The age-herald., 1898-05-31
NAVAL WARFARE
 IS EXPENSIVE

| thing in the world, and naval warfare Is
 not the cheapest kind of fighting. Every
 time a 1s-inch projectile is belched forth | from the guns of the Indiana or the Mas | sachusetts the American taxpayer goes | down into his pocket for his share of the | $500 that 1t costs to hurl the half ton of | pointed metal at the Spanish. The patriotic
 American taxpayer does not complain. He
 knows that for every shell expended there l will be rendered strict account, and
 that although the shell costs more in pro-
 portion 1t increases in calibre, its power
 to create havoc is also vastly augmented single discharge from the Indiana's | four 13-inch guns costs 200 or enough to i support the average man and his family for over a year. Counting at the rate of
 ten rounds in an hour, forty shots from the | four guns combined, the figures would rise
 to the neat sum of s32,0OO. For the s-inch | guns the cost would be about one-third
 that of firing the 13-inch rifles, while guns | of the smaller calibres, G. and inch, would be fired with as-little regard to cost as man puffing at a 5-cent cigar. | Of course this is not saying that the 1 ammunition is wasted or that there is any
 reckless firing. Every gun in the service l Is built for a certain speed of fire, the rough | or smooth condition of the water retarding | or accelerating that speed. Once having cleared for action, it is the duty of the | gun captains to see that their pieces are kept np to the maximum of efficiency dur ing the engagement. A naval battle is not play. The ship that lands the greater
 number of projectiles and lands them fair | ly is the winner. For this reason it is false
 economy to carry on hesitating fire when
 every extra shot adds just so much more to
 the chances of victory.
 |
 The following facts concerning the 13-
 inch guns of the navy of which there are l just twelve in use, speak for themselves | The projectiles for a 13-inch breech-load- | ing turret rifle weighs HOO pounds, little
 more than half ton. It stands four feet | high, and can pierce, at the muzzle, 34.6 l inches of wrought iron or N inches of l steel. While in the muzzle of the gun at
 the moment of discharge the projectile
 travels at the rate of 2,1DO feet second. Worked out under the mathematical calcu-
 lations of the ordnance bureau at Washing | ton, it has been ascertained that the energy
 sufficient to carry the projectile thirteen
 miles would move 33 3627 tons one foot. No patriotic American citizen would begrudge | the paltry sum of $500 for destructive opera | tions against Spain equal to the moving of
 a row of brick houses. The weight of the | 13-inch rifle is 601k tons, and it is 40 feet l long from the breech block to the tip of the | muzzle
 l The regulation service charge for guns of | this calibre is $50 pounds of brown pris-
 matic powder, divided into two sections
 Each charge is loaded from the magazine | into sling with three tubes The pow | der charges occupy the. two lower tubes 1 and the projectile is slung into the upper | one. To load the gun the sling is raised from the pit of the turret until its three tubes have passed the breech of the gun | in the order of projectile, first powder | charge, second powder charge. e ran- l ming is done by a hydraulic telescope ram l mer, operated from the wall of the turret. l When the upper section of the sling, is | abreast of the breech of the gun the ram | mer catches the shell on the head and | forces it in the two powder charges fol- | lowing in succession.
 
 l The cost of firing the guns of the In- I diana's main battery is appfoximately: 1 Cost of powder and projecte. | 13-inch ......... ...... $500 | ''''''f- zO0 6-inch ...... .......... 100 | There are on the Indiana four 13-inch | guns, consuming at a single discharge pow l der and shell to the value of s, 200. The l eight S-inch guns, at $250 each, aggregate | another $2,000 The remaining four 6-inch 1 guns add $400 more to the above figures l and an extra $400 may be counted for the | smaller calibre rapid-fire guns of the sec ondary battery. This it is to be remem- l bered, is a single discharge, and the total cost for all guns is $6000 Computing the average rate of fire for l all guns combined to be, during an en- | gagement at the rate of five complete dis l charges of the entire main and secondary | batteries in every hour, it wold cost the 1 government $30,000 for the Indiana's am | intuition during battle of an hours dura- l tion.
 l The North Atlantic squadron comprises | in addition to a number of armored and protected cruisers, five armored vessels car- l ryng heavy guns namely, the Iowa, Indi- l ana, Terror, Puritan and Amphitrite. A | discharge from the main batteries of this l formidable fleet costs: l Iowa ..... ...... .... .........$ 5000 1ndlana 6,000 l Ierror .-..--.. -... -..-.. .-...... 2,00o Puritan ..-.- 5000 Amphitrite 2,000 l And it could all be done in second. But | in the second that burnt up $1S000 in gun powder many pounds of steel would l have found their way into the Spanish. | At one discharge the Iowa throws 5000 l pounds of metal; the Indiana fires 1000; l the Puritan follows next with 5000 from 1 her great 12-inch guns; and the Terror and l Amphitrite come in last with 2,000 pounds each
 | One hours work of this kind, figuring on | an average of five complete discharges of | the fleets entire available ordnance would | mean to the government an expenditure of
 close to s100,000. Fifty tons of projectiles, varying in size from shells weighing one pound to HOO pounds, would be thrown, ] and the energy expended would represent 1 sufficient physical force to erect a couple l of city sky-scrapers in a day. The rea-
 son for the enormous cost of modern steel
 projectiles, especially those of the larger | calibre is obvious. The process of mak- l ing 13-inch shell occupies two weeks and | requires the handling of at least a dozen 1 skilled workmen during the different stages | of manufacture After being cast in the