Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 249, 18 November 1903, Page 4

Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

WHY IT IS STRENGTHENED,

The Russian fleet has returned to the harbour of Sebastopol, but the expedition to lniada is likely to remain with painful vividness in the mind oi Abdul Hamid as a lively 1 reminder of penalties to come. When the power and quality of Russia s Black Sea Force is realised it will be understood how formidable a menace lay in its appearance oil the Turkish coast, and what irresistible pressure can thus be brought to bear against the Sultan. That part of the Imperial Russian Navy which operates in the Black Sea has, as its backbone, eight formidable battleships, six of Which are of the largest size, and which, as a class, are not only the most heavily armed, but also the most heavily-armored ships in the world. To beg-in with, we have the two battleships Prince Potemkin and Tri Svetitelia, each of twelve thousand live hundred tond displacement, and easily able to do' seventeen knots an hour. The former was launched within the last two years, and embodies the last results of modern knowledge. Of the latter, one of the first experts in England says : —"Tri Svetitelia is the heaviest ironclad in the Russian Navy, and the most strongly protected ship in the world." The first half of this sentence is no longer true, as, since it was written, Russia has launched no less than live new first-class battleships, each with over a thousand tons greater displacement than the Tri Svetitelia. They do' not, however, belong to the Black Sea fleet. Each of the two battleships named has a primary battery of four twelve inch guns ; Prince Potemkin has a secondary battery of no less than sixteen six-inch quick-firing guns and twehty three-inch qulcK-firers,be-sides a number of small-bore guns end, of course, torpedo tubes. Tri Svetitelia, besides her primary battery of four twelve-inch guns, has a secondary battery of eight six-inch qjuick-firing guns, four four-and-soven-tenth quick-firers, and fifty-t>yo small-bore fjuick-firers. Then, after these two 12,500-1311 ships, we have a 'group of four —Georgi Pobiedonosetz, Tchesmn, Ekaterina 11., and Sinope, from ten thousand two hundred to ten thousand throe hundred tons displacement each. The three lfist. are sister ships, and have am ftrjnor belt of no less than eighteen inches in thjckposs. All four carry the astomshing number of six twelveinch' guns each, as their primary battery, arranged in pairs on disappearing carriages within a triangular turret, which is peculiarly Russian in design. The mechanism of these disappearing guns is interesting. The recoil of the shot drives' home a hydraulic ram, which is then used to raise the gun again after reloading. Besides these tremendous primary batteries of six twelve-inch guns, these four ten thousand ton battleships have secondary batteries of seven six-Inch •guns, and from fourteen- to twenty-four small quick-fir-ing guns. Then we have two nine thousand-ton battleships, the Rotislay and the Pvenatsat ApostOloy, 1 the latter with four twelve-Inch and fpur six-inch guns and twenty-two siuo.ll-cali))i-e quick-firers ; the former with a primary battery of four ten-inch guns, the only guns of this calibre in the eight battleships of the Black Sea, and also a secondary battery of eight six-inch quick-firing g'uns and twenty-six smaller quickfirers, To these eight battleships must be added two recently-complet-ed protected cruisers, Kagul and Otchakoff, each able to do twentyfour knots, or something better than the fastest six-day Atlantic liners, and carrying- twelve six-inch and twelve three-inch ■quick-firing guns, besides small-bore quick-firers. Also, of course the complement of torpedo ■gun-boats, 'torpedo-boat destroyers, and small craft in general. What work are these ships of the Black- Sea fleet intended t© accomplish ? Evidently t'hey were not called into existence to protect Russia against the navy of Turkey, for, practically speaking, Turkey has no navy. It seems equally evident that Russia's Black Sea fleet is not designed to meet the fleet of any other Power. Its peculiar character the proportion of eight battleships to two cruisers, the great number of twelve-inch guns, no less tlmn thirtysix for tlw eight ships, and, finally, the immense thickness of the armorbelts, going up to eighteen in hes, all point in the same direction. These ships are evidently designed to make an overwhelming altuck on land forts, and the only forts within their range .of activity arc the Turkish -forts on the Bosphorus, which guard the northern gateway to Constantinople. Two of these forts stand at the moutli of the Bosphorus, overlooking the Black Sea and they are continued, in pairs, 'along the murks of the Bosphorus, on the average about two 'miles apart thiougiiout the sixteen miles of the strait stretching- to Constantinople. The construction of these forts was carried out under the supervision of German officers, whose services were kindly lent to Abdul Hamid bv his friend Kaiser Wilhelm 11., and'they ' Wlll P ro, hably be fought by German gunners trained in German methods, there, in a sentence, is the real barrier to a solution of the Balkan pioblem, the answer to the oft-re-peated question, "Why does not Russia intervene ?" The heavily-armored and heavilvBlae e k U t PS ° f the Bussia " Black Sea Fleet are evidently designed to overcome the barrier when the time comes. Whether they will 'he able to overcome it to pound the lon S ti® UCC6S ! ively into ' silence is Can on 'y be solved y actual trial, it is certain that every ofl.cer on board these battleships, every gunner, and every sea~Wll,V^to make the attempt. But before facing such a tremendous hazard Russia is determined to trv every other expedient.—Harper.