Dutch when they built the Finis Belll in the River Scheldt, hoping to annihilate the Spaniards. The Dolpkin, the first steel warship the United States ever owned, was also the fir cel propeller built in this country. Yet the Dolphin—now in admirable trim—although she mas a single voyage of 53,000 miles, the Jongest on recor thout an hour’s delay for repairs of any kind, was not even authori Congress until March 18, 1883, but litfle over sixteen s ago. 11 I owing 1o our mastery of steel working in the past twenty Years that tho steel ship is now the accepted type of all marine archi. tecture The practieal di many years previou ere1ces between the iron plates in use on ships for and the steel plates now universally adopted, are so vital 4% to be undersicod even by a non-expert. Yet there are doubtless few, save those who have made the subject a speclal study since boyhood, with abundant cpportunities of working out practical problems, who realize the romance ir the history of the metal ship. There is no more eplendid ample of man's triumph over the forces of nature. The idea of an iron ship, a structure requiring the greatest byoyancy, made out of metzl of the greatest gravity, would have been considered by the anclents & contradiction in terms. Yet th:f were fine workers {n metals apd qu successful ship builders after thelr own ideas. O~ e i & 4 _¥em Dunderbels bullt Ly won little among his foes, he had, in an easler fashion, won much among his friends—not honor. perhaps. He sat for a while eying voung Thornton with a somber side glance. The boy moved a little stealthily and slipped his hand into his breast, drawing something forth which he held tightly clasped. Armstrong leaned over and peered at it, then he broke into a harsh laugh. “Tush, the boy is less green than we thought. Here he sits sighing over his lady's picture, donbting—and right wisely, I swear—if she will have a smile left for him now house and heirship are gone. Grant us a slght thercof, captain; we are all lovers of beauty here. Show us your pretty. He stopped abruptly. Thornton leaped up and stood facing his tor- ?\rn(flr. his eyes, in their reddened rims, blazing from his desperate young ace. ‘urse you!" he cried. in a high, broken volce; “it is—it is my mother.” The miniature dropped from his hand, and he. his last shred of control rent awav. flung himself on one of the rude pallets by the wall and lay there shaken by gasping sobs. Thé soldiers drew apart a little, murmuring and casting curious glances at Armstrong. The sneer was still about his lips as he picked up the miniature; his face grew somewhat set as he stared at it, but his color changed slightly. It was a grave, high, sweet countenance which looked out. a little proudly, from the narrow frame: a face deepened and made more delicate by the years which had faintly silvered the hair. After that long look Armstrong shut his hand over the picture, clenching it hard, then walked over to where Thornton lay, and stirred him with the point of his boot. “Take it he sald briefly. Then, as the other, too broken for anger, reached out for it obediently, he added: ‘‘She is no Puritan, I'll be bound; she is a loyal lady Thornton nodded mutely. “Did she strive to hold you from the war?” “She bade me go, as my father would have gone, fastened my sword and blessed me.”” ~ . He had begun his answer dully, but at the end his voice shrilled oft into a miserable laugh. Armstrong laughed. too. he seemed, and he present The wine had worked with him, sober though began to talk to no one in particular. “See now the freaks of that jade Fortuna! I. who am assuredly not Puritan nor precisian, must needs have a mother which was both, s'life! yes, and could well have borre. for all that. to have her yvet. But I was ave loval to King and court, and followed his Majesty once—or ever open war was come. tch five foxes at Westminster: but he had not stopped their eanths. So the five memberggvent scot free, and mistress my mother Teard T was of that ungodly crew of soldiers and bade me repent or—. But T was ever a profane wretch among her ministers: an’ I let slip a ‘damme.’ T was excommunieate, and T could never learn the Puritan trick of reserving all damnation for othet folks. So there I _was outcast and cursed for ason of perdition ere yot T dese :d it, perchance, as well as now. Faith. T've done my best ‘since then son should not give his mother the lie. Yea. cast out and landiess. But T am not landles he ended, with a sudd hange of v ‘Nay. mother or none. glenaok 1s mine, Thornton—unless 1 morrow, when you for other have T none. on sat up suddenly. a cruel light of hope flashing across his nstrong saw it and smiled, “Take my word for't. my son.” he said. with the air of one bestowing a benediction, “thou art a v a verv fool.” Sharp across his worc n_outburst of confused and clamorous sound from with A straighterid himself and listened intently ) vour weapons “Gad! T thought we had an hour vet ere was tir t T live—av, 'ti om that auarter it d too soon. Our leaders will never sraton, if you would not be court- at hand. Somewhere in the distance a 1g thread of sound: then another: then a The scent of dawn was in the air. but emed to a great height, looked infinitely r the ground shock to the gathering of trist stions of fisry smoke wera a-building. The men pressed out from the stifling hut; pressed into the cool. d aces of the night Captain Thornton knew nothing of how he reached his men, nor of how he hore himself before them: and it ndeed for him that the dark- ne a4 confi d him as a s Vet. when the tack was once bezim. the eve of his commarder. Colonel Washington. might have noted With ar al the fearless fashion in which the unaccustomed voung f r rode into peril. For Trarnton that dav was post sed by a consum- ing desire for death. onlv slightly tempered bv an instinctive dread of dying, and by a wish to kill. if might be. before his own turn should come. Soon separated from his fellows bv the uneven nature of the ground they crossed. he ed on alone. A bline » beat in him. The furze bushes which chec seemed malicion live. The pike shot and slugs whistled risively aboui him. with the evident threat of striking him > he could make some other human being suffer 1s he doubtle He knew that they were tc 11t the line mid way betweer don Hill and the windmill themselves ar either hand like huge sentient monste tion. He held straight In truth, that scemed z course Amon ich e ned him. and which, de- sl 1sel sional chills of fear that only deepened his passion. + The dawn had avickened by this: sreat shafts of gold struck unward from the horizon r gans in the clouds which soon showed wide spaces of tranauil t the dawn served Thornton onlv to see how soldier ) the air and dronped sidewavs In a formless hiean cd from the sight he found himself at the out- works ere all bewilderment of movement. in which he was swathed in ing smoke. and dazzled hy the flare of the fire pikes f musketry apon or bare hands as chanced wasting blows on mere earth and stone. Then, dis- his horse at it, leaped. stumbled and recovered foot- not of the enemy charging down on him. Live red and thrust, shouting with delirious exulta- He busied himself in helping to hack bitterly resenting ing insidr men tion wi at whom he trong meantime had taken the attack more coolly. He was used ever past night were perhaps not seething in as ir f his antagonist. He was riding as a th Howard's dragoons. but he was soon forced. like 1th to pick his way Chancing on some very broken ground he was d from his conrse and th horne back for some distance bv A rush reati from another part of the line. As he strove tn age himself e was caught by the figure of an officer mounted on a grand. dark toward them at full speed. Armstrong watched him the midst of a knot of fugitives with passionate snddennes em on to the attack azain as it were by the wind of his T ne. near enough for Armstrong to note the scarlet £ glimpse of a keen. dark face. with eagla eves. benea of the helmet. The next instant the superh horse the o oright. its face streaming blood. and uttered a wailing shriek to nierce the mortal clamor round. Tt w: prone in another moment. struggling terribly. Armstrong turned and spurred toward the spot: but the fallen man had alreadv freed himself and was wr comnasedly forward, his step n haste ened for th which rent the around near by vour highness" cried Armstrong, springing down to for s words were overnofsed Prince Rupe Ited to the saddle; vet, intent on his work though he was. he checked an instant thank vou." he sald. in that ringing voice which his men could hear throuzh any crash of battle. “Your name?” He bent down to catch the answer. “Robert Armstrong. sir.” “Good. T will remember. Make