The _Cushing_, besides being the first American steel torpedo boat, was the first American warship driven by quadruple expansion engines. She was named to commemorate the officer who commanded the launch which rammed and broke a protecting boom, and blew up the _Albemarle_ in the Civil War. The _Vesuvius_ should be included rather in the category of freaks or comparative failures, for though her three pneumatic dynamite guns of 10½-inch calibre, designed by Lieut. Zalinski, could each hurl shells containing 200 lb. of dynamite or other high explosive at least a mile, they were soon outclassed by other artillery. These projectiles were thrown by compressed air, and not by explosions of dynamite. The _Vesuvius_ was employed at the blockade of Santiago de Cuba in 1898, where she frightened the Spaniards with her dynamite shells, but did very little actual damage. Her three pneumatic guns projected abreast through the forward part of the deck, some distance aft of the bow, and sloped at an angle of about 45 degrees. The breech of each gun was in the hold, and the supports of the weapons were so connected with the ship itself as to be practically built into it. The guns were therefore fixtures; their elevation was unalterable and when it was desired to discharge them to right or left or to alter the range the whole position of the ship had to be moved. The _Texas_ and _Baltimore_ were also built on designs purchased abroad. With the exception of three vessels acquired just before the war with Spain, all the American ships are entirely the products of American naval science. The first triple-screw warships were the _Columbia_--a very handsome ship, sometimes called the _Gem of the Ocean_--and her sister, the _Minneapolis_. Up to the attack upon the Spaniards in Cuba, the United States had retained a number of monitors, but the experiences of 1898 convinced the naval department that vessels of that class were out of date and unsuitable for modern warfare. [Illustration: THE U.S. DYNAMITE-GUN BOAT “VESUVIUS.”] [Illustration: THE “MAINE” ENTERING HAVANA HARBOUR.]