RETURN TO THE MONSER GUN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 28 November 1907, Page 3

RETURN TO THE MONSER GUN.

o ' LOiSDOiN, September 20. Willi Die laying down oi tins hfthaiid sixth Dreadiiougms ill i'ortsmouth and Devotiport <i lew wcks hence, a fresh revolution in naval construction • will liave taken place. It is now an open secret that m these two ships and in tile third ship oi the same elans, which i'» to be built by contract, the 12m gun, which has for nearly twenty years been the standard weapon of the British aud many other foreign navies, will be abandoned and replaced by the far larger and more powerful W.um gun. The new battleships, according to reports which we believe to be wellfound- , ed, will carry eight of these monster guns apiece. All the guns will be so uisposed that they can lire on either broadside, so that each of the new Dreadnoughts can engage with eight lli.Oin pieces, where tue present Dreadnoughts only briug 12iu guns to bear. 'file only lii.oin gun mounted in the ships of the iloyal Sovereign class was in every possible respect inferior to the new guns which are now being manufactured. The old gun was Soft in length; llie new one will be over 50ft, anu will be the longest gun in the world. The old gun hred a shell weighing 12501b through Win of Krupp steel at 3000 yds; the new guii will pierce 20iu or thereabout at that range. in rapidity of firing the new gun will, uf course, be vastly superior. Such perfection has now been attained in British ordnance that it is not the time taken in loading, but the necessity of allowing the metal of the gun to cool tliul limits the number of shots delivered in a given time. Thua the l).2in gun, weighing over thirty tons, can be loaded six times in the minute. It cannot be iired at that rate, because the gun would get red hot. Tlie return of the monster gun is a startling feature of naval evolution. During the last eighteen, years naval designers have been steadily increasing the number of 12in and smaller guns mounted in the warship. They have not increased the calibre of the main armament. Nothing afloat will be proof against the new Dreadnought's 13.5 guns.