The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1898-06-04
Our 0liu.
GREAT GUNS OF wARSHIPS.
Of Some Points That
Will be Found Very Interesting.
From the y. y. Herald.

Chow far will ships cannon shoot =
is the constantly recurring question put in
these troublous times by landsmen to sea-
men. In the first place, don t call the
piece Of ordnance mounted on board war
ship cannon, call it great gun-which
second place dom say shoot, say car
ry." Thus the above question properly
framed would be, How far will Il great
gun cary?'
The answer is that it will depend pri-
marily upon the calibre of the gun; that
is, upon the diameter of the bore of the
gun; the weight of charge and projectile
are secondary considerations. In our navy
this diameter is measured in inches. Other
things being equal, the larger the diameter
of the gun, the heavier the weight of the
shot, the greater the charge of powder, the
farther the distance the gun will carry.
The thumb rule for ascertaining what dis
tance great gun will carry is that the
shot will travel through the air as many
miles as the diameter Of the bore is inches.
For example, a 13-inch gun will send its
proiectile 13 miles; a 6-inch gun, six miles.
Below this calibre of six inches the rule
does not hold so accurately.
EXTREME RANGE.
Up to the present time 9 Pinch gun
has attained an actual range Of twelve and
one-third miles, which is within a few
miles of the theoretically calculated range,
and the rapid-fre guns of 6 inch calibre
have been made to carry nine miles, but it
should be remembered that these guns
were mounted on shore, on carriages es-
pecially constructed to stand the strain of
this high -angled fire, as it is called. On
board ship it would be impracticable to OBJ
tain such an elevation as would permit the
muzzle of the gun to 90 up in the air and
the breech to 90 down so that the piece
could be laid to that angle which would in
sure the shot falling at the greatest dis
tance possible from the gun. Probably
the heaviest guns of the largest calibres
now ahoat can do no better than send their
shot IL distance of 10 miles. These pieces
are the tulret guns, the l3-inch, 12-inch
and 10-inch guns in our service, and the
- 5-inch and Inch guns on board the
Spanish ships. Another serious hindrance
to high angle fire afoat is that the ship
decks cannot be conveniently made to stand
the downward kick following Immediately
upon dircharging the gun. A warship is
designed, built, armored and armed first
and foremost for the almost exclusive pur-
pose of engaging in combat with another
warship on the high seas, and is 50 braced,
secured and strengthened that she can
stand the racking and straining incident to
the firing Of her guns in any position in
which they might be pointed during an
engagement with her enemy.
POWDER AND SHOT.
No man -of-war would open fire on an
other man-of-war at distance approach
ing 0 miles Indeed, the ships would not
begin to show up above the horizon until
they were six miles apart, because the Wis
ible horizon to an eye elevated Is feet is
only four and a half miles Probably the
first shot would not be fired before the
two contestants were well within three
miles of one another. However, for pur-
poses of bombardment, from eight to ten
miles may safely be given as the answer to
the question, "How far will Spain 5 largest
gun carry?
The great turret mounted guns in our
service, afoat, and in Spain's, are as fol-
lows