The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1915-02-25
WA!RSAIP DESIGNS
Work Involved In the Planning Of
a Dreadnought.
A TASK OF MANY PROBLEMS.

The Monster Armorsd Naval Battery
Must Be Steady In q Heavy Sea, Else
She 10 Not q Good Gun Platform.
Wonderful Accuracy In Results.
Talk Of Chinese puzzle. 1t is moth
ing to the problem set before naval
designer who has to build a battleship.
Here he has steel structure of such
and such length and breadth and
depth, and into this space. which is
controlled by hard and fast measure
ments, he has to fit SO much coal, SO
much armament, room for so much am.
munition, quarters for so many men,
space for engines of a certain power
and also allow for an immense weight
Of armor.
Take, the original Dreadnought, for
instance. The task which was given to
Sir Philip Watts was to plan battle
ship capable of steaming 1000 miles at
81 knots, with room for 800 officers and
men and able to carry ten twelve-inch
guns with eighty rounds Of ammuni-
ton for each.
She had also to be enormously, heav.
lily armored. This armor alone when
the sum was worked out was found to
weigh nearly 10000 tons and the neces.
sary coal to weigh $500 tons. The
guns and their mountings weighed
1000 tons. their ammunition $50 tons.
When you add to this that the boil.
ers and machinery Of the first Dread
nought were calculated to weigh not
less than 1900 tons the reader may be-
gin to get some faint idea of the diff
culties before the designer.
We have not even mentioned the
smaller but quite important details,
such as boats-some of them large
steam launches sixty feet long-an-
chors and cables of gigantic size and
weight, torpedoes, etc.
To be good naval designer man
must be far more than a mere naval
architect. He must have the most ex-
tensive knowledge Of all sorts Of craft
and be blessed with large share Of
imagination into the bargain.
Now take the Dreadnought again.
She Is $50 feet long. If her hull had
been built of the same shape as pre-
vious battleships she would have been
very unhandy. Her great length would
have prevented her from turning
quickly, as is always necessary In q
sea fight.
Sir Philip got over this difficulty by
shortening her keel base. Under water
she is very like racing yacht, being
much shorter below water than above.
Another clever dodge of her designer
was to fit two rudders abreast well un-
der the stern. The same dodge has
been adopted in all the Dreadnoughts,
with the result that they are wonder.
fully quick to answer their helms.
Quite apart from the marvellous in.
ternal fittings Of great warship and
the utilization of every inch Of space
inside the hull, the hull itself is nerve
straining problem. A battleship must
not only be fast, she must also be a
good sea boat
This is all important, for II she is
not steady in heavy sea she is not a
good gun platform.
To gain the requisite combination of
speed and steadiness each new war.
ship, as soon as her plans are complete,
is built up in model, and these models
are tested in big tank 500 or 600 feet
long. The models. which are built alb
sOlutely to scale, are drawn through
the water at certain speeds. and the
waves which they make are measured
by clever apparatus too technical to
be here described
The designing of a new type of bat.
tleship is not one man job. When a
new departure is to be made the mem.
bers Of the board Of admiralty call to-
gether number Of naval experts. and
the opinion Of each Is asked and dis
cussed. When the general design has
been approved then the director of
naval construction and his assistants
get to work.
The extraordinary accuracy of such
work may be gathered from the fol.
lowing:
The Majestic. of 5000 tons. was de-
signed by Sir William White. When
finished and armed she was exactly. to
a very few pounds, the weight which
he had estimated beforehand. while
her center Of gravity was within two
inches of the point which he had pre-:
viously fixed on.-London Answers.