Westport High School - Herald Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

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iportant us turn es. At 3 armor, 'bor de- : center any at- n front rs, who of the leships. ed oars, so here ted for of t-T' 's, sail- Greek Jf con- warks, fls was ferrat. ifduck- itected 2 with- proved Vy the n two ind it nnon, if the ?e ap- then elad. Tough ,s be- large, CSU - 37 Un- : ran and ' the time THE WESTPORT HIGH SCHGOL HERALD. 25 another iron-clad, but similar in shape td the old 'ibarbotesji was built in Japan. This craft was propelled by a central paddle-wheel, and mounted ten guns. The armor consisted of iron and copper plates, which gave the vessel the appearance of a huge turtle. In the eighteenth century, the British sail- ors protected themselves from an enemyps mis- siles with old cables and ropes, which they hung from spars and piled up on the bulwarks. These rude shelters, it is claimed, reduced the loss in men at least one-half. In the latter part of the same century, the Spanish, at the siege of Gibraltar, atte1npt.ed to demolish the English forts with the aid of float- ing batteries, which were cut down from frig- ates, they were covered with sloping roofs, be- hind which was a thickness of seven feet of cork and wet sand. The English soon proved, with the aid of red-hot cannon-balls, that these vessels, supposedly fire-proof, were as easy to set on fire as the common wooden ships. The Americans, in the first part of the last century, had several vessels of a much improved pattern, among which were two steam warships, built by Robert Fulton. But it remained for them, at a single stroke, to force the powers of the world to build their entire navies anew. That stroke was the battle between the Merri- mae and the Monitor, in the Civil War, it pro-ved to all progressive nations that wooden ships were no longer of use in actual warfare. So far has this idea now developed, that, in bat- tles between ships of to-day, all wooden articles are thrown overboard, for it has been found that splinters are the cause of more dangerous wounds than those made by shot. Since the Clivil War, our styles of ships have grown far larger and stronger, until now we have those huge vessels which are like floating cities, using as much coal and provisions as are used by a good-sized village. It seems, however, that the limit in size has almost been reached, and that the chief requisites of the greater part of the battle-ships in the future will be speed and ef- fective armament. This has been noticed in the showing ol' the armored cruiser in recent wars, that its guns were almost as effective as those of a battle-ship, while in speed it surpasses the battle-ships by a great margin. The world is waiting for the submarine boat to be put into actual service 5 great things are expected of it, and it is probable- that in the near future these hopes will be realized. There 'is good reason to believe that, if this style of ves- sel ever reaches the perfection of the present ordinary kind, an even greater revolution will be made in the navy than was made by the M onitor and M errfimac. Walter Wolf, '05. A LUNCHEON. One of the most pleasant occurrences of the year was the German and French luncheon given by the students of those languages. Ev- erything was thoroughly German and French-- only the foreign languages were spoken, and tlie dishes were strictly in accordance with the nationality of the table. At the German table was to be had einmagnierte Herring, Kartoifel Salat, Apfel Charlotte, verdoppeltes Butter- brot, Ffefferniisse, Pumpernickel, Roggenbrot, Schmier-kase and Zweiback. At the French table were shrimp salade ei la Mayonnaise, 0-lives a llAmerigne, ham a la naturelle, salade a la pomme de terre and ice-cream francaise. As many of the dishes as it was possible to prepare at home were made by the students themselves. After the luncheon, two inte-resting programmes were rendered by various pupils. The German 'fDie Wacht am Rheinv and thc French Le Marseillaisep' were sung. The programmes were as follows: ' In Germain. Die Loreleiv.. .. .. .. . .. .. .. . . Qduetj. Miss Greswell, Mr. Robertson. In Lauterbach half ich mein' Strumpf ver- lorenf' Paul Luther. In French. Marietta . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ruth Johnson. Imitation of Modjcska. . . .Mary Abercrombie. The luncheon was pronounced a grand suc- cess and was heartily enjoyed by all who took part.

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24 THE wEsTPoRr HIGH soHooL HERALD. seen so many people. She looked around awhile and then said: 'fSay, Josiah, do you see anyone ye know? you ,ve been here twice. You remember that Martha Ann Jones lives here--we must go and see her. I 'ni going to ask this man where she lives? Poor Samantha! She did not appreciate the difference between New York and Greenville. Gerfvmcle Smith, '05. THE EVOLUTION OF THE WARSHIP. What a commotion would have been created in the ancient or mediaeval world had a mod- ern, fast-sailing battleship of the first class, armed with long-range guns and all the recent additions to the war-machine, suddenly been launched by an enterprising ship-builder who lived a century before his time! This vessel would have had the commerce of the world at her mercy, no ship could have escaped her pow- erful guns. And yet there must at first have been some conception, crude and primitive as it was, of a boat, which, with little injury to itself, could destroy or disable an enemy, and that there was history gives ample evidence. Even in the earliest times thousands of years ago, builders of war-vessels realized the value of some material which gave protection to the crew, and prevented fire. Leather was one of the most widely used materials, as is shown by the modern French word 'fcuirassj' derived from cuir, which means leathe-rf' The Greeks and Romans often used on their ships a thick wall of hides, from which the missiles of their enemies glanced harmlessly. Hides, brass, and iron were used extensively in the ninth century, and in the tenth another material, felt, was found to give such good pro- tection that both the Normans a.nd Saracens employed it in a sea-fight off Palermo. The Saracens ha.d probably first used felt, for we read accounts of the beautiful effect of large mantlets of it, in red and yellow, hun 0' on the sides of their ships. C Leaving the armor, which was so important a consideration then, as it is now, let us turn our attention to the vessels themselves. At about the time of the appearance of felt armor, the inge-nious Venetians built for harbor de- fense a peculiar kind of ship. In the center there rose a high turret, from which any at- tempt at boarding could be repulsed. In front and back of this turret were the rowers, who forced the ship along at a fair speed. The Saracens were the originators of the dromonsf, which correspond to our battleships. These vessels were rowed by one hundred oars, each oar being manned by two rowers, so here we have a couple of hundred me-n accounted for at once. As these formed. but a part of tl' crew, which included, in additio-n, soldiers, sail- makers, and artificers, who worked the Greek fire-siphons, these ships must have been of con- siderable size. Later, all ships had bulwarks, which gave the crew greater protection. ' A new departure in the shape of vessels was instituted in 1187 by Conrad of Montferrat. The new ship was called a abarbotesf' or duck- backfi and was covered with a leather-protected roof, through which the archers could fire with- out exposing themselves. This fo-rm proved very effective against the Saracens. In the middle of the fifteenth century the Knights of St. John tried a new a.rmor on two of their vessels. This armor was lead, and it was claimed that., while impregnable to cannon, it did not materially lessen the speed of the ship. Half a century later, in Antwerp, the-re ap- peared a ship different from all others then built, which first deserved the name iron-clad. It was built for the purpose of breaking through the lines of the Spanish army, which was be- sieging the city at that time. It was a large, fiat-bottom craft, having a battery in the cen- ter, and was covered with plates of iron. Un- fortunately for the people of Antwerp, it ran aground before it came near the enemy, and was captured, after being abandoned by the crew. lt is curious to note that about this time

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A FRESHMAN CLASS IN THE STUDY HALL. U, I