The morning call., 1892-06-27
TaE GROWTH OF N4vIEs.

The ROYAL Sovereign. the largest war
ship in the world, has just made her
trial trip with the Ulcers of the British Ad-
miralty on board. Her displacement is
14.150 tons, and her speed. which was kept
up for three hours, was Isl knots per hour.
The largest ana fastest vessels of the French
navy, the Admiral Baudn and The Formi-
dable. are 5000 tons less and their speed is
three knots less Our battle ships-the H.
diana, the Massachusetts and the Oregon
are 1900 tons less. and their estimated speed
is three knots less. Italy has FIVE ships
aflOai whose displacement is nearly as large
as that Of the Royal Sovereign, and
whose speed is supposed 10 be the same.
This extraordinary naval development is
the chief cause of the impOvershment Of
italy, and of the crushing weight of taxa
tion in that Kingdom Neither Russia, nor
Germany, nor Austria, nor Spain has any
ships that will compare in size or effective
ness with the Royal Sovereign.
The latter compares curi0usly with other
warships and the leading mercantile steam
ers of the maritime nations. The crack
snip Of the British navy, The Inflexibe. is
nearly 5000 tons less in displacement than
the Royal Sovereign. She is $50 feet in
length and 70 feet beam. as against $50
feet in length and 70 feet beam in the
Royal Sovereign. The great Italian ships
are 400 feet long by "A feet beam. But when
we turn TO the crack merchant steamers of
the day. we find that the City of New York
and the City of Paris, which have just
passed under the American flag are $50 feet
long by IS feet beam. They are 200 or $50
feet longer than the types of the English
nh oh ba 81
Sovereign and u feet narrower In them
the proportion of beam to length IS $50.
while in the battles ships it is less than 6,
or about the proportion which was usual in
the ships built in the forties. 1t was neces-
sary to increase the beam of the warships
to enable them 20 carry the weight and
stand the conclusion Of the great guns, and
for This the narrowneSs, which was adopted
in passenger vessels for the sake Of speed,
has been sacrificed. The draft Of water also
diminishes with the increase Of beam. If
the Royal Sovereign, with her depth, had
been as narrow as The City of Paris there
are lew ports which she could have entered.
Her armament reflects the progress of
naval guuneTy. The Italian Italia, DuiliO
and Dandolo, which were built between
1876 and 1884, carry 100-ton guns; the British
Admiral Baudn and the Formidable carry
75-ton guns; but the Royal Sovereign
only carries 67-ton guns, aud our three bat
tle-shlpS carry 4J-ton guns. The reason of
the reduction in the size Of the guns Is first,
the difficulty Of handling enormous masses
Of metal with efficient rapidity, and sec
ondly. the apprehension that no vessel can
be built so as to endure the conclusion OF
- sss,-
plates splitting and parting. Among gun
ners the best opinion now is that guns not
exceeding % tons in weight would be more
effective in action than guns exceeding that
weight. There is very little doubt that the
Italia and Dnilio would wrench themselves
apart in action long before they had de-
strOyed their enemy. The projectIle thrown
from the Royal Sovereign viii weigh
1900 pounds, and that thrown from our
Massachusetts 1000 pounds. Such missiles
viii 10 quite as much damage if they strike
an object as a missile weighing a ton or
nearly ton.
Since the new development CT marine
architecture no war has taken place which
has put the heavy armed vessels of the pres
ent day to q practical test. At Alexandria
Arabfs forces had no powerful artillery
and no skilled gunners. Had il been other
wise, the disadvantage Of Offering to an
enemy of so large a target as a vessel of
eight or ten thousand tOus or over might
have been demonstrated. Modern artiller-
lists can hit, to an absolute certainty,
much smaller object than that-and Que
she'll would settle the armament Of a vessel,
10 matter how large she was. Protective
aTmor is Of no avail against modern artil-
lery, fed with modern high explosives
Heavy artillery has made just as much
progress as small-arm gunnery; and when
we read that missile from a modern Mar
TIM rife, no bigger than a lead-peacil, went
through two walls of wooden house.
traversed the thigh of man and then killed
another who was standing behind him, one
cannot help wondering at the policy which
leads nations to spend millions to construct
vessels which are to be assailed by weapons
as formidable