The Battle Cruiser of the Future 



COLONEL E. FERRETTI, a well 

 known naval architect of Naples, 

 has utilized in the construction of 

 a new type of battle cruiser all the les- 

 sons taught so far by the present war. 

 The new type of battle cruiser is of thir- 

 ty-two thousand tons displacement, the 

 same as the dreadnought Pennsylvania, 

 the new flagship of the Atlantic Fleet. 



The fundamental principles accepted 

 by Colonel Ferretti as necessary in the 

 construction of a vessel superior in a 

 fighting sense to any other now in use 

 are: Suppression of everything not ab- 

 solutely required for purposes of naval 

 warfare or for life on shipboard; reduc- 

 tion of all auxiliary services; reduction 

 to the minimum of the above-water 

 body of the ship; adequate protection 

 of the vital parts in the largest sense of 

 the word; definite separation between 

 compartments; maximum arc of gun fire. 



The hull of the ship is constructed of 

 the Isherwood type of longitudinal 

 framing. The sides of the ship are 

 divergent above water, even in the 

 central part of the ship. There is, of 

 course, a double bottom. The interior 

 of the ship is divided by three pairs of 

 bulkheads into four zones, the inner- 

 most being securely protected against 

 under-water attack. 



For a space of three hundred and one 

 feet, the space covered by the heavy 

 and intermediate guns, the height of the 

 ship above water is only a little over 

 nine feet. Superstructures are provided 

 forward and aft, twenty-two and nine- 

 teen feet above load line. Every other 

 superstructure is suppressed, except the 

 smokestack, the military mast, armored 

 conning towers and fire control stations. 



The principal armament comprises 

 ten fifteen-inch guns, divided into two 

 groups of five each, at the bow and 

 stern of the ship. The five guns of each 

 group are placed in one turret with two 

 planes of fire, three guns in the lower 

 plane and two in the upper plane. 



The secondary armament consists of 

 twelve seven-and-five-tenths-inch guns, 

 twenty-eight four-inch guns, and eight 

 torpedo tubes. The protection of the 

 ship against gun fire is assured by the 

 reduced target area, the distribution of 

 armor over the exposed side, and the 

 inclination of the above-water side. 



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