A TORPEDO BATTLESHIP

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 193, 4 January 1913, Page 2

A TORPEDO BATTLESHIP

- A NOVEL L'KOL'OSITIOX. j Italy is forging again to the front as a fruitful source of novel propositions in the way of advances in naval arc'hi(eeture (says the New York Tribune). Recently, an Italian designer prepared the plans for a -lartling departure in lighting ships —nothing less than a tor-pedo-boat dc-lroyer of battleship proportions. The biggest destroyers in naval service to-day have displacements of 170(1 tons, and the Italian torpedobat.tles.hip is designed to have a displacement of 15.250 tons! The vessel will be nearly .~>0(lft long, and will have a speed of 24 knots. She will carry a battery of 20 4.7-inch quick-firing guns, which would answer to keep other torpedo craft at a respectful distance. In order to make it possible for the tor-pedo-battleship to get within hitting distance of her quarry and to withstand ttie foe's blows up- to that point, she 5s

designed to have a belt of Krtipp armor reaching from well below the wator-lie to a .point 10ft above —the thickest portion of the plating to be 12in through —wJiile protective decks inside are counted upon to halt plunging shot. But the torpedo-battleship would still be an easy prey to a chance torpedo if her own under-water body were not properly safeguarded. Therefore, provision is made to localise the injury inflicted by ordinary torpedoes, and in this particular the torpedo-battleship is a counterpart of the present Dreadnoughts. THIRTY TORPEDO TUBES.

The principal means of offence of this novel vessel is, however, the torpedo. She will be fitted with 30 under-water torpedo-tubes of a size suited to discharge the longest pattern of the improved 18-inch Whitehead. The fact that the tubes aire located below water, safe from the reach of a enemy's quick-firing guns, would make it possible to load and discharge the tubes deliberately, and. with much greater likelihood of Access. Just fancy a ehip being able to fire a single broadside of IS big torpedoes?, and having still a reserve for the ire-charging of the tubes! The chances of an enemy escaping from such a volley of underwater projectiles are remote. The Tribune points out that if the gun torpedo is employed, the power of the torpedobattleship will be vastly increased. The gun-torpedo is like other torpedoes, save for the substitution of a gun firing an explosive shell in place of the usual charge of guncotton in the warhead. Instead of dissipating energy in attacking the hull-plattng, the gun torpedo concentrates all its offensive power in carrying its loaded projectile into the very vitals of an armored ship, and there bursting violently, where it will by sure to accomplish the greatest havoc. The armor-plating of a heavy fighting ship ig thick enough 'to keep out the projectile of an Bin gun of the usual type, so a shell fired from an aiovewater gun of thia calibre would not penetrate to the heart, so to speak, of a ship-of-the-line.

ATTACKING THE VITALS. But the Sin gun carried by the torpedo is planted right against the unprotected bottom of the enemy's craft, and the shell is then sped through the relatively weak steel of that region and landed in a magazine, a boiler room, or an engine space, where its bursting may result in serious displacement, if not the total destruction of the foe's vessel. The modern torpedo has a range of about 10,000 yards. It would make no difference to the prime means of attack of the torpedo-battleship if every one of her guns were swept overboard by the accurate fire of her foe, provided she were still able to run speedily toward the enemy, and take a position where she could bring either broadside of torpedo tubes to bear upon the target. Her hull armor would probably make her safe against the heaviest attack until she had reached a good position, and then some of those 15 torpedoes would surely hit the mark! .If the torpedo-battleship were assailing a fleet, the chances of doing injury would be that much greater, the torpedoes that missed one vessel standing a pretty good chance of striking one or more of the other ships.