it heard to-dav. vonder!” He pointed with a tense gesture toward the fire-ringed battiements, and with the word was gone “T am man." exulted Armstrong. as he stumbled headlong up e doth never less than word. Oh. fortunate day! Sn that 1 d ere reaching the lines,”” he reflected soberly, hastening his steps to get out of range of the forts, from which the place of attack itself was som sheltered Delaved as he was, he found the works alreadv in part demolished: inside. the line had heen well nigh cleared by Littleton's daring charge. fire pike in hand. and the rovalists had swept on. Armstrong leaped and mbled across the crumbling debris. and barel olded lighting on a fallen man who reached clutching hands at him as he passed. On he hasts ened: the Prince’s brief wo were as lightning within him. and he conld not come swiftly enough at his foes. But as he ran a faint cry of “Ox- ford!” smote his ear. and glancing aside he saw a struggling group of men at his left. One of them. bestriding his dead horse. had his hack to the earthworks and was fighting hard against desperate od. He wore the green cearf which for that day distinguished the King's soldiers. Arm. strong only pavsed for a breath: he could do much. he told himself, not to desert a comrade at such mortal stress. Snatching a pike from the ground he ran toward them. shouting aloud as he went: “To me, brother! Oxford, Oxford! Then across a heaving shoulder he caught a glimpse of a face he knew. The royalist had turned to him. gnarding his head the while with 1ifted weapon: and, masked thou he was with blood and sweat and dust. Arme strong knew Captain Thernton at a glance. He was as auickly known: across the young soldier's face. set in the impersonal fierceness of battle. flashed a look of keen {ndividual hate. “Better death!” he cried, in a high, gasping voice, and flung himself on his foes Armetrong hesitated, his hand gripping the plke. The boy's insolent madness had set him free to sirive toward the hope which made a heacon hefore him. Then arother thought leaped to his mind; his face fluehed darkly “She—oh, damnation!” he muttered, and made a long stride forward ike In hand. P e fight was brief. for Armstrong came fresh to the work, and the parliamentarians knew that thefr fellows had all retreated. The Teuten. ant, springing upon them. thrust one through the gorget, and the man dropped, a look of horrible surprise stamped on his countenance. Thorn ton, almost spent. made Ineffectual thrust on thrust. moaning hoarsely as he struck, in an anguish of weariness. One burly fellow, using an uncom. mon weavon. a short battle ax. was the last to give way. When the reef had fled he leaped back, and getting at Armstrong’s side, within his guard. L) ia Ship-Building Firm. When the Dutch conceived the idea of building a floating wooden fort- ress and then plating it over with iron, they made a brilliant but unsue- cessful start in the right direction. The Finis Belli had no steam to move her, and hecame unmanagable. By and by there was a steam parship built, the Fulton, or Demologos, in 1814, but she had no iron plates, and her deck was sheathed with nothing more formidable than heavy scant- ling. Yet the idea of sheathing was still in evidence. When Ericsson in- vented the propeller in 1837, it was inevitable that there would be a screw warship, and the Princeton was launched in 1839. Then in 1842 John Ste- vens built his floating fort, sheathed it with iron, and put heavy guns aboard, going back to the idea of the Dutch, but nothing practical came of it. The Clvil War naturally stimulated shi John Roach. my father, had already ome of the best equipped foundries and engine works in the country. I can speak from my own knowledge, for I had served my appreticeship under him in the Aetna Iron Works and later in the Morgan Iron Works, and as a boy, even, had carried his din- ner basket to him when he was a workman in the old Allaire Works, in New York, all of which he afterward owned. When he purchased what has since been Roach’s Shipyard, at Chester, Pa., in 1871, I took an careutis position there, and since his death, in 1887, have had charge of the works. In the sixties, in this yard. thers had been built for the United States Government the monitors Lehigh, Sangamon and Jason, at least one of which was again made ready for harbor defense last summer, when 1t was feared