Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-11-06
How Future Bat|eShipS viii Prevent War

mise based on alleged economical nee
essity, comparatively small sum hay
ing been appropriated fol. her constru
ton.
1T is an axiom in naval strategy thu
feet is no faster than its slowe
ship. Other things being equal, IL
faster fleet will be victorious, for j
speed will enable it to manoeuvre as
concentrate it's fire upon the head
the opposing column. That is VIII
Togo did in the battle Of Tsushim
True, the Russians found him in tn
advantageous position, for though tn,
did not know his whereabouts !
seems to have known theirs: but, tn
advantage aside, the speed Of his fie
would have enabled him eventually
concentrate his attack on the head
the russian column just the same.
$50 now the question arises wheth,
it would be advantageous to go abo7
10000 TONS" continued this authorit
Probably not, for ship built to carr
a dozen 12-inch guns would be about q
us etS oSCl1lS III dCI4CpDlC. AO1uU1L
with this tremendous fighting power
speed of 1872 knots and you have tn
battleship that under present condi
lions seems to be amply qualified t
crown the sea-power of the mighties
nation. The lesson of the big 10000
ton battleship is this: The COST
considerably more than $4,000, 0OO,-
would be prohibitive so far as the
smaller nations are concerned Only
|frst-class powers can afford such ships,
and the powers do not really want tc
fight"
The landlubber may wonder why
with the great increase in the size of
warships there has not been CORE
spending increase in the size of the
guns. The coming battleship-the
South Carolina. for exmaple, with its
great battery of big guns en- either
side-recalls the display of big guns
made by the old frigates; but while
the latest battleship is many times
heavier than the famous fighters OF
the early part of the nineteenth cen
fury, the size of the biggest gun has
increased only one inch The reason
for this is that the size of the gum is
controlled by the depth to which oil
temper will penetrate with full eff
cheney, which is only 21a inches Thus
only tube five inches thick can be
thoroughly tempered; and this is the
thickness of the tube of the 12-inch
guns. There are finch tubes, but they
are not fully tempered.
Another interesting question is
whether the recent war taught any
thing new about torpedo boats. In the
opinion of naval architects torpedo
boats have not proved as effective as
was expected. Though they must al
ways be source OF possible danger,
no ship, under favorable conditions
and with men on the alert. has ever
been destroyed by them. The greatest
danger in the war between Japan and
Russia lay in floating mines. Ships
are not necessarily by gun fire. Nor
a ship was destroyed by the Japanese
up to the final naval engagement OF
the war except by mines or by vertica
fire from howitzers.
This brings UP the point whether
floating mines are to be reckoned with
in the future That the Japanese anC
Russians used them does not near
that other nations would use them. I
seems likely, according to military stu
dents, that the matter will be dis
cussed and settled in the same name
as we're the questions of explosiv
bullets and poisoned shells The US
of fixed mines for harbor defence j
another matter altogether; it does nc
bear upon naval engagements, whic.
as ships grow heavier, must natUrall
be fought in deep water.