The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1915-01-29
SPEED may Prove
.BETERMIAAIGPII0T
IN FUTURE NAvIE6
Lieutenant Commander ]. A. Fur
Ter Gives Interesting Facts :
About''ModerR BattIeshipi
TELLS OF Development Ii
I0F FIGHTING CRAFT
Difference Of Few Knots May De-
eide Fate oflWaEing Ma.
tons Hereafter ;,

A. difference of speed of a few knots
an hour between contending ships may
Prove the determining factor In the out
come Of future naval battles, "a the
opinion. of Lientenant-C onimander j. a.
Fhrer, U, g., Navy, naval constructor
who delivered an interesting address
on - The, Modern Battleship' 3 before q
large crowd in Cooke Hall of the Y.
M 9. A. last night. Speed and that
unreasonable factor, the human ele-
ment, will determine the issue Of bat.
tie between equally matched ships, he
stated. ~ ? 1.lE f,r
y Continuing, Commander Furer point.
ed ont that the speed and penetrating
power Of projectiles have so progressed
over the developWent Of armor that
many nations are now abandoning their
steel Jaeketted navies that the greater
weight may be added to their guns and
machinery, the latter that additional
speed may be atSained. In support of
this he pointed 20 the Lion type of
chip which recently figured in the Brit.
ish engagement with the German shipA
in the North Sea. I.I IN
Past Ships To Rescue se,.. ".
Commander Furer also told of re.
Gently printed report In which Il a
claimed that but for the fact that a
portion of the British feet possessed
this valuable element Of speed In the
fsldrTiish last August, q good portion
OF the cruiser squadron of the British
would have been destroyed by the Ger
mans, As II was the faster ships Of
the British were able to- steam ub 10
the rescue of the slower vessels and
drive the enemy Of. N& ~ y
Going back TO the days Of the tnoni.
tors Commander F'rer told ofithei per.
fection of the tnrret by Erickson, fol
lowing It with description Of the de-
yelopment Of the rapid fire guns and
the nse OF the barbettes as q protec.
ton to the gnn crews, then the coming
In Of the turret again with the building
OF the more modern lighting ships.
Problem Of Ammunition n
The problem of. handling ammuui
tion was described blythe naval officer
in an interesting manner. He told OF
how the different, nayies had found the
rapid handling OF ammunition and large
shells difiichlt because Of the fact that
in the quick handling Of machinery
something was bound to give way. This
however, was finally solved by two
young graduates from the naval acad
envy who claimed that the shots and
powder could be more quickly passed
from ammunition room to guns by men
They were scofed at but allowed e
try their plan. Able bodied sailors
were stationed at, frequent intervals
from the ammunition room to the RuI
turrets and when the firing started
there was never q lnil, because Of lack
Of summation. Men will not break ii
readily as machinery, il was shown. and
even il they did they could be quickly
replaced. ~ Ngfaf 49, =
The development Of target practIs,
was explained. q Commander Furel
pointed out that in the battle of San
tiago the percentage Of hits scored b,
the United States against the ships o.
Spain was less than three per cent.
Have Made Progress H.',. ~
'tBut we were no different from thu
others in this days, 4, he said, .tfol
range finding had not been developed
If the Spanish ships had had thei
guns properly trained sor pointed Ii
= 4"
that fight the story might have beer
different for us, y he concluded. r
The methods now used In, range find
Ing were described, as was the pass
ing Of the ship carrying guns Of vary
ing calibers toithe modern dfeadnougit
armed onlyfwith batteries OF big gun
of uniform caliber. In his opinion Tn
lighting range Of the coming Rrea
battles will be a distance Of abou
eight miles, and though the big gun
are effective over, a greater distance
IL win be at eight miles or thereabout
that they viii get into aetion.
The Importance of having aeeurat
knowledge of the velocity OF the shell
leaving the muzzle Of the gun nm,
the care. used in maintaining a uni
form ballistic quality for the powde
used were dweit upon. E' !.
Commander Firer added TO the inter
est of his address by the use Of nun
Der Of charts, showing modern bat
tleship and turrets, together with fig
ures showing the types Of vessels an
their armanients used by the leadint
| nations . hES2l ~"