that Cervera's mysterious fleet was about to attack our coast. It 15 of more value in the evolution of the modern steel ship that the Wat- eree, the first iron gunboat, had been built in this yard in 1883, While this was going on along the Delaware lgy father had built engines in New York for the great sound steamers Bristol and Providence; for the iron AWgbb for our Government, but not flnished in p building to renewed activity. R R R R R R R R R R R R P T ; Gvolution of Our Steel Ships Less Than Sixteen Years A Before the other could shorten the pike suffi- hewed at him savagely. ciently to strike back he was off. running at great bounds. Thornton hardly realized his escape. He leaned against the earthwork, panting for breath, his throat dry with dust, and on his lips the acrid taste of sweat. Sud v he felt a hand on his shoulder and a hollow voice muttered in his ear et me forth of this—the hedge yonder— Looking up he saw Armstrong's face, changed and rigld, with no ex- pression in it save a blank endurance. His heart sank with an awe in which was mingled something of physical fear and recoil. He put out a hand to help sustain his companion, Who leaned on him heavily, stiffly, all of one plece, like an-image of stone. It scomed to take them an endiess time to reach that hedge, not half a score paces away. Thornton’s min: was In a turmoil of subsiding anger, relief, distress, gratitude. Clear to him above all else was the pressure of that heavy twitching hand on his shoulder. ‘They reached the hedge at last, and Armstrong, releasing the othe stood erect an instant, swayed and dropped. The hedge, shaken by hi fall, sent down a little perfumed shower of dew and flower petals. Thorn- ton kneeled down, unclasped the wounded man’s corselet, not without in- finite pain, and made an u g effort to staunch the wound. Then he waited, mute and helple: Fhe life ebbed visibly, breath by breath, from the soldier's face, which was settling into lines of absolute, remote stillness. Would he pa&s without a word? Suddenly Armstrong groaned and opened his eyes. His face writhed with & quick spasm. but he made a grim effort to smile, and then to speak. Thornton waited with shrinking eagerne Death’ was so strange to him; he was filled with a wonder and passionate reverence which was deeper even than his gratitude. What words should come from one who seemed already to have crossed the narrow, immeasurable rift and to speak from the other side? “Was ever such accursed luck!” said Armstrong feebly. *'Tis, I swear, but _the second time I have served any save myself—and to be slain for't! The words broke so oddly across his awestruck silence that Thornton was selzed with a strangling desire to laugh; he choked it back, aimost bringing tears by the effort. ‘But you will not die!”” he exclaimed, scarce knowing w Ty side is nigh cut through.” answered Armstrong hoa “Ala faltered the boy, “there is so much I should you “For dying?’ muttered the other. “Tis not to pleasure vou, my son.” “Let me but seek a chirurgeon for vou,” exclaimed Thornton hope- lessly; it eased him a little to make even such an impossible offer. Or a divine?” scoffed Armstrong. “I will e’en die as I have lived. And T have my ‘docto here—or £0o my good comrades say of me.” With an attempt at laughter he pulled out the dice he had used so lately; they fingers to the ground. iropped from SRR The man had saved him, and he was dying for Thornton drew back. Cause, and vet— Km"‘z"xrll‘:l pity. too,” said Armstrong. half to himself, “after_to-day, and the Prince had noted me. God! it's all a throw of the dice. But we have the, town?"” The other could make no answer; the distant blare of victory was leas to him at the moment than the last throb of that defeated life. Into Armstrong’s face was coming again the look of a great with- drawal, but he roused himself to meet Thornton's eyes. ““Your lands are—yours,” he said. The boy’s face crimsoned, then paled. had been quenched in that dread on-coming presence of death; flashed up at the word. to sink again. 