The National Music of America And Its Sources
PREFACE. THE past half-century has witnessed a revolution in all things connected with naval warfare. The warship of the past has vanished and another and stronger has taken its place. The wooden walls of the ships of our ancestors have been replaced by walls of steel, the swelling saiI by the whirling screw, St. Elmos fire by the search-light, the seaman by the sea-mechaic, and the reefer of the sail by the heaver of coal. In short, in comparing the navy of the past with that of the present, we feel constrairied to quote from Shakespearewith a slight difference in wording Nothing of it that can fade But has suffered a sea change Into something new and strange. To-day the navy of the United States stands strongly in evidence. There is nothing else which fills so large a space in the worlds eye. It is the one subject about which all our people talk by day and dream by night in which they feel an abiding interest and take a pa- triotic pride. Ten years ago this was not the case, Then we
...had no navy, other than a museum of antiquities. To-day our navy is, for its size, perhaps the finest in the world. Ten years from to-day it may take rank with the largest and strongest in the world. This country long held back from the work of naval construction that was actively pursued abroad, but has now entered into it with all the American energy. and inventive ability, and is giving lessons to, instead of receiving lessons from, the maritime nations of Europe. It is this evolution of an American navy with which we here propose to deaI, to give its history in war and peace, its development, its present condition, with descriptions of its new vessels and their equipment for offence and defence in short, to present a detailed account of the whole make-up of the floating enes of destruction which now represent our country upon the seas. It is a timely season for such a work, n that a war has arisen in which our navy plays a leading part, and plays it so well that our people regard with ad- miration their ships of war, and are eager to know what manner of thing this is that we now caIl a battle- ship or a cruiser what is meant by such new terms as conning-tower, barbette, rapid-fire gun, submarine boat, and the like and the significance of the ,many matters that have to do with modern naval science and engineering. These are the questions which this book is written to answer, not in technical terms, but in plain and simple language, which all who read may understand. It is offered to the American public in the hope that it may fulfil its promise in this respect. It may be proper to say concerning its ilIustrations that they have been selected with tlie purpose of presenting typical examples of our different classes of war-vessels, one of the best of each type being cliosen, and also of showing the various elements of existing navaI construction, with the view that the illustrations may serve as a useful and convenient commentary upon the text.. Thanks are hereby returned to the Scientific American Company for the privilege of re- producing the cut entitled The invulnerable floating fort within the outer walls of modern battle-ships, --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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