The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1885-07-19
THE NAVAL PROBLEM.



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The following extract from lecture delivered nt
tho Royat Naval College, Greenwich England by
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be epaf'lu"WIy Interesting 10 large num"t' 'our
readers, especially at this time when the steel
cruisers arc being 40 severely criticised and nddI-
,,ana, ,.ar s,,ns s,,o,,, a, no ,es,croa.
tionai war snps aoo"' 70 ne "essnc"'
The problem Of the naval architect, instead OF j
being the very casy one Of making ship proof 1
against all guns actually existing or Imagined as be-
Ing In existence at future time, and having no re-
strlcton placed onihe size of his shp, has become
the much more dlcult one OF arranging the imper-
fcciions necessarily Imposed on bis ship by limiting
her slgc In such manner as to allow NO Kind OF i'm
perfection to he SO great ~ TO admit OF her speedy
destruction by any possible mode OF attack she Is
liable 10 he subjected TO, aud to produce as we'll
hs ship has to run as the size PLACED ut his disposal
will admit OF. lie has to produce the heat result on
given size and cost, aud he wants to know what
ifan'ersons were perfectly agreed the relative
values Of the various risks 10 he run by any one chip
we should have advanced u long way toward the
best balancing OF imperfections. This case, how
ever. is not so easy As we all well know, the rea
tive Importance OF the various risks ship has to
IL estimated by each person IN way peculiar to him
sell, aud the suitability OF given set OF defenscs
IN inc w ns9 % 9 U TS hs
| relative values. Every ship should bc
replaced by another having any one or more Of ils
qualities enhanced, aud Tor ths reason We may truly
say thai snip is much too Slow that she does not
turn rapidly enough, nor In small enough space
cile uVcS cdTtN tbdi, guns uIt
feeble and too few and too long 10 load, and, not
wthstandng this, she rolls and pitches 80 much
that the M few and feeble shots she Is able to re are
sometimes she cannot open Gre at all on account OF
the heavy seas TO which she Is exposed Her nrmor
Ia too thin mnch too thin. even where ills thlckes,
aud is altogether absent from places where we should
like TO have at least littlc She is very vulnerable
against the ram and torpedo, and her propeers are
much exposed to ioullnR rs To render her ncapa
bic OF sieaming with imphni'y at a high rate OF
action, and In spite OF oil her Imperfect defensive
powers her means OF saving life ~ the last resort
viz her boats, are AL 30 much exposed to- nuchine
gun ute ns TO be quite useless aftrr well contested
fight.
must Insist on tho above hcIne 'inly appreciated
before going on to describe the arnor defenscs In
| ont battle ships. In q floating body every increase
OF defense In one direction means either increase Of
size ] say increase OF size, because largcness In
size In ship Is looked upon as defect Itself. The
size OF ashp to funll certain requirements depends
partly upon the properties OF tue materials we md
Ia The market, properties over which we only have
limited control and partly upon what might be
called the general level OF engineering knowledge and
| professional skill existing at any given moment
At any given instant Ian there are always certain things
,an t1e moon, and Inc Of . single shir Of lim.
tei size having all the qualities that various critics
9" ns na,ue All ns must BIZ clearly
bear In mind that the ship IL sadly deficient In other
| as important or more important than that OF armor
protection
1
take my chance of being Just as the individual
soldier Is willing TO take his chance Of being shot;
n n yo" "s' ,y give S me Y srsa, sres plenty q guns
nize fully that war Involves serious risks, hut
cept them all, provided you give me ample power OF
destroying my enemy. II my ship sinks the other
ships carry on my work Just as In a land battle the
survivors carry the light after tho loss of their
comrades. In my opinion 1t Is ~ unwse to attempt
to make ships invunerable or nearly so Ms It is 10
attempt to make soldiers bullet-proof. YOu must
depend upon numbers, and not upon Individual In
| yiuchility.f
Another Gays: " In my opinion the torpedo ia my
deadliest foe, and therefore you must give me
does. cannot get away from torpedo boats he
cause they outrun me. go fifteen knots; they 20
guns, or by my own torpedo boats even IN daylight
and cannot keep my torpedo nets down al high
speed. At night and in fogs am still worse or rs
may not see the torpedo boats at all You must
therefore protect me against torpedoes by proper
construction of the hull or else INV shin coating
three and a half millions NAV be DESTROYED nv tho
enemy at a cost to him of only a few hundreds1
A third says: al must have belt OF armor at
least all around my water line TO protcc ma against
the gun The gun Ia not ike tho tornedo M rain n
cannot he avoided by any skill on nv mart. NV
buoyanCy and stability must therefore bc nrotecied
by armor against the gun The primary tu,y of a
ship s to float and to Keep aioat; IL she canot do
this she can do nothing, her power ia gone. Eyery
thing must therefore give way and be subordlnate 10
the necessity of perfect and compete protecion tn
the water-line.' i'''' p'o'e'h'" W
''A A Tourih says. "You must nro,ect al, NV oun-
ners, torpedo-mep and men serving the ar,mnni
ton against heavy machine gun lire. The big guns
and the practice ia very sure To be ,n,iliferent Nv
| men. however are ony very few. the men who cay ~
shoot wei are fewer still, and arc among
those most eyposed If casualties hannen 10 them
cannot ef,icienty replace them Ji,c machine r,n
bullets will come i'm perfect hai, and anv fers ~
| them viii he sIiicient 10 XIII nv men You n,ust
therefore give me good protection avanst machine
: | guns
Such n critic does moi ajways remember thot
machine guns are pos,ibIe which wnnjJ ner forate
, | the tbirkest amor Of The warrior ~
| A MIN person aays: al am fairly Satisfied win
the defensive and oHensye nowers Of INV shin os " "a
|, | mand than Won have given me I am % en,ira,v
| nowerless oui sf INV shh cannot land anv ,,,en
and IL heat nv enemy nj seo and connre his shin
cannot take her as Drize inio nurt becanse ,sn
not put enough men on hoard 10 preyenf her acain
falling into the hands of the enemy and AT ,he
time Keen INV own vessel eff,cIent Inavc M choice
hut TO DESTROY what NAV he worm milons of money
; You must certainly give me MANY more men -
The examples might be carried much further I'm,
? we must let the above sutilce
II Now although all the above things are Obtain.
III able In single s,Ip provided we make no resirc-
ton as regards size n ia fact thai there in M
war ship at present In the world even nearly large
enough TO embrace them all 'N q
ships and is Inches thick Mt the ends he'll bv M
means completely gun proof four I5D. ton guns ~
G.iuch guns with a 3-Inch side in front of Them,
4-inch inner bottom protection against torpeioes
4 10 feet In from outer bottom and 20 kuote sneed
we should have vessel Of 20 o0O 10 p, OOn tona I,
placement and n cost for con,plecd shln not much
short OF flO 900 The shin large ami costly n.
Q she is is still lmperfect: her armor Will roll o "i
9 the water and under the water There is no pro