New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-10
BaHleships and Destroyers
Dissertation Of The Fighting Which VIII Enable The United States DO Its
Share Controlling the and Winning the War

rooms. The lower part Of the smoke,...,
is, however, heavily srmored. The derrick
have spoken Of is for hosting out the lsrz.,
boats and the launches But in a modern g..
fight, il ship is sunk, the boats probably ar.
smashed to pieces, or have been deliberatsIv
got rid Of; in other words, when a modern
warship sinks ell hands are likely 70 .,
down with her. I might add that when a shin
Is cleared for action all manner OF infan.
mable things that ere not necessary ara
thrown overheard, for, Of course, FIRE On
even steel warShip is a very dsngerou,
matter.
The sides Of the Pennsylvania are arrnor.S
with great plates of steel measuring in n,
thickest parts fourteen inches through. In
the Civil War eight inches Of armor Wa,
considered wonderful, and the fact that n.
new Ironsides mad her four-inch side srmo,
in one thickness, and not, like the monitors.
in many thicknesses 81 one-inch plates. wa,
looked upon as astonishing The turrets Of
the Pennsylvania have as much as eighteen
inches Of armor on them. The Pennsylvania
herself has twelve 14-inch guns, three In each
turret-until very recently we had not pa.
over two guns in turret, although abroad
three had been so placed by some countries.
These guns are IS calibres long that 10.
45x14 inches, or 50 feet 6 inches) and weigh
sixty-three tons. They fire a shot weighing
l,4O0 pounds, which leaves the gun with a We.
locity of $500 feet, or approximately half a
mile f. second OF course, this speed Is con.
stantly being reduced, and yet at 5000 yards
(or about five miles, it il still over 1900
feet per second, and the shot can still pene-
trate nearly seventeen inches of srmor. The
muzzlc energy Of such a projectile is 5000.
foot tons; that is, the shot at the muzzls Of
the gun has power TO lift $4,000 tons one
foot, which means II could so lift a weigh.
equal to two ships like the Pennsylvania
one foot.
Armored Against Salvo Firing
II, now, an enemy's .alvo landed squar.ly
on the Pennsylvania, as her amor is mad.
Of superior metal properly attached TO h.
steel frame of the ship (for the entire vessel
is constructed, Of course, of steel), the armor
should prevent any of the shots from passing
into the ship at points where she is protected
by armor. The shock upon the ship and the
conclusion in the ship can better be imagined
than described. If any of the shots should
strike the unarmcred parts and the pro-
jectile were a shell and exploded inside tbs
ship, the destruction would be enormous.
And yet the English ship Warspite, dread.
nought with eight l5-inch guns, and not a.
heavily armored as many of our ships, lay
disabled-her steering gear out Of order
for half an hour or more, under the fire Of
an unknown number Of German ships, with.
out, from what has been publicly reported,
any very serious injury even to her lighter
parts.
have referred to the Pennsylvania tur-
rets. On our ships the revolving part Of The
turret Is an angular box-like structure and
rests on a cylindrical base. On the old mon.
itors the turrets were cylindrical and came
right down to the deck, resting there on a
brass ring set in the deck. From the maya
zines in the modern ship the powder and
shot are hoisted into the turrets by ingenious
electric hosting devices, and the charge Is
driven home by mechanical hammers. The
gun Is trained and fired and the turret re-
volved by electricity. In fact, electricity 10
used everywhere that 1t is possible 10 apply
/. on the ship, even to cooking food. There
is not much spare room in the turret, and the
men there are so trained that everything
goes like clock work. The rapidly OF the
fire of our big guns is wonderful As gas
produced by the burning powder may remain
in the gun and is very dangerous, provision
is made for expelling it out through the gun
by compressed air or other means after the
breech has been opened for the insertion Of
new charge.
(To be concluded tomorrow