Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1904-04-29

iectiles at us. 1t required 22O railway
trucks to transport them. Each shot
cost so francs; total, 100000 francs.
The damage TO the forts is estimated
ut 1,400 francs. About ten men have
been killed. Each of our dead cost the
Prussians 10000 francs"
This extract, says London Tit-Bits,
gives one an excellent idea of the cost
and ineffectiveness of big-gun work on
land a generation ago, when it took an
average of $500 projectiles, costing
10000 francs, to kill single man
and to inhict less than f6 worth of
damage on the enemy's Notifications.
But time has changed since then,
and munitions with them, and the
great guns of to-day, on the sea at any
rate, give a vastly different accoSlt of
themselves During the recent war
between America and Spain it Will be
recalled that the Brooklyn poured such
deadly deluge of projectiles into the
Spanish warship Viscaya that within
five minutes the latter lay at the bot
tom of the sea a rent and battered
tumble of scrap iron.
In all the Brooklyn fired 61S shells
at the Vascaya and the bill of destruc-
ton read thus:
To al S-inch shells, at ESQ each,
f7.O5O; to IS 6-inch shells, at Ell each,
f1.365: to IL 6-peunder shells, at IL
each, ZIP: to 400 1-pound shells, at IL
shillings pence each, f25O.
Thus the five minutes firing cost the
United States fS,677, and during each
minute of the duel the Brooklyn hurled
1913 projectiles at her enemy at cost
of E1.735. If we add to this the cost
OF the Viscaya's answering fire we see
that the fight between the two ships
could scarcely have cost less than
e. 600 q minute, or at the rate OF tlSo-
| 600 an hour. We must remember, too,
that on neither ship would it be posi-
BILE to use all the available guns at
once: so that there is still large mar
gin for increased expenditure when
| man-of-war is in a position to uNe her
| fighting powers to the utmost.
But let us take one of our own first
class battleships, the London, ana esl-
mate the cost of five minutes fighting,
| assuming that she could use all OF hef
| forty-six guns throughout.
The London's four 12-inch guns
which. by the way, cost no less than
goo 600. fire armor-piercing shells
| weighing $50 pounds each at the rate
| of two minute, each projectlie, Win
its cordite charge of 1917 POUNDS,
| costing ESQ. Thus in five minutes
| fighting these four notwithstanding
| monsters would hurl at the enemy
forty proiectiles weighing more tnah
| eighteen tons and costing f3,2Co.
Each six-inch gun, of which she mas
twelve, costing $3.50 each, throws
shells of 100 pounds weight. costing
f14 apiece, and in five minutes OF rapiu
and continuous firing these guns "ouiu
nour into the enemy's ships a hurrl-
cane of projectiles weighing twenty
| two tons. at a cost of f6,6SS. So rar we
have only accounted for sixteen ou' -
the forty-six guns.
Tho T ,ondon tweIve-pounders number
sixteen and cost 1855 each; from tlie
mouths of these guns no fewer than
go shells could be poured In nye nhiA.
utes. representing nine tons OF me'al
and a cost of f2,SSO.
Each of the half-dozen three-pouhu-
ers has q firing capacity or tnirty
| shells a mirslte, SO that in a I'VE MN
| utes' fight they alone would send tsoo
worth of metal into the enemys sloe'
| while the eight maxims would send OUT
y STORM Of death dealing bullets weigh
ing more than six hundredWelsht anu
costing S140.
Thus, In five minutes lighting. using
all her forty-six guns, the Lonoon
would yomit forth over fifty IONS u