NO SPLICING THE MAN BRACE. Sow Grog Began snd How It Wet Abele jehed In the United States Navy. BATTLE EFFECT ON SHIPS |T doubt if the Colon conld bave es | oa caved with so Liltle punishment if the | smoke from the few minutes of firing | st the leading ships had not left 8 cloud which, combined with the firing EN SABC LESSONS LEARNED IN THE CREAT . DEFENDED A LADY of destruction. There mast be FIGHT WITH CERVERA'S VESSELS. It Has Determined Some Onestions That Wii Be of Value to Builders of War. | shiips~The Advantsges of Minokeless Powder Utility of Torpedo Hosts. An officer on the Iowa during the re sent fight off Santiago with Cervera’s ships bas written s resume of the ef feet apon the ships and men of the Lan, any teinporary lifting of the smo will give plenty of time to deliver a | shouting during a battle, which was published in the New York Commer. | gnns conld be laid even in this, however, since, with the the | sinl Advertiser. He gives his views. This battle will be uceepted by sorse mays] experts as the culy one of mod- ern times that conld be connted on for theoretical sonelusions of value to the builders of warships. [In the Yasin River the inequality of the two sides in character cansed students to hes tate; about drawing many inferences from it. IY is true we have only em- phasized the Yalu jessons in many re- peste, but 1 think we can go ahesd | with the two together, one checking the other, to say positively that we have learned something. flo go back s bit, the ineflectiveness of & fleet against laud batteries is de. monstrated, 1 think, by our bombard- ment of San Juan and Santiago. We failed to reduce their works, We si Jenead them all right enough. As we guined in skill we were able to drive the gunners away very quickly. Bat their silence was only temporary, even when the batteries wers weak and the conditions ail fsvorable to our ships: when our guns unwberel twenty to one Hverybody knows by this time that the batteries guarding SafMiago | Barbor are on the bluffs, some of them | 200 feet above the water line. This aninestionably makes them harder to hit. but it likewise increases the diffi- culty of their aire. We found out the difference in the latter respect when the same gunners (probably) came out in the ships. The first broadside from Cervera's squadron was much more effective than the fire of the shore bat- teries, and this despite the fact the range during the bombnrdment was often less than ut the opening of the seed. Syn, when the Spaniards fired so ‘we i. : ‘The ability of a watehfnl and offi- cient fleet to ward off hostile torpedo bouts bas been fully brought oat. Here we have remained for months blockading a port in which there were always two torpedo boats. Our ships lay sometimes as close 1n #= a mile off the entrance. And several attempts were made by the destroyers to at- tack ns. None of them got out with out being seen and always they were driven back. Our resdiness was the thing. In Bouth American wars for os nt times and the tarpedo boats were nowhere near as swift and pow. erful as ths Spanish destroyers Faror and Pluton. It is sale to say that we ~ hmve shown thet if a mat-of war is ready at all times to open up instantly and efficient rapid fire that ship bas little or nothing to fear from torpedo boats. With the rapid-fire guns » modern vessel can throw a storm of shell into an enemy. A torpedo boat, with her neil ** sides, might ss weli muk ber- | starting, so certain is she of these boats to have any prospest of supcess against a modern ahbip of any size, even when the cir cumstances sre most favorable for the t. Searchlight tactics were well ght cat off the blockade and the great service that they can do. With: ut the cear ta our fleet conld . Nluminating, s» we did, night af- the entrance of the harbor r the light slowly from side Svar all the water, vothing Save of searchlight on one of our js, there could be no doubt e mind of the gun pointer as ostile character of the ap- ing vessel. It eliminated all delsy and liability of error to any verbal orders are so liable. ¢ necessity of a secondary fleet, might be salled, was also shown. ie season. The work of these dis- oh boate was most exhausting, and