5 “But I would not have it so—at this cost,” he cri His hope, like his resentment, they d, and, for the in- slar‘mt spoke true. %i}:h a sudden movement Armstrong stretched out his hand. Sho! me—"" ish was never spoken. His body straightened sharply for the last breast-to-breast grapple with death—a wordless, breathless, unending moment—then it shuddered, slackened. His hand fell back heavily upon the reddened dice. *“Doctors”—false dice. wartime, and afterw Rngrh‘.’;lmbenu. e engagement in Hampton Roads between Ericsson’s Monitor an: Merrimac had not only drawn the attention of France and other fn:‘l h}:‘: Governments to the improvements made in iron warships in the United States but resulted alsc In our Government ordering the construction of the iron Canonicus and Mahopac and the other “ninety-day boats.” It was now evident that the fronclad was the warship of the future. France, indeed, in 1854, had built the monitor Devastation and the Glolre in 1868, Wwhile Great Britain had in 1859 authorized the building of the ironclad Warrijor. But nobody knew what an ironclad was good for until Ericsson's Monitor demonstrated it. The razeed wooden steamships which the Con- federates protected with railroad iron and chains on l;m Southern rivers gave American genius another strong hint. But when the war came to an end but little more had been accomplished. The monitors then bullding were gradually finished and no new ironclads were ordered until 1574, In that yvear we built for the Government the Alert and the Huron, the first iron sloops of war ever constructed. They were of 1246 net tons. An- other step forward followed quickly when the contract for the great double-turreted monitors Miantonomoh, 2025 tons, and Puritan, 2998 fon: were awarded us in i876. Thes: essels, each a pioneer on its own lines, Frew under my very eyes, and their great hulls and engines are as familiar 0 me as_the rooms in my For, though born in Monroe street, in New York, while my father was still working at his trade as an iron molder, I have since 1871 devoted mf’ entire time to the shipyards in Ches- ter. Since the day when I went into the Aetna Iron Wgrks in Goerck street, between Rivington and Stanton, at the age of 18, ship bullding had been my study, my ambition, my lifework. 1 was proud of the yard, which, before we secured it in'187], had turned out in 1863 the sister ships Wateres, Shamokin and Suwanee, all double-ended sidewheel iron gun- ard sold to the French, who rechristened her the A g0 Steel Ships Were Unknown. First Idea of Our CGreat Battleships. The Starbuck That Revolutionized Full-Rigged Iron Ships. AR AR ARG R R R R R e e R R R A R R T T T T Y P P T v ey 4 yave d up the Wateree out of the harbor of When a tidal wave picked up 38 hagbor, of ance. But L hips would boats. “allao, in Peru, and carried her inland, miles from the ocea: ears as a summer hotel 31 felt a’sense of personal gri saw that all which had béen done In the way of meta soon be distanced. : i b i p $83, Congress authorized our first steel warships, the dis Rt T ohin of 113 net tons and {he protected cruisers Boston and Atlanta of 229 tons and the Chicago of The contracts for Shfilrl(;{\n- struction re awarded to John Roach, the lowest bidder. The builc Hvlg of & warship of steel—a metal then so little known in practical working— Was a task that might well tempt the most ardent ambition. But already A cemher. 182, we had taken a contract, fraught with almost equal possibilities, for the construction of the first metal sailing ship bullt in the Prnited States and one of the very first in the world. This was the Tillie £.'Starbuck, a full-rigged {ron ship, launched April 4, 153, : “ The Starbuck went into commission June 12, 1883, and she is to-day trading around the world, one of the most picturesque and r‘mrnmr}hle ves- Sels of her class in_existence, safling from New York to San Francisco and from San Francisco to Caicutta as readily as though steam had never been discovered. She was built for Willlam H. Starbuck of New York and named by him after his wife, Miss Tillie 1. Irving, a Chester girl. This vessel was of 2038 tons, cost '§130,000. which was considered a great deal of money to put into a_sailing ship, w feet long, 42.3 feet beam, 9.3 feet depth of hold and 175 feet from her main truck to the water. She Was the first sailing vessel in the world to carry metal masts, hers being of three-eighths inch iron plates. But the Starbuck’s superiority to many framp steamers did not depend entirely on her speed. The Starbuck was an iron ship. The first steel sidewheel merchant steamer in_the United States was the Alaskan, launched in the Roach yards in 1883 for the Oregon Raflway and Navigation Company, s