20 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[Janhaky 1, 1897. 



of armour, about five feet wide, on her sides, in the 

 wake of the water line, and her batteries and turrets are 

 also armour-plated ; the last-named being without such 

 protection. 



The most vulnerable part of a ship is that of her hull below 

 the water line, for here are located the boilers, engines, 

 magazines, and furnaces, on each of which the life, power, 

 and movement of the vessel entirely depends. One shot, 

 or one hundred, or even one thousand shots, might pass 

 through the upper parts of a battleship without bringing 

 about her destruction, or even without disabling her. 

 What, then, is the need of such extravagant provision for 

 protecting the upper works of a battleship by attempts to 

 render them invulnerable, whilst the most vital under- 

 water portion is left unprotected ? 



It has been proved beyond doubt that after the hundreds 

 of millions of pounds sterling expended by our own and 

 foreign Powers on the offensive and defensive merits of 

 guns versus armour, thsy are no nearer a solution as to 

 the superiority in the one case or the other than they were 

 thirty years ago, and for many years past the idea of one 

 ship destroying another by standing off and exchanging 

 shots from a distance, has been recognized as an absolute 

 impossibility. 



Lord Armstrong, on this point, has well stated that 

 these stupendous warships " cannot be made inndnerable," 

 and that their cost is so enormous that we cannot have a 

 numerous Navy with such vessels. 



Whilst all the great naval Powers are busily engaged in 

 bringing submarine warfare to a perfect system of attack 

 by means of diving torpedo-boats, England has apparently 

 neglected this means of marine attack. We hear of 

 torpedo-boats, torpedo-boat catchers, and torpedo-boat 

 destroyers, and we know that the so-called catchers are 

 inferior in speed to the boats they are supposed to catch ; 

 and as to the ''destroyers," their special destructive 

 powers are not very apparent. It may very well be said 

 that so far as these types are concerned, and also as 

 regards first and second class battleships and cruisers, it is 

 quite problematical as to which will destroy or be destroyed 

 in a fair, above-board sea fight. The destroyers, attacking 

 in large numbers under cover of darkness, owing to their 

 speed and handiness, might by chance get a torpedo in 

 contact with the side of an enemy. Then, of course, the 

 battleship, devoid of underwater protection, would inevit- 

 ably be destroyed. 



This result could not be achieved in broad daylight, as 

 the light construction of the torpedo craft necessary for 

 speed leaves them with very thin plating, averaging only 

 about a quarter of an inch in thickness, that could be 

 riddled through and through from the rapid discharge of 

 quick-liring machine guns. The term " destroyer," in its 

 fullest and truest sense, is only applicable to the modern 

 diving torpedo-boat. So sure as one of these submarine 

 ship destroyers, in a state of suspension at a regulated 

 depth below the surface of the water, is navigated to within 

 striking distance of a twenty-ton torpedo-launch, or a 

 fifteen-thousand-ton battleship, so surely will that torpedo- 

 launch or ponderous battleship be destroyed immediately 

 on being struck by the missile aimed by her unseen sub- 

 marine foe. There is no give-and-take about this what- 

 ever, as the submarine torpedo-boat when deeply immersed 

 is out of reach of its opponent, whilst at the same time it 

 strikes at the most vital and unprotected part of the hull 

 of the monster floating above it. 



Seeing that our battleships, as sea fortresses, form 

 our first line of defence and our most powerful engine 

 of offence, from an above-water point, and that all that 

 practice could suggest, or that science could devise, has 



been provided for offensive or defensive operations either 

 against land fortresses, hostile armour-clads, cruisers, 

 torpedo-boats, or torpedoes, it is passing strange that our 

 naval architects and marine engineers should have been so 

 lax as to neglect to devise a form of protection against the 

 scientific advances of submarine warfare. 



The following extracts from a report by C'apt. S. Eardley 

 Wilmot, R.N., late chief torpedo expert of the Admiralty, 

 respeating the defence of ships, will be read with interest ; — 



" The development of the ' Whitehead ' torpedo, with 

 which now nearly all nations are supplied, renders the 

 question of protecting ships against this attack one of the 

 gravest consideration. 



" The torpedo of to-day travels at the rate of thirty knots 

 an hour, and carries two hundred pounds of explosive com- 

 pound directed against the most vulnerable part of a ship — 

 that of her hull under water. 



" We have been enabled, by the addition of large masses 

 of armour, to fairly protect the water line, and above it; 

 against the eflects of artillery fire, but cannot extend this 

 to the submerged portion of the hull as a defence against 

 torpedo attack. We have, therefore, been obliged to 

 restrict our endeavours, as far as structural arrangements 

 are concerned, to give ships of war a double bottom, and 

 subdividing them internally into a number of watertight 

 compartments, thus seeking to diminish the effects of 

 an explosion, and restrict the inflow of water to that 

 point. 



" As, however, these arrangements could only give very 

 partial protection at a time when torpedoes carried a com- 

 paratively small charge, it was considered desirable to stop 

 them before they could reach the ship, and for this purpose 

 the present system of net defence was devised. 



" This consists of wire netting suspended vertically from 

 steel or wooden booms attached to the hull of the ship, 

 from which they project from twenty-five to thirty-five 

 feet. The nets hang down to a depth of twenty feet, and 

 are connected together in sections so as to then form a 

 continuous crinoline of netting. 



" Being only suspended from the upper side, they hang 

 loosely down and remain in this position when the ship is 

 stationary. 



" But sho'Jd the ship move through the water, the nets 

 are more or less impelled towards the surface, according 

 to the speed of the ship. For these reasons naval officers 

 do not consider nets can be used at sea. 



" Thus it is evident that if external protection is to be 

 relied upon, it must be in a different form, and Dr. Jones 

 has devised a torpedo guard which is not only novel, but 

 free from most of the objections inherent to the net defence. 

 His plan is to have steel shields made to the form of the 

 ship, and ordinarily resting against the hull. They are, 

 however, capable of being projected outwards when 

 required to a distance of twenty feet from the hull, and 

 this cushion of water, together with the resistance offered 

 by the steel plating, should secure a ship from material 

 injury in the event of a torpedo exploding against the 

 guard. It is obvious that the plate could not be cut 

 through like a net, nor would it be forced out of position 

 by a current, or the ship moving through the water. 



" An advantage of this system is that all the appliances 

 for working this protection are above the water line, and 

 always in position, thus enabling the protection to be put 

 in position at the shortest notice, while it overcomes the 

 difliculty attached to supporting steel booms or rams if 

 projected to a distance of twenty or thirty feet. 



" This plan now proposed by Dr. Jones is, in my opinion, 

 the best which has yet been put forward for guarding 

 against the terrible effects of locomotive torpedo attack ; 



