Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ... involves, and thus the fleet, though formidable enough on paper, was without practical military efficiency. It was supposed that in the hour of battle the gunners would miraculously acquire that skill which only training can give, and which should be a matter of habit. We are told by the Spanish Revista General de Marina for August 1898, that there had only been one target practice in the Spanish Navy during 1897, and none in 1898. Even then a very small amount of ammunition was expended. The Colon's log, it is noted by Captain Chadwick, contained no mention of target practice for the year June 14, 1897, to July 3, 1898. In defensive qualities the American ships had a very striking advantage. The Indiana, Oregon, and Iowa were stoutly-armoured battleships, with all their heavy guns behind thick plating, well protected on the water-line, and generally impenetrable to the Spanish heavy guns. The Hontoria 11-inch weapon, of excellent pattern, is calculated to perforate at the muzzle, striking perpendicularly, twenty-nine inches of iron; but here it was faced by eighteen or fifteen inches of Harveyed steel, at ranges varying between 2000 and 6000 yards, and at all manner of angles. The smaller Spanish guns could not be expected to pierce the five inches of steel on the sides of the American battleships, nor did they do so. The Texas and Brooklyn had no side protection beyond belts on the water-line, and armour in front of and below their heavy guns. From the defensive point of view they were the weakest ships in Admiral Sampson's fleet, superior to three of the Spanish cruisers which they had to face, but vastly inferior to the Cr1stobal Colon. All the American ships had thickly-armoured conning-towers, but these, except in the case of the...
