File:The magazine of American history with notes and queries (1877) (14779863781).jpg

Identifier: magazineofamericv13stev (find matches)
Title: The magazine of American history with notes and queries
Year: 1877 (1870s)
Authors: Stevens, John Austin, 1827-1910. ed. cn DeCosta, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1831-1904. ed. cn Johnston, Henry Phelps, 1842-1923, ed. cn Lamb, Martha J. (Martha Joanna), 1829-1893. ed. cn Pond, Nathan Gillett, 1832-1894 ed Abbatt, William, 1851-1935, comp
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Publisher: New York : A.S. Barnes
Contributing Library: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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aff ofnaval engineers. He also organized and was given command of theschool of gunnery at Sandy Hook, and under his supervision a numberof young officers were trained to be scientific artillerists, equal, it maybe safely said, to any others in the world. The utmost precision wasreached in the use of shell guns, the fruits of which were seen in the arm- COMMODORE MATTHEW CALBRAITH PERRY 427 ing of our ships with guns having the power of horizontal shell fire, and thesuperb practice shown ten years later at Vera Cruz. Perry was a man ofadvanced ideas, at home in the forefront of science and invention as wellas their application. He sometimes tried the temper of inventors wholived in theclouds and fed on azure, yet he gave all, however visionary, afair chance, for he believed in constant progress. He foresaw the necessityof rifled ordnance and armor, and actually anticipated the idea of sinking aship by propulsion. It was a trivial incident that revealed to him the possibility of restor-
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COMMODORE PERRY MEETING THE JAPANESE COMMISSIONERS. (March 8, 1854.) ing the rostrum to the ships prow and reproducing the old tri-remes chief weapon in modern warfare. While on her way to SandyHook, in New York Bay, the Fulton came into glancing collision with aschooner. The tremendous damage done by accident at an angle, sug-gested what might be accomplished by a blow amidships under a full headof steam, were the prow of a war steamer armed with an iron beak. Afteran inquiry into the responsibility of the accident, Perry set himself to workto demonstrate mathematically the force of impact possessed by a steamram. He forwarded his suggestion in a paper to the department. It waspigeon-holed, and it was forgotten that an American officer ever suggestedit. Yet this was twenty-five years before La Gloire was launched. He 428 COMMODORE MATTHEW CALBRAITH PERRY also studied the laws of the tides and the best methods of scientific light-houses, and in 1839 was sent on a special mission to Eu

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