The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1908-03-19
DREADHHGUGHT TYPE
TRIALS HURTFUL
To CREWS.
Conclusion of Great Guns Works
More Havoc Than Would
EnemyS Shells.
NERVES OF MEN AFFECTED.
Large Minority OF the British Officers
Again Plan for TlOre Big Ships.

tain section of British naval eX.
perts is strongly opposing the fur
thcr building of Dreadnoughts,
and even goes So far as to condemn
the type as a ponderous and pre-
tentious sham.
So far as open comment goes,
the type is still unanimously ac-
cepted and acclaimed as "the
battleship of the future" That is
the official view. But a minority
of officers, whom discipline keeps
from speaking out" condemn
the type, and predict that it will
prove absolutely worthless in
real naval engagement.
The craze for Dreadnoughts is
strongest among their designers.
The feeling against them is conhn-
ed to officers who have gone to
sea in them. These officers pro-
phesy that it Will be absolutely
impossible to work ten or twelve
I2-inch guns simultaneously in
battle, In accuracy and weight of
metal discharged, the recent
Dreadnought trials were a tri-
umph. The result looked well on
paper But no public report has
been issued concerning the price
paid for the triumph.
1t is fact that during the firing
trials men were carried below
utterly incapacitated through yer
tigo-stunned, and even insensi-
bic. As long as few big guns
were fred the effects were not felt.
But the first attempt to keep up a
rapid fusilladc from all twelve
guns produced what was described
to me as a storm" which played
worse havoc among the crew than
a possible enemy's shells.
Even men who were no. in
capicitated complained that their
nerves and vision were so badly
affected that it was useless to con-
tinue firing,
If this experience is repeated
with other ships of the Dread
nought type, they will be able to
use only part of their primary bat.
teries, and as they have no sccou-
Diary batteries they will be in the
same position as the battleships of
the old style
The Russo-Japanese war showed
that secondary batteries play a
tremendous role. The only dam
age that Rojestvensky inflicted on
Togo at the battle Of Tsushima
came from the Russian S-inCh and
6-inch guns. The Japanese did.
havoc with their secondary bat
teries. 1t was shells from their
smaller guns which set the Rus
sian ships on fire. The Russian
Captain Semenotf, who was on the
flagship, declared that it was "the
uninterrupted thick rain of six and
eight inch shells which effected
our ruin" and he adds that the
occasional shots from the big
Japanese guns were comparatively
harmless.
AS no Dreadnought is armed
with a secondary battery, it is
plain that if she is compelled to
use only few Of her big guns she
will be unable to stand up against
a ship Of the older type
This reasoning has evidently
been adopted by Japan. Her two
new supposed Dreadnoughts, the
Aki and Satsuma, are in reality
the antithesis of the English
Dreadnought type. They carry
four 2-inch guns mounted in pairs
in bow and stern barbettes, and
twelve To-inch guns mounted in
pairs in broadside barbettes.
The broadside barbettes consti
tute the secondary battery. These
runs weigh 2S tons, as opposed to
lie so tons of the I2-inch guns,
heir shells weight only 45o
as opposed to $50. The
heir powder charge and