THE MODERN WARSHIP

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2259, 19 September 1914, Page 7

THE MODERN WARSHIP

HER STRIKING POWER BIG GUN POSSIBILITIES The modern battleship, says a writer in "Harmsivorth's Popular Science," is not a thing of beauty or grandeur. Her lines aro hard and harsh, her colour drab and insignificant: oven in sizo she is not remarkable. Warships 20 years ago carried heavier guns than hers, and tho vast Atlantic liners are inora majestic as well as far moro picturesque. A battleship like- tho Orion is really a small movable fort—a floating machine designed to cany ten pieces of ordnance. Her highest speed is about 26 miles au hour, and there aro many warships and merchant ships which can ruovo faster than this. When going into battle sho is stripped of her mast, and shows plainer and uglier than even —a low, grey hulk, with no sign of life visible on it, looking like the dismantled wreck of some tramp steamer. But into this sombre battleship has gone all that modern science, modern invention, and modern industry can devise for tho purpose for which she is built. She is the most tremendous moving engine of destruction that mortal brain and hand have made. The most powerful of steam hammers exerts a force of about 500 foot-tons. H.M.S. Orion, with her great 13iin.'guns alono, can produce every two minutes a muzzlo energy of 700,000 foot-tons—enough' to raise 30 , Orions a foot high. By means of this enormous power she is able to throw at every broadside more than five and a half tons of hardened steel and lyddite, the most terrible explosivo known. Each shell weighs 12501b.; ten of these shells can be fired simultaneously, and the force of the discharge carries them, at a high elevation, 21 miles. In full view of Dover Harbour, England, the Orion could wreck Calais, France, with a singlebroadside, ajid within the next few minutes she could steam out and destroy Boulogne. One broadside gunfire of the Orion produces something like an earthquake and a volcanic eruption combined. First come the ten shells, delivered with the smashing foroe of 700,000 foot-tons; then the lyddite in the shells, amounting to about 8501b., breaks ' up tho steel into murderous fragments and belches out a poisonous gas.

Effects of Gunnery. This tornado of destructive energy, however, is produced at a groat cost. The ten great guns of the Orion have a very short life, for they are rapidly injured by the force which they create. If the Orion were to fight continuously for about three hours and 20 minutes, working her ordnance as quickly as possible, she would throw 558 tons of steel and lyddite, with a muzzle energy of about 70 million Probably her deck of thick, hard, cemented steel would then be bent and crumpled by the continual blast and concussion of t.he ten great guns, and the guns themselves would be useless and silent; the rifling of thoir inner tubes would be worn away by. the cordite used to create 70 million foot-tone of propellant power. That is what happened to the great guns used in the Japanese warships in the sea figh'ts with the Russians. The bores of the 12in. guns were quickly worn away, and the shells they fired could be >.een turning somersaults in the air. The result was that the battle of Tsushima—the Trafalgar of the Russo-Japanese struggle—was won by the straighter fire of the lighter guns.

Secondary Armament. For this reason, the capital ships of nearly all the great navies now have a secondary armament of lighter ordnance. For instance, one of the later Japanese Dreadnoughts, the Aki, hae four 12in. guns, twelve 10in. guns, and twelve 6in. guns; while the Orion relics solely on Tier, ten 13Jin. guns. The British battleship, it is true, has some small 4in. guns, but they are designed only to beat off torpedo craft. Under the silence of the English type of Dreadnought, as exemplified by the Orion, the utmost destructive force which can le concentrated in comparatively small rcom is put on to the capital ship; she is allowed no secondary armament. By doing away with the smaller guns, a great saving of buoyancy and space is effected; and all that is saved in this msnner is spent on thicker, heavier armour, on more guns of the largest scrt, and on machinery for driving the vessel at the highest speed. All the secondary armament is sacrificed, and the ship is made into a steel raft for carrying a small number of short-lived but terrifically powerful guns. Her high rate of speed, it is 'reckoned, will enable her to keep her opponents at such a distance that their shorter range secondary guns will never come into play. Only the heavy ordnance, in which she holds a commanding advantage, will count, and that is why she.is a Dreadnought—a fear nothing.

