The Portland daily press., 1892-07-13
HEAVY WARsHIPs OF TO-DAY.

Some OF the Monsters Which are now
Afioat Under Various Flags.
The Royal Sovereign, the largest war;
ship in the world, has just made her trial
trip, with the officers of the British admit
rality on board. Her displacement is IA
$50 tons, and her speed, which was kept
up for three hours, was 1871 knots per
hour. The largest and fastest vessels Of
the French navy, the Admiral Baudin
and the Formidable, are 5000 tons less,
and their speed is three knots less. Our
battle ships-the Indiana, she Massa-
chusetts and the Oregon-are 1000 tons
less, and their estimated speed is three
knots less. Italy has i've ships afioat
whose displacement is nearly as large as
that of the Royal Sovereign, and whose
speed Is supposed to be the same. This
extraordinary naval development is the
chief cause of the mpoverishment; Of
Italy and the crushing weight of taxation
in shat kingdom.
Neither Russia, nor Germany, nor Aus
tria, nor Spain has any ships that will
compare in Size or effectiveness to the
Royal Sovereign. The latter compares
curiously With other warships and the
leading mercantile steamers of the mari
time nations. The crack ship of the
British navy, the Infiexible, is nearly
three Thousand tons less in displacement
than the Royal Sovereign. She is 800 feet
in length and rs feet beam, as against $50
feet in length and rs feet beam in the
Royal Sovereign. The great Italian ships
are 400 feet long by IA 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 6S feet beam. They
are 200 or $50 feet longer than the types of
the English aud French battle ships be-
fore the Royal Sovereign and IL feet mar
rover. In them the proportion of beam
to length is $50, while in the battle ships
it is less than 8, or about the proportion
which was usual in the ships built in the
forties.
If the Royal Sovereign, with her depth,
had been as narrow as the City OF Paris,
the San Francisco Call says, there are few
ports which she could have entered. Her
armament reflects the progress of naval
gunnery. The Italian Italia, Duilio and
Dandolo, which were built between 1875
and 1884, carry 100-ton guns; the British
Infexible carries 80 ton guns; the French
Admiral Baudin and the Formidable
carry 75-ton guns; but the Royal
Sovereign only carries 67-ton guns, and
our three battle ships carry A5-to guns.
The reason of the reduction In the size of
the guns is, first, the difficulty of hand
ling enormous masses of metal with eff
cient rapidity, and secondly, the appre-
hension that no vessel can be built SO as
to endure the conclusion of the fire of
very heavy guns without her plates split
ting and parting. The best opinion now
is that guns not exceeding 40 tons in
weight would be more effective in action
than guns exceeding that weight. There
is very little doubt that the Italia and
Duilio would wrench themselves apart in
action long before they had destroyed
their enemy. The projectile thrown from
the Royal Sovereign will weigh 1900
pounds, and that thrown from our Mas
sachusetts 1000 pounds. Such missiles
will do quite as much damage if they
strike an object as missile weighing
ton or nearly ton.