The record-union., 1898-03-01
WAR SHIPS.
Many Important Changes Will
Have to be Made,

If the claims submitted to the Navy
Department by Moriz Stoehr an Aus
trian inventor, are justified, many i'm
portant, perhaps revolutionary, changes
will have to be made in sea construc-
ton. Pictures showing the longitudin-
| al and cross sections of his proposed
new armored cruiser are printed this
morning, and when the oddness Of con-
ception has worn off it must be con-
fessed that the value of the design as
| a fighting machine seems on the sur
face Of things to be considerable.
The inventors theories. however,
clash very much with accepted notions.
and it Will be difficult to convince ex-
perts that his conclusions are just For
| fighting purposes he divides his fleet
into three types, battleships, armored
cruisers and torpedo destroyers. The
unarmored battleships, he asserts, does
not take direct part in the fighting,
but is distributor of automobile wea-
pOns, either in the shape of under water
| torDedoes or Of other small vessels,
which are shot from guns, and, their
aerial trajectory being completed, keep
up their motion of translation under
water.
His fighting ship is the armored
cruiser. and holds that a partly invisi-
BILE body, with relatively stronger
armor, so disposed and shaped as to
make slight the chances of hitting and
to defy penetration, is the type needed
in modern navies. He says very just
| ly that force and rapidity of movement
are the best projections an army or
a feet can possess, and that the best
defense is the power to attack.
The torpedo destroyer, which, by the
way, is submarine in principle, is, he
| holds. one Of the most formidable sea
weapons, and its only requirements
are invisibility. seaworthiness, high
speed and agility" or great maneuv-
ering power Such, generally describ-
ed, are the types of ships.
He finds the solution of the gun prob
| lem in pieces of very large caliber,
which through a secret mechanism
are maintained at any required range,
! both in train and elevation, independ-
emily Of the motions of the sea and
ship.
The armored turret has, as shown by
| the pictures, an extensive latitude Of
motion, especially in the horizontal
plane, and all the pieces, placed in
| bomb proofs, can be fired without the
slightest danger of water entering
through gun enbrasures. The entire
| armament can be fired from a central
point and this Will certainly enhance
the precision of the fire, as the dis
turbances due to smoke shroud-
ing the muzZles or the devia-
tons which unavoidably result at
the moment of firing an individual
gun from nervousness or excitement
are largely excluded. Apparatus locat-
ed in the firing station reveals at each
moment the firing angle necessary, the
angle of deviation from the horizon
and the distance of the enemy.
BY another mechanism, attached to
each gun. any desired angle can be OBJ
/ tanned, either for distant or for bomb
or mortar firing, and this apparatus is
so made that the gun can only be fired
when the axis of the gun forms the ex-
act angle with the horizon necessary to
make the projectile reach the target.
| The armament of the armored cruiser
consists of three guns carried in each
turret, fore and aft. centrally disposed
| together with number Of rapid Ere
medium and small calibered rifles and
machine guns.
Battle ships are of exactly similar de-
sign TO the cruisers, but-and here is a
revelation in battleships-they carry nc
armor Their weapons consist of only
two large torpedo guns and a half doz-
en- rapid fire pieces. The torpedo de-
stroyer or chaser is a submarine boat
about seventy feet in length. 1t is cir
cular in cross section, Is propelled by
six screws and has very great speed
Its crew Will be four men.-New York
Herald