The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-09-11
COST OF A MODERN NAVAL BATTLE
Enormous Expense Attendant Not Only Upon the Firing
Of the Big Guns, but the Rapid Fire
Machines as Well.

SIMPSONS smashing victory at San
tiago was as costly to the American
people In cash as 1t was cheap in blood.
To the Spaniards, however. ii was ire
mendously expensive, however viewed.
1t was al overwhelming national catas-
trophe. even with the element of defeat
entirely eliminated from its considera-
ton.
To the victors the greatest individual
factor of expense was. of course. the
operation Of the heavy guns. They lit
orally hot away fortunes at each blast.
In the long run, however, their totals
were not nearly so impressive as those
made by the s, 5 and 4-inch guns and
six-pounders, because of the more fire.
quent use given the latter type of wea-
pom.
A 13-inch gun weighs so tons, and is
40 feet long. The weight of it's a. NOR
piercing shell is LOO pounds. 1t Is driven
through the air at the rate of 2,100 feet
per second by $50 pounds of powder, and
1t is capable of penetrating 34.6 inches
OF iron. A gun of this sort may be fired
once every two minutes. The $50 pounds
of powder with which 1t is charged
costs about so cents a pound on the
average, or $l65 a load, while each pro-
jectile is worth s4l8 more. The capacity
of one of these guns to eat Its way
through a congressional appropriation
is therefore at the rate of about ST., $50
an hour. The 12-inch gun throws a
projectile weighing $50 pounds, driven
by 425 pounds OF powder, and at the
same velocity as the 13-inch shell, the
only difference being in Its power to
penetrate. which is a little less han in
the case Of the former. The proJectile
for a 12-inch gun costs S377.65 and the
powder s127.5o or a total of $505.15 per
round. The 12-inch guns may be fired
the same number of times an hour as
the 13-inch; so it will be seen that one
gun constantly in use for the space OF
so minutes would blow a hole in $15,-
154.50.
There is an additional expense for
primers, cartridge, bags, etc, which Is
not inconsiderable, though hard to es-
innate with any degree of exactness.
In the case of the smaller guns, such
as the 8. 6, 3 and 4-inch ones, the ex-
pense of operating, though greatly re-
duced by the single round, is still very
heavy in the aggregate, because of the
rapidity with which they may be load
ed and fired. This is constantly in
creased as the size of the gun is dimin-
ished. An S-inch gun can be fired just
twice as often as the IL or 13-inch weap-
on. Its shell weighs $50 pounds, and
travels at the rate of 1000 feet per sec
ond. One hundred and fifteen pounds of
powder are required to give ii this We
locity, and It's force will drive II through
1872 inches of iron. To use an S-inch gun
steadily for an hour would mean the
expenditure of SO, 800, a very respectable
sum on the whole. A 6-inch gun of the
breech-loading type costs $40 per round,
the projectile S25, and the powder SIS.
The weight of the she'll is 100 pounds,
n the limit to its power to penetrate
is 1877 inches of iron. Every round from
a finch gun costs in the neighborhood
of S33.
The Hotchkiss six-pounder may be
fired 500 times an hour. The cost is $5.l0
per round, and in an hour 81, $3.50 worth
Of metal could be sent kissing across
the water. In her fight with the two
torpedo boat destroyers the converted
yacht Gloucester fired over 400 shots
from her 3 and 6-pound guns. The eN-