File:An illustrated history of our war with Spain - its causes, incidents, and results (1898) (14743076716).jpg

Identifier: illustratedhist00russ (find matches)
Title: An illustrated history of our war with Spain : its causes, incidents, and results
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Russell, Henry Benajah, 1859- Thurston, John Mellen, 1847-1916 Proctor, Redfield, 1831-1908
Subjects: Spanish-American War, 1898
Publisher: Hartford, Conn : A. D. Worthington
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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, the tables were again turned; Spain had eight, theUnited States had more than twice as many. In gunboatsand dispatch boats, Spains great number of eighty representedbut small and weak vessels far inferior to those of the UnitedStates. Of monitors she had none; we had five modern andthirteen old-fashioned boats of this type, and one dynamitemonitor or cruiser, the Vesuvius, whose utility, however, re-mained to be tested. Spains torpedo-boat destroyers num-bered sixj, \ye.had none except such vessels as were armed inthe auxiliary fleet. Spains entire torpedo outfit numberedabout sixty vessels and ours about twenty. Many naval ex-perts considered armored cruisers and torpedo craft the twomost effective engines of war and, therefore, regarded our navyas behind that of Spain in real effectiveness; but this was onlya theory. As a whole, taking account of tonnage, speed, andarmament, our navy was far better than Spains. This wasespecially noticeable in guns, of which we had more than twice
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PROMINENT AMERICAN NAVAL OFFICERS.Admiral F. M. Bunce. Commodore John C. Watson. Lieut. Richmond P. Hobson. Captain Charles D. Sigsbee. THE MAN BEHIND THE GUN 509 as maiiv as Spain had. Taking into acconnt onr auxiliaryfleet of eighty vessels, many of them of superior speed, wecertainly possessed a good advantage over Spain in strikingpower. But the greatest advantage we had was in the supe-riority of American sailors, even if in number they were lessthan Spains. The Spaniards had never had much drill insquadron maneuvers or in gun practice. We did not appreciate at this time as it deserved the factthat no matter how marvelous the gun it is really the manbehind the gun who decides the contest. The modern gunhad become a complicated machine, terrible if used effectively,but, capable of firing at long range, the chances of missing hadbeen greatly increased unless skill had kept pace with thedevelopment. The spirit prevailing in our navy is well illustrated by theappeal of Lieutenant-Com

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