QUEEN ELIZABETH'S GUNS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 281, 6 May 1915, Page 3

QUEEN ELIZABETH'S GUNS.

The landing of the Allied expeditionary force at the Dardanelles was made possible by the work of the British Fleet, headed by the Queen Elizabeth. Although the gims of the Queen Elizabeth are the most powerful ever mounted in a SM7I of war they :a»o not, as is frequently stated, the largest. The old Inflexible, launched in IS/fl, and commanded by Captain .2. iA Vi Fisher at Hhe bombardment of .Aexandria, was armed with four ISiai weapons, hut these, of course, were muzzle-loaders firing projectiles of 180011), the guns themselves weighing 80 tons apiece. In 1885 was launched the Bertbow, and in 1887 the Victoria arid Sana Pared, to which trio ' belongs the distinction of mounting the largest and heaviest gun so far put into a British warship. This was the 16.25 in weapon, weighing HO 1 /™ tons, and firing a shell I'OOlb heavier than that of the ICin MX.., and, naturally, with considerably greater .effect, the muzzle energy of the later and breech-loading weapon being almost exaetly double that of the earlier gun. The Sans Pared and Victoria 3»ad two of these guns in a single turaet, but the lienbow had one in an open barbette forward and aft.