The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-07-20


the Naval Board on Construction regard !
ing the arrangement and character Of the |
battery for the two battIeships for which
plans are to b. submitted to Congress in
December was added today by Rear Ad-
miral r. e Bradford, Chief Of the Blu
reau Of Equipment. and a member OF the
board, in a minority report to the Score
tary of the Navy. advocating a battery
that contains supeTpOsed tuTTets. Admi-
raj Bradford's report is comprehensive
He goes into every detail concerning the
relative merits Of the ma joT!ty and mi
EOrity batteries and does not hesitate to
criticise the former as weak. He asserts
that the Alabama and Maine types, which
have armament similar to the majority
ship, have weak batteries. As for the
finch gLn advocated by the majority and
embraced in Its battery plan in place of
, the 8-inch gun. he says there is no such
, gun in existence and the calculations as
to its power are merely theoretical
Admiral Bradford calls attention to the
| fact that Rear Admiral Melville. Engi-
| neeT-in-Chicf OF the Navy who voted
| with the majority Of the board against
| the superposed turret, had heretofore
| been warm advocate OF that turret. He
| also quotes a letter written d little more
| than a year ago by Rear Admiral O'NeiI
! Chief Of the Bureau of Ordnance and
| President of the Board on Construction.
! who voted with the ma jority for the use
| Of the finch gun in preference to the S
/ inch, and who prepared the board 5 report
strongly advocating the weapon Of small
F.! CT caItbre. in which Admiral O-NeH says
that the S-fnch is preferable to the Inch
for battleshfps and the latter would be
! more suitable weapon for the superstruct-
T4rg pms az the arTr7oraG rr1TiSsTS
| If it was unwise to assign finch guns
to battleships enc year ago says Admi-
TaI Bradford. in commenting on Admiral
J O'Neil's letter. it is unwise TO do so
now
As to Rear Admiral BowIes. the Chief
| Naval Constructor. the third member Of
| the board who voted against the supper
| posed turret and favored Finch guns for
auxiIaries- Admiral Bradford suggests
| that a corps policy Of prejudice against
the superposed turret exists in the con-
struction corps Attention is called to the
fact that all OF Admiral O'NeiTs prede-
cessors in the Bureau Of Ordnance for the
| past sixteen years-AdTEi-aIs Sicard and
Sampson and Captain FoIger-were in IA
| vor Of the sUperposed turret IN Conclud-
| ing Admiral Bradford sounds a note OF
| concern over the majority's blow to the
superpOsed turret after it had been adopt
| ed by special board acting in COnjunC-
ton with the Board on Construction He
says that he IS afraid that the effect Of
the majority's action VIII be a loss Of con-
| fdence in the boards knowledge as to the
type of batrIeshiD best suited for naval
! purposes
The battery advocated by Admiral
Bradford was designed by Captain Sigs-
bee. the Junior member Of the board. who
I a no min RI
ty report This battery consists Of the
usual two Iz-inch turrets with two s-inCh
turrets superposed on them. and four
| additional S-inch tUrrets arranged in the
form Of QuadriIateraI- There are in ad-
| dition on the main deck. twelve 6-inch
| rapid-fire guns The entire battery con-
| sists OF twenty-eiEht guns divided as fol-
| lows: Four twelves- twelve Fights and
! twelve skies The battery Of the MAORI
" tRear AdmiraIs O'Neil Melville, and
BovrIes). has no S-iach guns and no su-
perposed turrets- 1t consists Of four
tvselvss in two tUrrets and twenty sevens
fnone protected by turrets), the latter be
! ing located, as described by Admiral
Bradford. as follows Sixteen on the
| main deck behind casemate armOr, ar
ranged largely in accordance with the
/ battery on an old frigate's gun deck, on
tbs. deck above, at the corners Of the SD
| parstructure. are installed four more =
inch guns for the purpose Of increasing
the fire ahead and astern-
To demonstrate the claimed superiority
OF the battery arrangement Of Captain
Sjgsbee and himself, Admiral Bradford
submits with his report a photographic IL
lustration of the batteries Of i've differ
ent types of battIeships, and devotes
much space 10 al explanation OF them
One ARRANGEMENT illustrated was that
sdoDted bv board of thirteen officers,
including the members Of the Board on
CONSTRUCTION, after a majority of the
Board on Construction had adopted an
other ABRAMS cement This design included
superposed turrets, the majority OF the
Board on construction having voted
against them Twelve Of the thirteen
officers signed a report recommending
| that three ships with supeTposed turrets
and two ships with ordinary turrets b.
built Another design in TIE Illustration
was that referred TO a committee consist
ing Of the five members Of the Board on
| Construction and seven other members
This committee by d vote Of 70 to re
endorsed the superposed turret ship pre-
viousIy recommended by the board Of thir-
teen. The committee. Admiral Bradford
says, strongly favored the S-inch gun.
I and would not submit TO q reduction IN
caHbre-"
In presenting the majority plan and
that Of Captain SIggbee and himself 10
Secretary Longs attention, Admiral
Bradford says that the absence Of turret
protection and the reduction in cali5re
are marked features Of the majority de-
sign. to which officers have heretofore
} shown q marked d.sapprovaL'' The Illus
tratiOns submitted are intended TO show
| by means of pink shading that. to quote
, Admiral Bradford, the maximum broad
| side fire OF the finch battery On the ma
! jcrity design extends over an arc Of only
! Ga dregrees with an average mUzZle sneT-
! gy Of 81. $50 foot tons over that arc, while
in the mInOrity-s type il extends over an
! are Of 80 degrees, with average muzzle
} | energy of Z53 III foot tons. both vessels
assumed to be engaged on one side only
. | Admiral Bradford admits that the ma
| iorfty's battery is able TO deliver at the
| same time the same energy Of FIRE on both
sides. while his battery can deliver on
both sides at the same time. but 20, $50
foot tons which is 4 little less than in
the case Of type i (the majority 81 re
claims for his battery, however, great
advantage over the ma jority's, il that Il
delivers maximum fire over 100 degrees
Of arc. while the latter delivers II over
only 81 degrees
1T Will thus be seen" he adds, that
] type Cminority'sJ viii still have the
cd no