The evening times., 1897-03-27
THE NAvYPAsT ANDPREsENT
Wonderful Development ofFight-
ing Craft in Recent Years.
STEEL ARMOR AND BIG GUNS
With Improved Defensive Methods
Come Larger The
Armor and Smaller Guns, and In
This the United States Leads.

Opponents OF great navy in time OF
peace sometimes argue that large fleets
| could be constructed in few months if
necessary, as was done in the eecond war
with England, and again in 1862. They
| lose sight OF the fact, however, that the
| best ships OF earlier days could be con-
struoted in few months while the modern
| type OF battleship cannot possibly be built
and put into commission under three years.
This is not because steel has supplantel
wood in the building of warships, but owing
to the fact that a multiplicity Of arrange
ments are required in modern ships E0t
| called for in vessels Of the old navy IL
takes now as long to make the machinery
OF great battleships as t did years back To
build small fleet of wooden vessels, and
even after ship is completed several
months must pass before she is shaken
down and actually ready for service. With
the woodea ships vessel was ready Tor
action as soon as her sails were spread.
OF the various types of ironclads built
during our civil war the monitor is the
only type that has survived The essential
features of the monitors design, in one
modification OF another, exist today in
many OF the most powerful battleships
afloat and building. At first the struggle
was chiefly bet weeH gun and armor. When
the gun led efforts were made to thicken
the armor or to dispose of 1t to better
advantage, or improve its quality. With
the increase in the thickness of armor,
ships have increased in size to carry the
extra weight or the general structure of
the hull has been lightened by improved
methods of construction or improved quail
ity of metal.
About / S75 steel took the place of iron,
affording for the same kind Of ship reduc
ton OF more than one-tenth of the whole
weight enabling that saving TO be put into
weights OF guns, arInor engines or coal, or
allowing the size of the ship TO be reduced
for the original weights. In SS1 an Eng
lish Armstrong gun had been produced that
drove an elongated projectile 2 inches in
diameter and Weighing ,S37 pounds
through solid steel and compound arnior
1872 inches thick. To carry these guns
Italy built a number Of ships from 1 900
to $4,000 tons displacement. In these
enormous ships armor was concentrated in
such thickness over the vital parts that it
was necessarily relinquished over other
parts TO a hazardous degree.
Lately all naval guns have greatly in
creased in power, and reaction has set
in tending to reduce their size. In this
country the limit has been placed at the
l3-inch gun This gun is 40 feet long,
weighs 6o1-2 tons, throws a pro jectile
charge, and can penetrate nearly -
inches of steel at the muzzle and morethan
% inches OF steel at 800 yards. In Our
civil war, and especially in the battle OF
LISA, between the Austrians and Italians,
the terrible effects of ramming, which at
Lssa gave the battle to the Austrians,
proved the Importance of the ram. The eff
feet was to provide ali war vessels with
ram-bows fmore or less pronounced beaks
under waterl, TO revive ramning tactics
and to cause ships TO be subdivided into
many wafer tight compart ments. But few
vessels intended TO rely chiefly or wholly
on the ram have been built. The latest
design is the United States ram K atah
The civil war aud the subsequent war be
tween the Russians and the Turks demon
strated the immen Sc offensive value of sub
marine torpedoes, and efforts were made to
Improve torpedoes for ship use. That now
gin almost universal use is the Whitehead
so-called fish or automobile torpedo. 1t is
self-propelling cigar-shaped tube. which is
discharged from the ship through a tube
into the water, when il Immediately de
scends to the depth for which it has been
adjusted and proceeds at great speed to-
ward the object aimed at, preserving at
the same time the required depth. On
striking the enemy's ship it explodes. 1t
has an effective range of several hundred
yards,
To guard aginst this terribly destructive
weapon, which offers no target whatever,
there are two passive means available.
One is to surround the ship with con-
tinuous netting of wire rope, the other
consists in that generally useful method
of water-tight subdivision to restrict the
inflowing water to a small part of the ships
interior.
To increase the utility of the automobile
torpedo, small and exceedingly swift YES
sells, from so to so feet in length, were
built and fitted to discharge the tor
pedoes These vessels have been built by
the hundred by foreign governments, but
only One-the CuSsllng-lS yet owned DV
the United States. To provide against
this element Of offense machine guns were
enlarged, made more powerful and adapted
to firing shell The rapid-firing gun was
invented and adapted to firing both shot
and she'll The machine gun fires con-
tinuously or in volleys; the rapid-firing
gun fires single shot al very short inter
vals The rapid-firing gun has become so
powerful for the same size and SO greatin
all armaments that the projecting parts of
even the largest guns are exposed to fatal
damage from their fire. The high ex-
plosive material now available for the !
bursting charges Of she'll fired from these
guns has most dangerously augmented 1
their destructive power.
To meet this dangerous situation de-
signs are being modified. The tendency
is to use somewhat lighter armor over
the vital parts of ships and spread "A thin /
layer over the region containing that part
Of the battery heretofore allowed to be
exposed. Belt-like compartments contain
ing compressed material, which autonlat- !
ically closes shot-holes when 1t is per-
forated, are worked along the sides of /
the larger ships, just inside the outer 1
skin.