A DYNAMITE CRUISER.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 279, 7 July 1888, Page 4

A DYNAMITE CRUISER.

There's something up with Brother Jona* than. To use one of his own phrases, " There's blood in his eye," or something very like it. Only the other day the cable told us he had despatched four warships on a mission of mischief to the fleets of fishing smacks off the Canadian coasts. Ominous silence, it may be, has since prevailed, and whether or not anybody has been hurt is ab these uttermost parts of the earth so far not yet recorded. There is. however, a bit of "news from Philadelphia of an unquestionably warlike nature, though ifc can • only be connected with the foreign reported raid upon the piscatorial industry of our Canadian fellow-colonists by the most absurdly imaginative Jingo. We refer to the launch of a real demon of the seas, a "dynamite cruiser." We have known of dynamite being used by unscupulous fisherman for the purpose of making a big haul of fish, but had not supposed that it was about to become a weapon for making a haul of fishermen by what nobody would ever dream of terming: " unscrupulous " warriors. The fact remains though, that the United States on the 28th of April last launched a cruiser of this description, the only vessel of the kind afloat. From the following description of her it will be generally admitted that so^ far as the antipodean is concerned it will be pleasant in the event of war to be as much isolated from the North Pole, as fate has thrown him, and from these loopholes of retreat to peep at such a boat. Here is her description : She is of 725 tons displacement, with twin-screws and engines designed for 3200 horse-power, and making 20 knots. Her mean -draft is 9ft. Her armament includes three guns, built side by side into the ship, from which will be projected, by means of compressed air, shells containing each 2001bs of dynamite. These mis«iles will, it is expected, surpass in destructive effect anything yet attempted in the shape of moveable torpedoes. The guns project above deck at an angle, and their fire is a plunging one. the vessel being moved in order to aim the guns. With singularly becoming taste she is named the Vesuvius.