After The Next Sea Fight

When one battleship captures another in midocean in the noxt naval war, what is she to do with her prize, asks the Fhiladelphia Times. In the old days of wooden walls there was no dificulty in the practica. If the captured ship could float a prize crew was put aboard and all practicable sail was made for the nearest friendly port, while the victor continuad on her cruise; or if both ships were badly injured, both put into harbor. But nowadays the position of a prize crew would be far from commanding. The captured vessel could not be managed by her captoi's - she would have to remain in charge of her own engineers and lier own firetnen. and the victors, instead of sailmg the ship, while the prisoners remained under es, would be reduced to the status oí a pólice. And thus would the opportunity for a recapture be greatly increased. For, while in the oíd days the entire captured crew were disarmed and imprisoned, the noncombatanta of a captured battle-ship would have to te given their liberty, practically speaking, and much might be accomplished by a couple oí second engineers with their wits about them. For iastance, would it te so difflcult to superinduce a slight explosión in the port engine and under cover of the confusión to libérate the prisoners? Again, the armament of a modern battle-ship ■would complícate affairs. Kelatively to the power oí a machine gun the prize orew would be greatly disproportionate in strength, since the chancea tor the prisoners to obtain oontrol of one of these engines would be increased by the freedom of their noncombatanta. Altogether the number of men required for poiioe duty on a captivo battleship would be very large, and , victorious ship would have to reduce the efficiency of her own gun crews to an unpleasant extent. It ■would probably be found necesBary in almost every case for the captor to stand by and accompany her prize home across the Atlantic or the Pacific, as the case might be. Andthis ■would be a doublé incentive to the conquered to effect a swift and noiseless recapture of their own ship, for if they did so one unexpected torpedo or discharge of a 12-inch gun, careíully aimed, might very easily turn the fortune of war entiroly in their íavor. In other words, and not to define too closely upon the possibilities of the case, the capture of a batíle ship in an ocean duel in the next naval war wül by no mean3 ease the mind of the successful commander. He will have a leviathan on nis hands that it will tax all his energy and cleverness tobring safely into port, and there may be moments when he will be tompted to lock up verv mother's son of her en?ineers and ïiremen in the military tops and run her home under jury saus.