The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-17

throwing a 960-pound Ehell a distance of twenty miles," besides 3-inch guns. The French naval intelligence depart
 ment hears that the battery is eight 12-inch, ten 9.2-inch and a large num- Der of 3-inch guns.
 There Is considerable disprepancy also in the accounts of how these will
 be mounted. The Shipping World says | the ten 12-inch guns will be mounted in l pairs in five barbettes. which would seem to point to placing them In a row on the center line of the ship, or pos sibly four barbettes at the four corners of the superstructure and one in its center.
 The London Mail on December SO fast, in giving one of the earliest de- scriptions of the ship. said she will carry ten 12-inch guns and will be capable of destroying anything afioat or yet designed. She will fire a broad side or seven S50-pound shells. which
 will be able to perforate two feet of the best existing armor." The seven
 shells In a broadside point to two bar bettes fore and aft on the center line. with guns mounted in pairs in each, ! and to three singly-mounted guns on
 each side. This would give a superior end-on fire by two guns, but an infe-
 rior broadside fire by three guns to the
 five barbettes or center-line plan. Double the Heaviest U. s. Battery. Even with eight 12-inch guns, she will have double the number of any United States ship yet begun, and no United States ship carries guns as pow
 erful as ten 9.2-inch guns for the me-
 dium-sized ones of her battery. Naval experts agree that the Dreadnaught. with only that battery. has double the
 gun power of the Connecticut class. with four 12-inch guns and eight S-inch
 as the next larger guns. If the Dread | naught has ten or twelve 12-inch guns and much superior speed, the Connecti-
 cut class is still less her match. Previous to the Dreadnaught the British began two ships of 16.500 tons, l the Lord Nelson and Agamemnon, car rying four 12-inch and ten g 9.2-inch guns. These were regarded abroad as
 more powerful than the Connecticut
 class. which had previously been the despair of foreign navies
 The announcement of Great Britain S
 beginning the Dreadnaught has led the other naval powers to revise all their shipbuilding plans. The French added 3,366 tons to tho size of their typical
 ship, the Republique. planning to be-
 gin this year three ships of 1S.000 tons, eighteen knots speed. 11-lnch belt ar
 nor. and with a battery of four 12-inch
 anu lWtlVe C.4-Ilcu guns. while th1S
 battery is superior to the Lord Nell
 sons. NJ. de Lancssan and other French
 naval experts lament that 1t is not
 equal to the Dreadnaught's.
 Germany. early this year. had plan
 ned to begin next year, two ships of a new class. S. and T. of 16.00O tons, 195
 knots speed with 11-inch and l2 7.6-inch guns. However, the British fleets visit to Baltic sea ports with
 heavier battleships than Germany has at a time when war over Morocco
 seemed possible, stirred up the Ger
 mans so that when the Dreadnaughts
 battery was announced the kaiser de- cided to ask his parliament to increase the size of future battleships to 1S,OOO
 tons appropriating $9,0OO,oOo apiece
 fer them.
 The semi official Cologne Gazette
 says, The increase in displacement is Inecessitated by the plan for using
 heavy artillery, which the battle of the
 sea of Japan proved to be indispen-
 sIbIe" Furthermore, the emperor of Germany will ask for six more large armored cruisers, costing $6,75O, GOO apiece, to make his fleet equal to the Uaited States navy in that particu- lar.