Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-07-30

Some OF the Monsters New Aaoat Undss
Various Flags.

Some OF the Monsters New Aaoat Undeu
/ Various Flags.
From the Canonnati commsrcial-aassee..
The Royal Sovereign, The lAresst vsrship in
the world, has Just made her trisl trip with the
o6,osrs Of the British admiralty on bosxd Her
displacemsnt h IA, 150 tons, and bar speed,
which was kept MP for three hours, was 10.
knots per hour. The largest and fastest vessels
Of the French navy, the Admiral BAudin and
| the Formidable. are 5000 tons ls1 and their
speed Is three knots less Our battle ships-the
| Indiana, The Massachusetts, snd the Oregon
| are 900 tons less apd their estimated speed 10
three knots lsss. italy has Ave chips anoa,
whose imprisonment u nearly - large as that OF
the Royal Sovereign and whose speed II sup
posed to Be the same This extraordinary naval
Development - the chief cause Of the impover-
ishment Of Italy and Of the crushinG weight Of
taxation in that kingdom.
Neither Russia nor Germany nor Austria nor
Spain has any ships that viii compare in size or
effectiveness with the Royal Sovereign. The
latter compares curiously with other warships
and tho leading mercantile steamers Of the mar
thine nations. The crack ship Of the British
displacement than the Royal Sovereign. She is
320 feet In length and Is feet besm, ~ against
$50 feet IN length and Is 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 Now York and the City Of Paris,
which have just passed under the American Gag
are $50 feet long by So feet beam. They are
200 or 80 feet longer than the types Of the En-
giish and French battle ships before the ROYAL
Sovereign and IL feet narrower. In them the
proportion Of beam to length n a89, while In
the battle ships 1t u less than 6, or shout the
proportion which wAs usual in the ships built
in the forties.
II the Royal Sovereign, with her depth, had
been o. narrow - the City OF Paris, there are
few ports which she could have entered. Her
armament reflects the progress Of naval gun
merry. The Italian Italia, Duiiio aud Dandoio,
which were built between 1876 and 1884, carry
1O0-ton guns; the British Infexible carries 60
ton guns; the French Admiral Baudin and the
Formidable carry 75-ton guns, but the Royal
Sovereign only carries ELTON guns and our
three battle ships carry Aston guns. The rea-
son Of the reduction in the size Of the guns is,
FIRST, the difficulty Of handling enormous masses
OF metal with efficient rapidity, and secondly,
the apprehension that no vessel can be built so
az TO endure the conclusion OF the fire Of very
heavy guns without her plstes splitting and
parting. The best opinion now II that guns NOT
exceeding forty five tons in weight would be
moro effective in action than guns exceeding
that weight. There il very little doubt that
the Italia and Duilio would wrench themselves
apart in action long before they had destroyed
their enemy. The projectile thrown by tho
Royal Sovereign viii weigh I 400 pounds, and
that thrown from our Massachusetts, 900
pounds. Such missiles will do quite "a much
damage il they strike an object a. . missile
weighing ton or nearly q ton