NAVAL AVAR CHANGED.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 4771, 24 January 1887, Page 4

NAVAL AVAR CHANGED.

American's boast that they will shortly revolutionise all ideas of modern naval warfare. Two new vessels are contemplated, the Destroyer and the Peacemaker (most suggestive names, at any rate). Tho former carries a submarine steel gun, 30 feet in length, weighing 40 tona, and carrying a projectile only five feet less than the length of tho gun. The gun is fitted in the bow, nine feet below the water line. English experts, howover, think it has no superiority over the Whitehead torpedo, the formidable missile which lately experimented on the Resistance. The Peacemaker is a submarine torpedo boat, 30 feet in length, 8h feet beam, and a depth of 7h feet. This vessel is intended to carry two torpedos, linked together, which are designed to attach themselves to the bottom of a ship by means of magnets, the explosion being caused by electricity after a safe retreat has been made. A 14 h. p. engine supplies the propelling power, the steam being furnished from a caustic potash boiler. The power of tho craft lies in its being able to sink and rise at will, and that it can do this is vouched for. The most infornal triumph of American ingenuity, however, is the projection of a dynamite gun carried by a dynamite cruiser. The specifications call for a vessel not less than 230 foet long, 2G feet beam, Ti feet draught, an engine power of 3200 horses, and a speed of 20 knots ; to be built of steel, and propelled by twin-screws. Her armament will comprise the new pneumatic dynamite guns (it is said that the failure attending tho uae of ordinary powder has been overcomo by pneumatic force), two forward and one aft, of 70 feet in length. The gun-room is in the centre of the ship, and tha long steel tubes extend foro and aft at an angle from the keel spar to the deck. The rango is taken by marKuuvring, and it i 3 expected that effective servico will be rendered at three miles. Sho will also carry a full armament of rapid-firing guns. The projectile is thrown by the release of compressed air at 10001 b per square inch. The cartridge consists of a thin copper can containing 2001 bof dynamite, with a long wooden shaft attached. Tho builders agree to refund tho money expended on the ship in case of failure. It remains to be seen whether dynamite can be safely used, and whether a speed of 20 knots can be attained.