Shells and Torpedoes. In the meantime tlie battleship which haa been spreading death and destruction among the large ships of the'enemy has to defend herself against destroyers and smaller torpedo craft. As a matter of fact, she is practically defenceless; and it is hore that the idea of the battle unit,is fully seen. The secondary armament has been transferred from the Dreadnought to a little fleet cf ocean-going destroyers of very high speed. Thrown out in a fan before the great battleship, they protect her from the attack of torpedo oraft. and do the scouting and defensive work; while she plays the role of the striking force. *.s things now stand, the big ship with the big gun hae vanquished the torpedo. She is so quick that even the submarine cannot get sufficiently close to hurt her. In fighting a ship of her own class, she relies chiefly on her tremendous gunpower. A torpedo takes about 90 seconds to cover 2000 yards,' nnd it is j doubtful if even the new secret torpedi • of the British Navy is of any use at 5000 yards. The enormous shell of the 13£ in. gun, on the other hand, travels from the muzzle- at a speed of about 3000 ft. a second. This wonderful swiftness makes it easy to hit a mark at five or more miles, and the enormous force behind the shell keeps it extraordinarily true. In actual battle, it is considered, the 13Jin. ordnance ought to hit once at least in every two shots, providing the enemy's vessels can be clearly seen, at a range of from five to seven miles. The weapons, of the torpedo captain, on the other hand, would be practically useless at long distances : and even supposing the enemy's ship comes just within striking distance the chances are that the torpedo captain will miss her. Between the time ho fires his pistol and the time when his torpedo covers 4000 yards, the ship he aimed at will lie about a mile and a third from its original position. Ho will, of course, aim at the spot which he reckons the ship will reach; and so the whole thing hecomes very problematic. In the case of a shell from a bier Run. however, a ship moving at a speed will scarcely advance half her length between the time th« shot is fired her nnd the time it strikes her. Thus the big mm excels in both quickness and sureness of aim. The h\a. gun will smash up and demoralise the enemy's fleet; and thon. undor cover of night, the torpedo craft will rush in and turn the defeat into an annihilating rout.

.Warships asiTargets. It mmlit bo supposed that when a ship onlv showe to the enemy its narrow bow, which increases at the most to n breadth of barely 30 yards, it would present a very small mark. It might also be supposed that when a ship turns to fire broadside at the enemy, and presents in turn a length of about IS2 yards, it would be a much easier target. All tin's, however, is quite wrons;. It is hardest to hit a ship that, lies broadsido on and easiest to hit her when only her bow or stern can be discerned. The preat difficulty U to get the oxact

range of the enemy. The big modern gun, fitted with epocial machinery, and haying an ipiniense muzzle energy, which keeps the shell true to its murk over a long distance, can be aimed straight by any well-trained gunner, lhe problem is to set the gun at the exact elevation necessary to make the shell fall at, say, 9000 yards. An almost microscopic difference in the tilt of the gun will cauee the allot to fall, say, 9050 or 8950 yards. The shot may bo quite straight, and yet go orer tho ship or splash harmlessly in front of it, if the ship is eteamiiig broadside on. If, on tho other hand, she is eteamirig endon, showing her stern, for instance, then the shot fired at her will"tell, no matter whether it is 50 yards short or 50 yards too far. Elc-vatod to a rang* of 9050 yards tin shell may plough through funnel or fire control, and smash on a turret near the bows; while at a range of 8050 yards it may strike one of the stern turrets and jam it. ihus the captain in tho conning tower will manoeuvre to got his ship within about five miles of the enemy, and broadside on. His chip will then present a target of only 30 yards, and the firecontrol officer will, by that time, have got the exact range and be discharging ten.guns full at the enemy every two minutes or so. In this case the enemy might be sunk "in six minutes; indeed, there is more than a possibility that, if the first broadside of five and a half tons of lyddite and Forged steel struck clear home, the awful work of destruction would practically be suddenly over.