Wednesday, February 25, 2015
The History Files - episode 002: the Spanish American War
Episode 002 of The History Files podcast is live! In this edition Gordon and Dylan talk about the Spanish American War, U.S. imperialism in the 1890s (and beyond), and blame it all on Gordon's ancestors.
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Steel Ships and Iron Men
I ran across a very interesting post on “Weapons Man” blog
today, that I though worth citing for my own comments on it. It concerns the
adoption by the US Army and US Navy of steel breech-loading artillery in the
1880’s. After having led the world in artillery
design and production during the American Civil War, a general doldrums set in
on both services in regards to any serious innovation. Part was due to the wish on the part of most
of the populace to just not think about war anymore, part was due to a serious
lack of interest by Congress, and part due to the result of said lack of
interest, being a lack of money to do any innovating.
While there were a few innovations in
small-arms (such as the general adoption of breech-loading rifles and revolvers
firing self-contained metallic cartridges, as well as Gatling guns) there wasn’t
any change in the sorts of artillery fielded by either the Army or the
Navy. They still used the same basic
cast-iron (or sometimes bronze) muzzle-loading smooth-bores that had been made
by the thousands during the Civil War, and economics dictated that they remain
in service until something forced the issue. President Chester Arthur authorized a board of
officers to tour various European armouries to see just how far behind we were
in such things. The essay discusses the book on the board’s tour, and some of
their comments and conclusions. A good
read, BTW:
Interestingly, the production of steel in the US in large
quantities came right at this time (1884 or so) due to the Navy modernization
program known as the "ABCD Ships". The USS Atlanta (under sail, right), USS Boston, USS
Chicago and USS Dolphin formed the first real expansion to the US Navy since 1865, and the demand by the board authorized them to build
them in steel, rather than in the iron that US foundries could produce in
quantity. Although Carnegie's Homestead
Steel Mill could produce steel, it wasn't enough to construct armoured ships, so
it would have forced the Navy to import sufficient steel from Britain or
Germany. However, the board also
recommended that various subsidies be provided to US iron mills which would
convert to the production of steel in order to ensure a sufficient supply: a
case of "build it and they will come" (or rather "demand it and
they will provide".)
The entire story is nicely told by Robley D. Evans, who retired out as an
Admiral, in his book "A Sailor's
Log: Recollections of Forty Years of Naval Life", as he was on the board
described. At least claims he was instrumental in the adoption of steel for
ship building in the Navy and with it, a greater availability of steel for other uses by American industry. For those
interested, here is a link to his book, at Googlebooks:
Thus it was
done, and you will note that such manufactures as Colt, Remington and Winchester went from
producing iron-frame firearms to steel-frame firearms circa 1885 as well, due to
the now-abundant production of steel.
At any rate, it is interesting that the needs of the services for steel
artillery came at a time when the need for steel ships had already become
apparent, and that the need was actually being attended to due to some
far-sighted officers in the Navy. Handy serendipity and a strong confirmation of the wisdom of Captain Robley Evans.
Gordon
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