A NAVAL PROBLEM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8130, 3 May 1906, Page 7

A NAVAL PROBLEM.

An interesting discussion is proceeding in naval oiroles in regard to the relative merits of the heavy guns now in use. The recently launched Dreadnought, the most powerful battleship in the world, is armed with ten 12-inch guns and a number of 3-iaoh guus for repelling attacks | FROM TORPEDO-BOATS. This arrangement is based on the belief held by many naval men that the day of secondary armaments is passed, in view of the experience of the Japanese. On the other hand, some high naval authorities hold that the use of 3-inch and 10 Inch guns iB advisable. The 12-inch gun is IMMENSELY POWERFUL, but the lighter guns can be fired more often in the same time. Admiral Sir John Hopkins who has been Director of Naval Ordnance and a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty, has expressed himself in favour of a mixed armament. "If all future actions are to be FOUGHT AT RANuES outside 5000 yards," he writes, "most officers would plump for the 12-inch gun. But in fighting at closer ranges the rapidity of fire and extra number of 9.2-inon guns carried must have a smothering and tellins effect The ballistics of the 9.2-inoh gun are quite equal to those of the 12-inch while a larger number can be oarried, and they have a higher rate of fire. The problem before the naval min 1 ! is—Will you have in a future DUKE OR BRONTE class, an entire armament of 12-inoh guns, or a mixture of, say, six 12inoh and twelve 9.2-inoh? For the present 1 am inclined to prefer the latter." Sir Nathaniel Barnaby was Chief Constructor of the Navy for fifteen years, is a strong supporer of the 12-inch gun. "If secondary armaments, which are necessarily epxosed, were suppressed, leaviag only the heavy guns and light torpedo-boat repellers, the CREW OF A WARSHIP could be very considerably reduced," he states. "The teaching of the great naval fight in the Sea of Japan seems to me to be that, while we might be able to lose ships and replace them, it is quite a different thing to lose our personnel, a far more precious national posession, wbioh, once lost, no dockyard can restore to us. The men working secondary guns cannot be sufficiently protected by such fragile armour as that to which they are limited." The question is of course one which experts must decide.