The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-09-20
LESSON FROM THE WAR.
Things Which the Eastern Sea
Struggle Will Teach the West.

less upon hypothesis. AT last the
time has come when the monsters
which our Frankenstiens have
given US will have TO undergo the
stern test of action. In the East
there is far more even balance be-
tween the combatants than we
have seen for some time. Each
side has a fairly numerous fleet.
The Chinese ships are of modern
but not recent construction. The
Japanese ones embody the newest
theories and carry the latest
weapons. The result of the naval
war, says the Pail Mall Gazette,
cannot but be instructive.
The two great questions which
agitate the naval tactician today
are the value of battleships as con-
trasted with cruisers, and the dan
ger of unarmored ends to ships.
The jeune ecole in France, who re-
present the ideas of Admiral Aube
and Gabriel Charmes, are all for
cruisers. They hold that the bat
tleship is too big that only small
patch of her surface on the water
line being protected by armor, she
might be disabled by peppering
her upper decks with high explos-
i've shells, and wrecking them, or
that she might be sunk by hits
from quite small guns on the un-
protected portion of her side below
the armor belt, which any ship
must expose when rolling in a
heavy sea. They further urge
that she must necessarily lack
speed and cannot overtake the
cruiser, which can hang about her
at distance and keep up a fire on
her. They would therefore aband-
on the vertical armor and would
build only cruisers.
Now it happens that the Japan
csc fleet consists mainly of cruisers,
fast, powerful and modern, while
the Chinese have two fairly good
second-class battleships. The &C
ton between the Takachiho and
Chen-Yuen was an action between
a cruiser and a battleship, though
the Takachiho was aided by a
small belted cruiser, having a GER
tain amount of armor. When de-
tails are known it may enable US
to judge the relative value of these
two descriptions Of vessels.
The huge unarmored ends which
characterize our Ajax and Infex-
ible, and to less extent all our
modern ships, appear also in the
Chinese ironclads. Forward and
aft of the armored citidel the ships
interior above the belt is infinitely
subdivided and packed with cork
near the water-line. The function
of the cork is to swell when water
comes in through the perforation
of the outer skin and stop the
holes. But in the hail of project
lies from quick-fring guns will not
the whole end be riddled, and the
water-tight compartments turned
into sleeves? And if this happens,
will the ironclads follow the ex-
ample of the Victoria? We look
to the East for answer.
In most French ships the heavy
guns are very inadequately protec-
ted underneath, and this is, alas
the case in a few English battle
ships, also. The guns are mounted
in shallow trays with thick plating
on their side. But the bottom of
the trays or barbettes, to use the
technical term, is quite defenseless.
It has been repeatedly urged that
guns so mounted will be quickly
put out of action by even small
shells exploding under them, and
that the whole mass. guns and bar
bette, may break loose through the
SCATTERING of the supports, and go
through the bottom. In four Jap
anese cruisers of the Akitsuschima
class we have precisely this form
of mounting, and their behavior in
battle should be able to teach US a
significant lesson.
We may learn much, too, of the
value of the torpedo, of the real
efficacy of the new quick frers, and
of the value of the huge gun
| (for the japanese have in their
| Canet Oo-tOn weapons, specimens OF
these unwieldly but enormously
powerful implements of war;. We
may see the action of high ex-
plosives on ships structure, since
the Flowery Isle possesses them.
But we can, unfortunately. learn
nothing of the value of various
formations for feet actions, since
neither side possesses numerous
battleships.