The Iuka vidette. (Iuka, Miss.) 1894-1912, 1909-05-13


u hcially approved. One, the
Florida, is to be built at the
New York navy yard by government
workmen. The other, the Utah. is to
De constructed by contract at some
private yard, the award not yet being
made.
Both are to be of the now famous
Dreadnought type and, in accordance
with the restrictions of the law which
authorized their construction, the,
must be similar in all essential char
acterlstics' to the battleships author
lied in 1906-these being the Della
ware and the North Dakota.
This furnishes merely another illus
tration of the lack of initiative which
has SO long characterized our methods
OF naval construction, says the New
York Times. The Delaware and
North Dakota are Of the type now
popularity known as "Dreadnoughts'
"a type which has revolutionized
naval construction as radically as did
the monitor. But while the idea of the
all-big-gun ship had its origin among
ton In naval construction. it may be
noted. did not start from American
shipyards. The nation might have led
all others in the construction of this
new type had the plans drawn by
Lieut. Commander Homer c. Pound
stone (now commander on the re-
tired list been utilized at the time of
their inception.
1t was in 1903 that these plans of
an allbig-gun ship were submitted to
the navy department and-pigeon-
holed. Then came the Japanese-Rus-
sian war. AS the ally of Japan it was
recognized that Great Britain would
be the first to profit by any lessons
which that war brought out And
directly after the running fight that
followed the sortie from Port Arthur
came news that England was hurried
ly constructing some great new ship
of war. other nations made diligent
efforts to discover the nature of the
lesson that Great Britain was so
sedulously solidifying in steel, but the
British constructors kept their secret,
gone overheard and floated into the
view of outside eyes did the world at
large know that the last great war
had taught the lesson of the all-big-
gun ship-a heavily armored craft of
tremendous speed and wide steaming
radius and carrying in her main bat
terry an armament of the heaviest
guns that could be emplaced on ship
board, and all of the same type, save
a single battery of smaller caliber in
stalled for the sole purpose of mod
Grating the enthusiasm of any enemy
contemplating torpedo boat attack.
American Target Practice.
The idea of the all-big-gun ship
was suggested, not by this war in the
east, not by any lessons learned off
Port Arthur or in the Tsushima
Straits-but by target practice in the
American navy. 1t came as a conse-
quence to Santiago, and where only
two per cent. of hits was made by the
American ships. America cheered long
and loud over the victory, but the
navy men who had fought it did very
little of the cheering and took silent
ly and seriously to heart the very
small number of hits that had been
made. They, more than the exulting
patriots realized how disastrous
might have been this shortcoming had
the ships of the blockading squadron
faced most any other foe.
Then, for the first time in it's his
tory, did the navy of this country
make every other consideration sub
sidiary to target practice, the office of
target inspector was created, and
Commander w. s. Sims, that energetic
and accomplished officer who has
done so much to place our navy at
the head of the straight shooting and
rapid hitting, was chosen to fill the
post. Hitherto such target practice
as had been held had been at short
ranges. But the introduction of smoke
less powder and the employment of
the telescope sight so changed the
laws of gun fire that practice at long
ranges was substituted for the other.
Then it was discovered that the range
finder-a mechanical device intended
to give the distance between ship and
target-could not be depended upon
whenever there was any refraction in
the atmosphere, and it would be
queer sea atmosphere that has no re-
fraction.
Gun as Range Finder.
So it was to the gun itself that the
navy turned as the one dependable
range finder. Here again was an
other difficulty. By observing the
fall of shot, short or over to right or
left, the plotter stationed aloft could
easily correct the aim of any single
piece, but with ships of mixed gun
battery and the various calibers firing
at the same time it was found to be
impossible to distinguish between the
splashes. and, consequently, impos-
sible to correct the initial error. Then
It began to dawn on the navy that the
solution Of this problem was ship
carrying guns Of one caliber only. and
- corollaFy, this single caliber to