Semi-weekly herald., 1915-03-29

UNDERSTOOD, Dut the consensus OF opln-
ion--perhaps to be more correct, we
should say the controlling opinion--in
the Board of Ordnance of the United
States army, was in favor of using
nothing large than 12-inch gun with
a muzzle velocity of from twenty
two to twenty-five hundred feet per
| second.
The Endicott Board, it is true,
made provision for mounting a cer-
tam number of 16-inch guns; but only
one of these, type gun, was made
and tested; and so satisfied was our
ordnance board that 12-inch rifle Of
moderate velocity would prove suffi-
cient to reach and penetrate the
armor of any enemy's battleship, that
the 16-inch gun, after firing few
rounds, was permitted to lie on its
temporary mount at the Sandy Hook
proving ground for great many
years, where it was regarded as some
| thing of white elephant. Only re-
sChSiy udo lIl5 pOWSiIdi gun bOCh
provided with mount and shipped to
Panama, there to take its place as the
most powerful gun in the canal de-
fenses. The 12-inch coast-defense
gun fires 1,000-pound shell, with
a muzzel velocity of twenty-five hum
dred feet per second, and its ex-
treme range, as governed by the maxi
mum elevation which can be given to
the piece on it disappearing mount,
is about thirteen thousand yards.
Some ten years ago the Board OF
Ordnance determined to raise the cali
ber of our heavy coast-defense guns
from IL to Ia inches. Had the We
locity been maintained at the twenty
five Aundred feet per second mark,
attained by the 12-inch gun, our forti-
fications would have been armed with
piece of greater range and far
greater energy at the distant ranges
than the 12-inch gun; but, unfortu-.
nately, the Chief of Ordinances deter
mined to sacrifice the power and
range of the gun to its longevity, and
in the endeavor to reduce erosion he
lowered the velocity of the new ID
inch gun from twenty-five hundred
to twenty-five hundred feet per sec
ond-thus, at stroke, sacrificing
both the range and the energy of
what otherwise would have been
very fine and thoroughly up-to- date
gun.
The ranging power of our coast de-
Tense gun is seriously curtailed by
the limited maximum elevation OF
which they are capable. With the ex-
ception Of twenty-nine, which are on
barbette mounts, the whole of our
one hundred and thirteen 12-inch guns
are mounted on the Buffington-C Gro
zier disappearing gun carriage; and
for reasons which are not quite clear
to us, although we have heard that
it was in order to lessen the rack
| ing effects of the recoil, these mounts
permit the guns to be given the very
limited maximum elevation of 10 de
grees-a fatal error, for which the
whole of our coast fortifications are
now paying heavy penalty in find
ing themselves utterly outranged by
the heavy guns of the latest foreign
warships. AS matters now stand, the
maximum range of our 12-inch guns
with 1,000-pound shell, is thirteen
thousand yards. By change in the
carriage, increasing the elevation to
10 degrees, and reducing the weight
of the shell to 700 pounds, it would
be possible to cover eighteen thousand
yards, but this, of course, would in
volve lower penetrating power and a
much smaller bursting charge of the
shell.
At the time when Gen. Crozier in
troduced the 14-inch gun and made
what seems now to have been the
fatal mistake of reducing the velocity
to twenty-five hundred feet per sec
| O''Nt siiS oNithbliiS DIOltSl-
ed bitterly against policy of socri-
ficing range and hitting power in
order to lengthen the accuracy life
of the gun. The General pointed out
to the writer at that time that the
lower velocity was compensated for
by the greater weight of the shell,
and TIM the hitting power of the new
l4-inch gun was somewhat greater
than that of the 12-inch high-velocity
gun. We then thought, and we now
think, that it was nothing less than a
calamity, that when introducing the
big 14-inch guns the high velocity of
the 12-inch gun was not adopted or
even that the velocity was not raised
to twenty-six hundred feet (Which is
the standard velocity of the navy IA