WARSHIP 



6180 



WARSHIP 



Except the oldest section, where the crooked 

 lanes and curious old buildings have a medie- 

 val appearance, Warsaw is a city of well-con- 

 structed streets and buildings. Palace Square, 

 le Square, Theater Square, the magnificent 

 Grand Theater, two spacious boulevards, parks 

 and gardens, and numerous imposing palaces 

 and cathedrals give the city an air of distinc- 

 tion. Of special interest among the palaces is 

 the former residence of the Saxon-Polish kings, 

 in Castle Square, now used for government 

 purposes. The university, founded in 1816 and 

 sen-ing a student body of over 2,400 at the 

 outbreak of the war, is housed in the Casimir 

 Palace. Other educational institutions include 

 a musical conservatory, an agricultural insti- 

 tute, an art school and a technical college. 



Warsaw has long been a leading industrial 

 and commercial center. When the war began 

 the city had more than fifty book-printing 

 plants, and flourishing factories producing ma- 

 chinery, food products, woven goods, boots and 

 shoes and many other commodities. In normal 

 years there is a thriving trade in corn, coal and 

 leather. The city has had an eventful history, 

 and its capture in 1915 was not the first disas- 

 ter that had befallen it. At the outbreak of 

 the war it had a population of 872,500. 



WAR 'SHIP. The modern warship, as naval 

 men understand the term, has come into exist- 

 ence since 1900, and it is the result of centuries 

 of invention and experiment. Warships are 

 classified according to their armor, armament 

 and power as dreadnaughts, or battleships of 

 the first class; pre-dreadnaughts, or battleship 

 cruisers; armored cruisers, gunboats, torpedo 

 boats, destroyers, scouts, submarines and sub- 

 marine chasers. 



The Dreadnaught. The first battleship of 

 this type, and the one from which the type takes 

 its name, was the Dreadnaught of the British 

 navy, completed in 1905. The distinguishing 

 features of battleships of this type are their 

 armor-plate protection and their armament by 

 big guns. The following description gives one 

 a good idea of the size and power of a battle- 

 ship of the first class. 



The Arizona. The Arizona of the United 

 States navy, when it went into commission 

 October 17, 1916, was considered to be the most 

 powerful warship in the world. The ship is 600 

 feet long, ninety-seven feet beam, draws thirty 

 feet of water and has a displacement of 31,400 

 tons. The sides of the Arizona are protected 

 by a belt of armor plate seventeen feet, six 

 inches wide, and thirteen and one-half inches 



thick. About eight and one-half feet of this 

 belt extend below the water line, and the bot- 

 tom of the ship is also protected against tor- 

 pedoes. The turrets in which the heavy guns 

 are mounted are of 18-inch armor plate. 



The ship is driven by steam turbines and has 

 a speed of twenty-one knots, or twenty-four 

 miles, an hour. Oil is used for fuel, and 1 1n- 

 maximum storage capacity is 3,270 tons. The 

 use of oil enabled the builders to place the 

 boilers in one group and to connect them all 

 with one funnel, protected by inclined armor. 



The main batteries consist of twelve 14-inch 

 guns mounted in four turrets on the median line 

 of the vessel, two in the fore and two in the 

 after part of the ship. Each turret carries three 

 guns, so mounted that they can be pointed in 

 any direction within the range of a half cir- 

 cle. One turret of each pair is placed back of 

 and above the other. By this arrangement all 

 the 14-inch guns can be fired at once. The 

 end-on fire includes six 14-inch guns, and the 

 broadside employs the twelve guns. 



The light armor consists of twenty-two 5-inch 

 guns for defense against torpedo boats, and 

 two air-craft guns for use against aeroplanes. 

 In addition to the guns there are four 21-inch 

 torpedo tubes. The Arizona's personnel con- 

 sists of about 1,200 officers and men. 



The big guns of the Arizona will throw a 

 1400-pound projectile about twelve miles, and 

 since these guns can be fired twice a minute, 

 an enemy exposed to its broadside fire would 

 be in position to be hit by 33,600 pounds of 

 metal a minute. The velocity of these projec- 

 tiles when they leave the muzzle is 2,100 feet 

 per second, and their striking force enables 

 them to penetrate most of the armor of modern 

 battleships. The guns in each battery are so 

 mounted that they can be aimed and fired by 

 a single officer. 



The accuracy with which these guns can be 

 sighted was demonstrated by the gun crew of 

 the Pennsylvania, a sister ship of the Arizona, 

 during target practice in 1916. This crew scored 

 five hits out of a broadside of twelve guns, 

 aimed at an invisible target eleven miles dis- 

 tant. 



Four battleships under construction or au- 

 thorized in 1917 are a little larger than the Ari- 

 zona, having a displacement of 32,000 tons. 

 Their armor plate is thicker and they will 

 carry twelve 16-inch guns capable of throwing 

 2700-pound projectiles twelve miles. They are 

 to be driven by electric power, which has been 

 adopted for all future battleships. 



