A Formidable Vessel.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 786, 25 March 1887, Page 8

A Formidable Vessel.

The Navy Department will complete early this week the drawing of a contract with the Pneumatic Dynamite Gun Company of New York for the construction of a dynamite steel cruiser, to be completed by June Ist. If the vessel is all that is claimed for it, then the harbor of Now York will be safe from any foreign fleet. The work on this vessel will be hastened on account of possible complications between this country and England. Congress authorised the construction of this vessel last year, but very little has been said about it, and the fact that the department has completed arrangements for its building is not generally known. This vessel is to carry three dynamite guns, each capable of throwing with accuracy 200 pounds of dynamite a distance of one mile. The contract provides that each gun shall be capable of being discharged once in two minutes. These are to be guns of calibre. The company has promised to make 12 inches. If the guns are made of that capacity they w 11 be capable of throwing 400 pounds of dynamite, which would be sufficient to blow up the largest vessel known to any modern navy. The contract specifies that the vessel shall have a capacity of twenty knots an hour, which means twentythree miles of speed. There are very few vessels of great capacity capable of making any such speed. None of the heavily armored vessels of modern times will be capable of running away from this new cruiser. She is to be 230 feet long, 26 feet breadth of beam, with 7i feet draught and 3200 horse-power. The Government contracts to pay for her 350,000d015. The company has given bonds to carry out this contract. If the vessel does not reach the speed named she will not be accepted. The contract also specifies that these guns are to be fired with safety aud accuracy at objects one mile distant as another condition of acceptance. The company is confident it will be able to fulfill the rigid letter of the contract. The plan of the boat has been favorably reported on by a Naval Board and by the Secretary of the Navy. Although the contract was made with the Pneumatic Dynamite Gun Company, the boat will be constructed by the Cramps of Philadelphia. Naval officers think this vessel will revolutionize the navri systems of the world. If the experiment of her construction is successful modern navies will be rendered useless. A few such vessels would protect our coast against the combined navies of the world.—Washington Corr. N. Y. World.