Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1907-04-05
OUR WARSHlPS TODAY.
20 Shoot and Penetrate Armor a. 81

70 Shoot and Penetrate Arnor at Six
Miles Is Nothing Nowadays.
The warships of today are, as most
people know, armored; but, contrary
20 the popular idea, they are not pro-
tected all over.
recent authority has said that the
Improvement in rapid firing guns in
late years has resulted in armor pro-
tecting more of the side of the ship
and i'm increasing the number of guns
protected by the armor. The armor is
not So thick as formerly. but this is
made Up for by an improved kind OF
material whose resisting power Is
greater. The modern battleship is In
tended to combine in one vessel the
most powerful offensive and defensive
weapons of floating warfare. These
battleships may be divided into three
portions-namely, the part under wa
ter, the part near the water line and
the upper works. In the first named
parts are carried the machinery and
boilers, coal, the steering gear, the
submerged torpedo tubes, the ammu-
milton and the greater part of tho
stores. These parts are the most vul-
nerable parts of the ship. Attempts
have been made to armor the bottom
of battleships against explosions of
torpedoes, but they have not been sue
cessful owing to the fact that to have
the armor effective it would have to be
very thick and therefore very heavy,
an objection that engineers have not
successfully overcome.
To prevent the penetration of pro-
Jectiles from above there is a protec-
tive armor deck. usually from two to
four inches thick, the middle part of
which is little above the water line.
This deck slopes down at the sides to
the bottom edge of the armor belt,
from four TO six feet under water.
There Is sometimes n second protec-
tive deck below the first one to catch
fragments which might pass through
the first, and this is sometimes called
the splinter deck" The part of the
ship Immediately above the protective
deck In the vicinity of the water line
Is sometimes called the raft BODY"
1t is protected from the enemy's pro-
jectiles by n heavy armor belt. In
modern battleships this armor belt ex-
tends over the whole or over the great
er part of the length. The gun posi-
tions are all well armored. So is the
coming tower, which is the place from
which the captain directs the fighting.
This tower is connected by telephones
and speaking tubes with all the i'm
portant parts of the craft.
The guns mounted by n modern bat
teship are generally two big twelve
inch ones ut each end, protected by
armored turrets, and n large number
OF eight and six inch ones, In case
ments also armored. Just now there is
a constant battle between guns and
armor AS the penetrating power of
the guns is Increased so Is the resist
Ing power of the armo> increased. In
the new British ship Drsadnought
the smaller six inch guns have disap-
peared. and instead we SEQ n battery
or ten twelve-inch guns. This vessel IS
supposed to have been constructed In
consequence OF the lessons learned
during the late war between Russia
and Japan.
Our own ships now generally seem
to have n displacement OF about 16. 600
tons, but the rate is constantly in
creasing. 1t is bigger, bigger, bigger,
all the time, and each new design
shows greater displacement. To
shoot and penetrate the armor Mt six
miles is nothing nowadays.-Frank r.
Channon in st. Nicholas.